WATCH: "America Is Back" Trump Proclaims Triumphant Success of America - 06/24/26

Well, thank you, Lee, and hello, Washington, and a very big hello to America. Thank you. And 10 days from now, our country will celebrate one of the most monumental milestones in human history. We will mark 250 years of glorious American freedom. In 1776, our founding fathers met in Philadelphia and changed the world forever and ever with a thing called the Declaration of Independence. They proclaimed the eternal truth that we are endowed by our Creator with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We all made, and you know that, free and equal by the hand of Almighty God. Those timeless American principles did not just win a revolution, but they built us into the greatest, strongest, and most exceptional nation the world has ever known. There has never been anything like the United States of America, and together we are making it bigger and better and stronger and far more exceptional than ever before. Today, we have the largest economy on Earth. We have the strongest military on Earth. We have the most powerful technology on Earth. We have the greatest culture on Earth. And above all, we have the greatest people on Earth. Greatest. Tonight, as we stand on the edge of our 250th year of independence, I am thrilled to declare that America is back. As you know very well, a short time ago, we were a dead country. We were dead. Now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're respected by everybody. Nobody's laughing at us anymore. Two years ago, they were laughing. Now we're the most respected anywhere. Think of it, anywhere in the world. Where were we two years ago? We weren't respected. We were a joke. We're not a joke anymore. Most powerful country in the world. But just like those patriots of 1776 over the past 17 months, we have taken power back from the far-off political class. They're trying to gain it back, but it's not going to happen. We have reclaimed our sovereignty, regained our liberty, restored our prosperity, and we have saved our country in all things. We're once again putting a thing called America first. And last week, we signed a historic agreement to end the conflict with Iran, fully open the Strait of Hormuz, and accomplish what no president has ever been able to accomplish before. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. That's done. And thanks to the power and skill of the United States Armed Forces, today Iran has no Navy, no Air Force, no anti-aircraft capacity, no missile launchers, no manufacturing, and their leadership has been obliterated. And for the first time in 3,000 years, we are finally going to have peace in the Middle East. We're going to have peace in the Middle East. Since the agreement, the stock market and your 401Ks are skyrocketing upward, and oil prices are plummeting downward today. It hit a new low, and the world is a much safer place. We had to make that little journey to Iran to do what we did. Very soon, you'll be at $2.50 a gallon for gasoline. And even lower than that, just like it was before we took the nuclear weapon away from Iran, and it will be away from Iran for a very long time. Forever, really. In my first term, I rebuilt our military and created the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had the greatest economy in history. And now we are going to blow that away. We're doing better, much better than even the first term. America's 250th year is set for an economic boom, the likes of which no nation has ever seen before. No nation has ever been in the place that we are right now. In four long years of the last administration, which was a total disaster, they got less than $1 trillion of new investment in our country. That's less than $1 trillion in four years. In my first 11 months, we secured commitments for $19.1 trillion of new investment from all over the globe. And they're building factories and plants, and they're building everything all over our country. The stock market has set 73 all-time record highs since the election. And more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country. Thank you. On the 4th of July, one year ago, I signed the largest tax cuts in American history, the largest spending cuts in American history, and the largest regulation cuts in American history by far. In the American Revolution, they had a saying, no tax on tea. But with the great, big, beautiful bill, we did even better. We gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors. And we also made interest on auto loans. You go out and buy an automobile, the interest on the loan is fully tax-deductible. Never happened before. But only if the car happens to be made in America. And we're setting records in automobile construction. Our country is strong again. Our country is wealthy again. And our country is safe again. In January 2025, we inherited the worst, most dangerous, most wide-open and insecure border in history. And we have quickly turned it into the strongest, most secure border in the history of our country. For the past 13 months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States. Zero. We're removing murderers, gang members, drug dealers, and dangerous criminals by the thousands. They came in through a ridiculous open border. I want to say a very special thanks to all of the men and women who have helped liberate America from this scourge, the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol. You are heroes. You are heroes. With the help of our law enforcement heroes, in 2025, we achieved the largest drop in the murder rate ever recorded to the lowest level in 125 years. That's the year 1900. We cut the flow of fentanyl across our border by 66%. Drugs coming in by ocean or by sea are down 97%. And Washington, D.C., is now one of the safest, most beautiful cities anywhere in the United States of America. For many years, our country was ruled by politicians who let America and its capital fall into decline and total disrepair. The city, named in honor of General George Washington, was turned into a national disgrace. But not anymore. Today, the homeless encampments are gone. The graffiti is gone. Since I took office, more than 50 monuments and memorials have been repaired and beautified. Dozens of statues have been cleaned, and they look so nice. Twenty-two fountains have been fixed. At Union Station, the statue of Christopher Columbus is clean and fountained. That fountain is flowing, and it looks so beautiful. I just looked at it. Coming over, it is so beautiful. That white marble is nice and clean. There's no more graffiti stains all over it. The water is cascading at Meridian Hill Park.