President Trump Delivers Remarks, Oct. 6, 2026

The White House
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12 Video Views·Oct 7, 2026
Baltimore, MD
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Video Summary
AI GeneratedAnduril Industries and the U.S. government are establishing \"Arsenal 2,\" a massive, software-centric shipyard in Baltimore. This initiative aims to revitalize the U.S. defense industrial base, accelerate the production of Virginia-class submarines, and integrate autonomous systems to ensure long-term maritime dominance and national security through a \"peace through strength\" doctrine.
Please welcome the co-founder and chief executive officer of Anduril Industries, Brian Schimpf.
As the security environment has become more demanding, so too have the questions that the nation is facing.
The problems we now must address extend beyond whether industry can design the best military technology in the world.
We now need to prove that we can produce it,
maintain it, and deliver it at the pace and scale that the United States requires.
There are few weapons systems where the convergence of build speed and scale is more important than the Virginia-class attack submarine.
The United States builds the most capable nuclear-powered submarines in the world,
supported by expertise across shipyards, suppliers, workforce, and the Navy.
But at the same time, the demands on that expertise have grown well beyond the capacity available today.
Existing shipyards and suppliers are investing heavily to increase output.
Meeting the Navy's requirements, however, will demand substantially more production.
Whether Anduril can contribute to that production was not always obvious to us.
Over two years ago, the Navy began a conversation with Anduril about whether we could assist the submarine enterprise in a larger way.
At first, our answer was no.
For years, Anduril have built autonomous aircraft, missiles, and the software that connects them.
But even our most advanced systems sit at a different order of complexity than the Virginia-class submarine.
We kept returning to the submarine challenge anyway, though, because its principal problem was too important to walk away from.
The more time that Anduril spent learning about the industrial-based challenges, the clearer the need became to us.
The country requires substantially more places where submarine components can be built.
We have worked closely with the Navy and companies throughout the submarine industrial base,
including General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding, to understand how the production system operates.
We wanted to know where the most persistent constraints exist and where a new industrial player could make a meaningful contribution.
We also started testing what we were learning.
We stood up a proto-factory in California, where our teams are already proving new manufacturing approaches and developing components for the Virginia-class program.
All these efforts have led us to this moment.
Today, Anduril is announcing Arsenal 2, a new shipyard right here at Sparrows Point in Baltimore County.
Arsenal 2 will be 2 million square feet of manufacturing space and will create more than 3,100 direct jobs and thousands more indirect jobs.
Arsenal 2 will be built to produce a range of assets that are integral to the Virginia-class attack submarine.
It will add an entirely new source of capacity to the program,
and it will significantly increase the amount of work that the broader undersea industrial base can move through the system.
Building Arsenal 2 from the ground up means we can design the factory around how submarine components move through production.
We will minimize unnecessary movement, put equipment where it's needed most, and connect engineering directly to the factory floor through software.
Anduril has spent years developing manufacturing systems around those same principles.
We are putting that model into practice at Arsenal 1, our manufacturing facility in Ohio.
Tomorrow, we'll do the same here in Baltimore County.
But Arsenal 2 represents a much more ambitious application of this approach.
Submarine manufacturing poses a different level of complexity and rigor and comes with an even higher level of responsibility.
We intend to pair what Anduril already knows about building and scale with the extraordinary technical expertise and high standards currently in operation
across the submarine industrial base.
Where we are doing this work also matters.
Anduril shows Sparrows Point in part because of what this waterfront has done for the country.
The Bethlehem Steel Mill here became the largest steel producer in the world.
During the Second World War, hull after hull of Liberty ships were built at the shipyard on this site.
That legacy doesn't need to stay in the past.
In the years ahead, Arsenal 2 will bring thousands of skilled manufacturing jobs back to the site and return Sparrows Point to shipbuilding.
An event of this magnitude and building a shipyard of this size comes with an equally long list of people
who we need to acknowledge and thank.
None of what we are announcing today could happen without the many local and national leaders who have helped us get to this point.
America's fleet is stronger for having their steadfast support.
Vice Admiral Goucher and his team have helped us understand where the production system is most constrained
and where new capacity can have the greatest impact.
Electric Boat and Newport News have shared decades of hard-earned expertise with us and welcome to Anduril and to an enterprise
whose standards for quality and performance are exceptionally high.
Governor Moore, County Executive Klausmeier, the federal congressional delegation, as well as state and local leaders throughout Maryland
have all moved with urgency to help bring an industrial investment of this scale to Baltimore County.
They have also worked closely with us across the many requirements necessary to make this investment come to fruition.
Secretary Hegseth and Acting Secretary Cowell have pushed the department and industry to move faster,
expand production, and create the conditions for both new companies and new capital to contribute to established programs.
President Trump has made rebuilding American manufacturing,
expanding shipbuilding capacity, and strengthening the defense industrial base all major priorities during his administration.
His presence here today reflects the strategic importance of Arsenal 2 and the role it can play in strengthening American naval power for decades to come.
And for the hundreds of sailors and midshipmen in the audience, know that your mission is also ours.
To preserve America's undersea superiority,
the work that ANRIL will do at Arsenal 2 ultimately supports a weapons system that must perform
without fail in some of the most demanding environments on earth.
Our attack submarines must fulfill this task with more than 100 American sailors aboard.
From that first day of construction onward, that responsibility will define the standard we hold ourselves to.
America already knows how to build the best submarines in the world.
The challenge now is to build the industrial depth required, produce more of them, and sustain that advantage for decades.
ANRIL's role in that effort is clear. We intend to add meaningful new capacity to the Virginia-class program.
We aspire to show what modern software-centric manufacturing can do to expand American industrial capacity.
And ultimately, we plan to deliver on the monumental commitment we are making here today.
The United States has rebuilt its industrial strength before, including exactly where we are standing here on this waterfront.
We must do so again.
Arsenal 2 is ANRIL's commitment to that future and to America's ability to refit the fleet for the century ahead.
Thank you very much.
Please welcome Vice Admiral Robert Goucher.
Good afternoon, everybody. What a great day here.
Distinguished guests, state and community leaders, industry partners, shipmates, and midshipmen.
I'm honored to be with you here today at Sparrows Point.
We are standing on ground which has anchored American maritime strength for more than a century.
Eight decades ago, thousands of Americans answered our nation's call during the Second World War.
They bent steel day and night to build the cargo ships and tankers that sustained our arsenal of democracy.
Today,
we face another decisive moment as we bring our industrial might to bear in an increasingly volatile strategic environment.
As a career submariner
and former submarine force commander,
I have total confidence our ultimate asymmetric advantage,
our guarantor of peace and deterrence,
and the capability our adversaries still fear the most
is the United States Submarine Force.
Our Virginia-class fast attack submarines and our upcoming Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines
are the most survivable,
technologically dominant machines ever built by human hands.
They are truly our ocean's apex predators.
As other nations challenge the rules-based order that keeps our oceans free and open,
we need the deterrence and denial of our submarines now more than ever.
At the same time, we must reckon with the fact we have lost industrial capacity.
Today, we start to rebuild it.
As director, submarine programs my charge is simple and uncompromising.
Deliver high-quality United States submarines to the fleet safely and on time.
To maintain our undersea advantage,
we must reach and exceed a production cadence of one Columbia and two Virginia hulls per year,
which we often call one plus two.
This is not just a goal. It is an imperative.
Today, we deliver about half of the tonnage we need. That is not a verdict. It is our starting line.
Closing our production gap is not a problem the Navy can solve alone,
nor is it a burden industry can shoulder alone. It is a shared national priority.
And that is exactly why we are standing here today.
Arsenal 2 will play a significant role in meeting this challenge by adding capacity this enterprise does not have today.
So our prime builders, General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut and Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia
can put more of their own skilled hands on the work only they can do.
Final module outfitting, nuclear reactor integration, assembly, testing and delivery.
Situated geographically between these two prime shipyards and connected to them by a network of sea,
rail and road, Arsenal 2 will take on the heavy component manufacturing.
Initially, critical components our prime shipyards need today like precision torpedo tubes and impulse tanks,
then moving on to complex rafted module assemblies
and endless possibilities to
support future undersea dominance through the cutting edge technology and innovation this shipyard brings to the problem set.
Arsenal 2 will help us attack production bottlenecks with the footprint to add up to 9 million production hours per year
into our submarine supply chain.
That's a 15% surge in total capacity.
This is not a smaller business for our shipbuilders. It is a larger one.
More hulls through our prime yards at better margin improving with every boat as our workforce gets faster at the same work.
That drives up our rate and ensures we meet and eventually exceed 1 plus 2.
Now we will not win this race with just new technology and new buildings.
Just as a submarine is nothing without a well-trained and resilient crew.
Our shipyards and industrial base rely on the skilled hands and dedication of the American worker.
Arsenal 2 will create over 3,100
high skilled American jobs right here in Maryland.
And as we've done in other states across the country,
we will partner with Maryland to establish dedicated trades training centers to develop the next generation of precision to seat machinists,
structural welders,
metrologists, and quality inspectors.
By pairing America's world-class trades artisans with advanced robotics,
manufacturing centric software, and artificial intelligence
across every assembly blade,
Arsenal 2 is a chance to show the world when we unleash American enterprise and American workers,
nobody can outbuild or out innovate us as we work toward our shared mission.
And today that mission is clear.
We must build our capacity,
deliver our apex predators, and secure our undersea dominance for generations to come.
To our industry partners
and to the workforce and civic leaders of Maryland,
thank you for joining us on Team Submarine by stepping forward to help supercharge our production.
And thanks for the opportunity to highlight our key mission and how Arsenal 2 will help achieve us.
Now, it's my great honor to turn the stage over to my fellow Naval Academy graduate from the class of 91 plus 5.
Please welcome the Acting Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Hung Cao.
All right, well, good afternoon everyone. Good morning. Good afternoon, Baltimore.
Distinguished guests, community leaders
of Baltimore, extraordinary men and women of our industrial workforce,
sailors, and our midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy. Good afternoon.
We stand on the future footprint of Andrew's Arsenal 2 facility.
This is a landmark
project that represents the ironclad cooperation
between America's military and its industry.
Around us lies a waterfront edged deeply in the history of America's industry and military triumph.
This city, in fact, is where the Star Spangled Banner was penned.
But today, we're not just honoring heritage. We're putting it back to work with 21st century speed and lethality.
No more legacy software or backlog production cycles. It means having modern commercial technology at scale.
Our enemies have shown their hand.
Robotics and autonomous systems will be central in future conflicts.
As you know, the Secretary of War announced last week the establishment of the Autonomous Warfare Command
and the Navy is ready to lead the charge in modernizing autonomous warfare.
I established the Robotics Autonomous Systems Warfighting Development Center serving as the Navy's dedicated hub
for executing SECWAR's vision.
And the United States Naval Academy is also pairing with us in order to make sure our midshipmen, the future leaders of America,
are
in tune with what we're doing at the RADWYDIC.
The future of the U.S. Navy will combine the strength of its manned fleet
with the reach and affordability of robotic and autonomous systems.
Using unmanned systems for low-end missions will free our ships and sailors to take care of the high-end operations.
We are incorporating remote and autonomous systems into our fleet and accelerate pace and scale. You can ask the Iranians.
The use of unmanned systems is changing the character of warfare.
And I know Anduril will be delivering for the Secretary's vision and the Navy's mission in protecting our nation's security.
Arsenal 2
will build submarine components, modules, and other undersea warfighting capabilities for the Navy.
The $6.6 billion initiative will inject hyperscale automation,
robotics, and sensor systems directly into naval production. It represents a bold new age.
This is America's era of transformational change.
An agile partnership between Navy and Anduril that breaks through bureaucratic red tape and moves at the speed of modern combat.
This facility will be a vital linchpin in our overarching naval strategy.
Under President Trump's visionary leadership, our mandate is clear. We are building the Golden Fleet.
The Golden Fleet is a maritime force designed to dominate the seas,
protect overwhelming power, and guarantee American
maritime dependency for the next century, just as the Great White Fleet did 100 years ago.
We are restoring America's dominance and bringing the maritime golden age.
The Golden Fleet cannot rely solely on the hulls of yesterday. It demands a technological superiority of tomorrow.
By pairing
The future of naval supremacy will belong to the other side that
on the side that masters autonomous systems, superintelligence, power decision-making, and
precise fires at scale. That is why Anduril here at Arsenal 2 will be the cutting edge of naval warfare.
Anduril brings forward a proven track record of unmanned
vehicles, rocket motors, and autonomous vessels, mass-producing autonomous systems, deploying
battle-tested superintelligence-enabled software, engineering exquisite sensors,
and supporting next-generation kinetic weapons. Through this facility, we will turn raw data
into tactical dominance. By pairing superintelligence with high-throughput manufacturing,
Arsenal 2 will produce smart and affordable combat platforms at speed. None of this happens
behind a desk in Washington, D.C. It happens right here, through the power of our Maryland
partners. The state of Maryland, Baltimore County, and our local trade and labor partners are
charging ahead. With civic leadership, American industry, and our military standing shoulder to
shoulder, nothing can stop us. This project will immediately inject economic viability into the
region, generating over 3,100 high-skilled jobs right here in Baltimore. The future of American
shipbuilding and the power of President Trump's Golden Fleet will strengthen America's middle
class. These are careers for software engineers, algorithm architects, machinists, sensor
technicians, roboticists, fabricators, all earning great wages while actively defending
our great nation. And to understand exactly who they will be working for, look across this field
right here. There's 100 sailors and 200 midshipmen, again, the future leaders of America.
And from my own alma mater, the greatest school in the world, the United States Naval Academy.
Beat Army. Every unmanned vessel, every smart sensor, every precise weapon, and every line
of autonomous code engineered at Arsenal 2 is being built directly for those sailors and
midshipmen sitting right there, and the future sailors and Marines that will man our fleet.
Andoril will be making these systems for you to be the most lethal warfighters possible.
And you, Andoril, will give the United States Navy the decisive edge in maintaining maritime
superiority. We're delivering systems that will hunt threats before the crews can even see them.
We'll strike adversaries before they can react. We'll bring the warfighters home safely to their
families. That is how we're strengthening the Navy. That is how we take care of our sailors
and Marines. That is how we advance 21st century shipbuilding. And that is how we defend the
globe. Arsenal 2 sends a message of unbreakable American commitment to our adversaries. Let this
groundbreaking be a clear message to you. American technological machine is fully awake, fully armed,
and ready to fight. You can run, but you'll only die tired. But you know what? If you piss us off,
we're going to sneak into your country in the middle of night and snatch you and your wife
while you sleep in your beds. It's time to push the throttle forward to the firewall.
So let's burn the code, let's bend the metal, let's strengthen the Navy, and let's build the
Golden Fleet. We'll now take a short break while we wait for another decorated combat veteran.
Unfortunately, he's from the Army, but he is a champion for our warfighters. The Secretary of War
followed by our Commander-in-Chief, the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J.
Trump. Thank you all for being here today. God bless the United States Navy and the United States
of America. Semper Fi and Hooyah. Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of War, the Honorable
How we doing? There we go.
Boys, it's great to be here. And greetings, please, take a seat. Greetings
from the War Department, where wokeness and weakness are out and recruiting is up,
because we're focused on the core elements of reviving the warrior ethos, rebuilding the
military, and re-establishing deterrence, which President Trump has demanded of us,
and part of rebuilding that military is bringing us right here this beautiful day.
You know, our first Commander-in-Chief once wisely said that without a decisive
naval force, we can do nothing definitive. But with it, George Washington said,
we can do everything honorable and glorious. Well, this current Commander-in-Chief, Donald J.
Trump, I know because I hear it every single day, feels the exact same way, the honorable and
glorious use of our naval forces. You see, in order to make America great again, you need to
make your Navy great again, which she has done before and is doing again. You need to make ship
buildings great again, our manufacturing great again, our defense industrial base strong and
robust again, our ports, our ships, our autonomous submarines. From day one,
President Trump has demanded from the War Department speed, scale, and urgency to build
an arsenal of freedom befitting our warriors and considering the threats of the 21st century.
That's why today, we're here to proudly announce the construction of the largest
U.S. shipyard since World War II.
Subs and torpedo tubes of the future. Because President Trump rejects the globalist, defeatist
status quo decline, that America is just going to become like any other nation.
He demands peace through strength. That peace through strength requires military power. It
requires naval power. It's been on full display across the globe for the better part of years.
And because President Trump demands it and our warfighters deserve it, we invest, we grow,
we build, all made in America. American manufacturing, American power, American
strength, and American jobs, an arsenal of freedom, all for victory on the battlefield
and to enable peace right here at home. America first, ushering in a new golden age to include
a beautiful new world. It's a pleasure to be here today to lead this War Department and have
the opportunity to ensure that American strength for this term and years to come is maintained
not just because we have the best sailors on the planet, but because we're equipping them
in rapid form. And I've never seen a commander to certain in our lifetime move this quickly
with this kind of urgency, ensuring our companies deliver on behalf of warfighters. He expects it,
and we're going to do it. But ladies and gentlemen, it's my honor to introduce to you today,
our Commander-in-Chief, the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
They were the bully of the Middle East. They're not so much the bully anymore, but we have to
finish up. It's only a question of which way do we want to do it, the nice way or the not so nice
way. And soon you'll find out. A very special hello to a brilliant group of people, men and
women of Honduril Industries and the patriots of the greatest maritime power ever to dominate
the seas, the United States Navy. Thank you. And we're especially pleased to be joined by
the talented midshipmen of the one and only U.S. Naval Academy. That's a big deal.
I remember I had a lot of smart friends years ago when I was in high school. They wanted to
go to the Naval Academy. They couldn't get in. I said, you're not smart enough to get in.
Too bad, isn't it? And it's only gotten tougher. So I congratulate you. I want to give a special
salute to the sailors aboard the USS Billings, who have just returned from a deployment to the
Caribbean, where they helped decimate the cartel terrorists and delivered 77,000 pounds of
life-saving aid to the people of Venezuela. And we're getting along great with Venezuela.
We're taking out billions and billions of dollars of oil. We've paid for that voyage,
a little voyage we've made many, many times over. You don't hear that much anymore in this country.
But to the victor belong the spoils, right? An old-fashioned expression that we've brought back.
But I'd like to give a very big round of applause to those people. They have done a fantastic job,
and thank you very much. To all members of our armed forces, please be at ease also. Just relax,
take it easy, because this is fun for me to do. I love to see this. I love you people.
You're the best anywhere in the world. You're the best. It's really a lot of fun. So just
enjoy it. If you enjoy Trump, if you don't enjoy Trump. By the way, I'm going around doing rallies
the Republican Party is starting to go right through the roof. Somebody said today,
I wonder why. Well, I had to get out. We had to explain what we're doing. There's never been
a time like this in our country. We have $21 trillion being invested, but we have to say it
because the media doesn't like talking about that. I used to call them the fake news,
but as president, I have to be a little more respectful of the media than that.
So now I call them the artificial news. I took artificial off the word intelligence,
and I call it superintelligence, which is really, I think, much better. It's really much more
accurate because it's really not artificial intelligence. It's superintelligence. Artificial
means fake. I call them the artificial media. Let's not get into that. But we are doing like
no country has ever done $21 trillion, and we're building plants. We're building everything. Most
importantly, we're building a military. We had a trillion dollars first time that's ever taken
place, and we're going to be upping that a little bit with Pete and General Kane and all of the
people that we meet with. I rebuilt our military in my first term, and we've used it a little bit
in my second term, and I'm very honored to have done it. What we've done is incredible,
all for peace and all for goodwill. Today, we're officially launching the construction of the
largest new shipyard in the United States. This is since World War Two. There's been nothing like
what we're doing today. The workers of Baltimore and the shipyard here at Sparrows Point have been
a vital part of the American industrial strength for literally over 100 years.
And along these very shores, American tradesmen built one of the first frigates in the U.S. Navy.
They forged the steel that built the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. And this is
where the patriots of Baltimore built the first ever Liberty ship in the Second World War. There's
a tremendous history. I flew over it just now. And, boy, it's a great piece of being a real
estate developer. Initially, I always have. I said, That's a nice piece of real estate.
And it's big. This is going to be some big yard. When I came into office for my second term,
less than two years ago, this national treasure was abandoned and was totally forgotten.
But it's not forgotten any longer. In a tremendous victory for our country and for the city of
Baltimore, Onderil is investing $3.7 billion in a state-of-the-art shipyard that will be
known forever as Arsenal II. It's one of the most — one of the biggest and one of the
most significant shipyards, I think, soon — very soon will be. Anywhere in the world
will be as significant as any. That's what we're looking for. Right here in Sparrows Point,
you'll build the next generation of American submarines, including autonomous
subs, torpedo tubes, and critical components for our cutting-edge Virginia-class attack submarines
— the greatest and quietest ever built. And thanks to record funding from my administration,
the Republicans in Congress, the U.S. Navy is also contributing an additional $2.9 billion
to support this shipyard, with the possibility of ultimately, together with a lot of great
patriots, $21 billion in future purchases. This is going to be a big component for our future
military. This massive project will create over 3,100 new jobs right here in Maryland,
and will support an additional 11,000 jobs across the nation. And I love the idea of the
autonomous sub. Whoever heard of autonomous, it just makes sense because I wouldn't — I'm not
sure that I would have the courage to go into submarines too much. You guys love them.
But me, I'd rather be floating on the sea. So I like the idea of an autonomous sub
all down there by itself. But just as accurate — I mean, it's incredible what they can do.
I saw some research and development papers on it. It's unbelievable. The things that we're coming
up with over the next five-year period, it's — nobody would ever believe it's even possible. So,
autonomous subs is one of them. And in the ultimate proof of our commitment to ensuring
the shipyard's enduring success, American taxpayers will receive a 40 percent stake.
In the new shipyard, we get 40 percent. And the storied grounds of Sparrows Point will never
fall silent again. There's a tremendous amount of activity going on, even now.
It's just starting, but even now. So I want to thank everyone who made this day possible,
including Andrew O'Founder, a friend of mine, Palmer Luckey. And I want to thank Palmer. He's
a great guy, a very brilliant guy. CEO Brian Schimpf, COO Matt Grimm, President and Chief
Strategy Officer Christian Brose, President and Chief Business Officer Matthew Steckman,
along with the Secretary of War Pete Hexeth. You know, we changed the name to Secretary of War. We
had great victories with Secretary of War. And then somebody became politically correct. I see.
I think it's actually politically incorrect. And they said Secretary of Defense. We like Secretary
of War much better. But I want to thank Pete and the Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg,
who's done a fantastic job. He's a brilliant guy. He was actually a billionaire — made
billions of dollars. And he just — from the first day I knew him, all he wants to do is be in the
military. He would have been much better as a general or an admiral. He would have given up
all of his money to be a general or an admiral. I always say there's a guy that's a rich guy,
and the only one he respects are the generals and the admirals. He likes the military,
and he's done a fantastic job. But it's really — we call it the Pentagon's
deal Team Six. Deal Team Six. A little cute. A little cute.
Thanks as well to a great Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, who is sitting right up here
in the very blinding sun. How you doing? Okay. It looks like the sun is right smack in your face.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vogt, who is fantastic. He's done a job.
We have some big surprises coming up in another few weeks. Right, Russ? He's going to be one of
the very important people in the history of our country, in my opinion. He's got some great things
happening. Acting Secretary of the Navy, Hung Kao, who everyone loves. Director of Submarine Programs,
Admiral Rob Gaucher. And Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, General Michael
Borg-Schulte. We also have Baltimore Ravenstar. Oh, these guys are making a lot of money. They're
doing very well. I think they're 3-in-1 or something like that. They're doing good.
Ravenstar, Marlon Humphrey, Tyler Loop, Ryan Eckley, and Nick Walker. Could you stand up?
You guys are big stars. Where are you guys? Here they are. Good-looking guys. So let me ask you,
you know, I sort of — he sort of looked coach-like. And I said,
tell me, is he a coach? They said, no, he's a snapper. You know, nowadays, those long snappers,
they're very valuable. It's an amazing job you do with that. And he's got an unblemished record.
He — how far is that? Like 10 yards deep or more? Fifteen yards. And he throws strikes.
He throws strikes. I don't know how the hell you do it. So he's got a little gray hair,
I noticed. But, you know, they don't care. They want him for one play.
They want him for one play. You look damn good, too. Thank you. Congratulations. What a team you
have. You have a great team this year. And say hello to your quarterback. He's a little bit
injured, but — and tell him I know his mother. I met his mother a few times in Palm Beach,
and she's a fantastic, beautiful woman. But give him my regards. He is some player.
You have a great year. Thank you. Thank you, fellas.
And what we're doing this afternoon is part of a dramatic turnaround for America in our
defense industrial base. The United States once built — I mean, think of it. Not so long ago,
we built as many as four ships a day. Who would believe that? But more recently, it's taken
an average of 7 to 15 years. There's something going on. Same people, same everything.
You know, I just got back from a trip. We made a speech at Peterbilt. It's a truck company.
They make among the finest trucks in the world — the big ones, the big haulers.
And they had some of them on display that we've all seen on the roads.
Peterbilt, very fine company. And I said to the boss, they're doing well. They're expanding. I
was there because they're doing this billion-dollar expansion beyond that. I said,
how many trucks do you make a day, would you say, or a week or a year? What is it? What — how many
do you build? He said, 200. I said, 200 a year? He said, no, 200 a day. We build 200 trucks. I said,
you got to be kidding. You build 200 — we can do the same thing with ships. We used to do that.
Think of it. Two hundred trucks — cabs, the engines, the whole thing — a day. And I thought
he was giving me false information, so I immediately checked it out. And he was exactly
right. We can do the same thing with ships. We used to build, they say, four. I always heard
we build one a day, but they're saying four. It's hard to believe. Same country. More advanced.
Much more advanced. We build other things, but we ship — we're going to be back into
building great, great ships. And Anduril's arsenal, too, will form part of the industrial
backbone of the 21st century of the United States Navy. And it'll be known, really,
as the Golden Fleet. This is the golden age of America. We're doing numbers that nobody ever
thought were possible. We're doing the biggest numbers, economically, that we've ever done in
the history of our country. You know, in my first term, we had the best economy that we've ever had.
It was interrupted by COVID at the end, but we had the best numbers. Even with that, we left
with a stock market that was higher than it was at the beginning. It was the highest stock market
up until that time. And now we have 81 times in a little more than a year and a half — 81 all-time
stock market highs. The highest price — if you look at your 401ks, we are higher than at any time.
Over $45,000 more on average value. That's in a very short period of time.
But the big thing is $21 trillion being invested by others into our country. There's never been
a country that's even close to that. The highest number was three, and we're at $21 trillion.
And that's building factories all over the country. It's building plants. Our drug industry
is coming back. Our car industry is coming back. They're leaving Canada. They're leaving Mexico.
They're leaving Japan and Germany, South Korea. We're building car plants.
So we didn't build a car plant for 44 years in this country. Now we're building more car
plants than we ever have in history. It's all because of my favorite word — my fourth favorite,
maybe my fifth — tariff. Without tariffs, we wouldn't be doing that, even though the election
was a big runaway, even though the election was great. But that has something to do with it,
obviously. But the word tariff, for us, has made us a rich country again. And rich in a lot of ways.
We ended eight wars. I ended eight wars. We haven't ended Russia-Ukraine yet. I'm working
on that one. That one, I thought, would be the easiest one for me. But we've ended eight wars,
and that's going to happen, too, pretty soon. A lot of people dying in that war. It's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous what's happened. But it's — believe it or not, it doesn't look it,
but it's actually getting closer. But the word tariff — when you build here, you don't pay
anything. If you build your product in another country and you think you're going to send it
in here and take our jobs and just send it in like nothing happened, not going to happen.
So we charge 25 percent, 50 percent, 100 percent, 200 percent — all different numbers for different
products. But we have the chip industry moving back into our country. We should have never lost
it. We lost it to Taiwan, mostly. Almost everyone did. Taiwan has got a big part,
about almost 100 percent of the market. But we lost it. We let them take it away like we were
babies. But I said it's my favorite word, and I got in big trouble. Look at all the press.
So many press. They're lovely people. But what happened is I said,
tariff is my favorite word in the dictionary. I love tariff. It's going to make America rich
again, which it's doing. And they just really went after it. What about God? What about wife?
What about family? What about children? So I make it now my fifth favorite word,
and I'm okay. I'm in good shape. But our country is becoming rich again. Really rich because of
that. And we have more factories, plants. Our whole medical and pharmaceutical business is
pouring back into our country. Howard would tell you that Russell will tell you that it's all
coming back. Eli Lilly, Merck, Pfizer. They're all building massive hundreds of billions of dollars
worth of plants all over the country because we learned that from COVID. We we didn't make our
farmers and we didn't make our drugs. It was made in China and lots of other places. Ireland
all over Europe. We didn't make our drugs at all coming back. And if they don't,
what happens is I gave him a little time, and after that they have to pay a little tariff.
Then they have to pay a little bigger tariff. Then if they still don't have it after a year
and a half, they pay a big tariff. And if they don't have it after two years,
they pay a real big tariff. So they're all building every one of them. It's pretty simple,
although a lot of people haven't figured it out. Maybe they still don't understand. But
the numbers are bigger than anybody's any country has ever had by far. Not even close.
We're leading on super intelligence, and we're leading by a lot. And, as you know,
I had President Xi here a few days ago. We get along great. It's nice to get along great with
others, but we get along very good, and we have great things going with them. It's better than
not having a relationship. We have a very good. We've had always had a good relationship,
but we're making a lot of money with China. But my administration has already secured over
$76 billion in funding for shipbuilding. We've produced more than 80 new ships for the Navy
and Coast Guard, and we're doing other things to get new ships that will really speed up the
process because we need ships. And we're doing things that are a little bit different. We're
going to have the finest ships anywhere in the world. With the help of everyone here today,
America is going to remain the undisputed naval superpower of the world. You know what I call
the — when I see the wall of steel, which is what it is, that we've done — they call it a
blockade. I call it the wall of steel. Not one ship has gotten through to Iran. The only ships
that go through are the ones that we let go through. And it's had a huge impact. That's why
they're nations failed financially. They're a failed nation. Everyone is quitting. Everyone
is leaving. They're not paying their military. They're not paying their police. They're not
paying anybody. They're a mess. But we still have to finish it off. Our Navy is leading the way,
ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. And that's something we've been
saying. That will never happen. That will never happen. That's already a fait accompli.
Our great sailors and naval aviators have fought heroically to annihilate their military. They
have no Air Force. Their Air Force is gone. Their Navy is gone. They have 159 ships. Every one of
them is right now at the bottom of the sea — lying at the bottom of the sea. Their radar is gone.
Their anti-aircraft equipment is all gone. Their missile and drone manufacturing capacity is way
down. It'll soon be gone. We know exactly where the rest of it is. Their economy is in ruins.
They have inflation like no other country anywhere in the world.
And the man who left the other day said, I'm leaving because our country is finished.
That's what he said. I don't know. I don't take anything for granted. But
they're not doing well. And thanks to the men and women of America's Armed Forces,
dozens of Iran's terrorist leaders have been blown out of existence and straight through
to the gates of hell. As you know, their leaders are gone. Their second group of leaders are gone.
And the biggest problem I have is nobody knows who the hell is running the country.
Nobody knows. But maybe that's a good thing. But you remember Khomeini. They're all gone.
And here we are. We're going to be doing things that nobody's ever done before. As an example,
this country should have been taken care of. We're into 51 years now. The bully of the Middle East
should have. This should have been done a long time ago by other presidents or other countries.
Doesn't have to be us. It's always us. Should have been done by other countries long ago,
because with time, it just got worse. But we've done a job. And frankly,
I get calls all the time from the leaders of the world thanking me very much. I said,
Good. When are you going to pay for it? Thank you, sir, for doing such a good job. And I'll say to
him, That's great. You want to send some ships? Sir, I would rather not get involved. They don't
have any ships. We're really holding up the whole world. It's on our shoulders. And we love doing it
in a certain way. We love doing it because we've gotten stronger and others have gotten weaker.
They've just gotten weak. They've gotten ineffective. And we're doing things that
nobody else, no nation could ever have done. We have the strongest military anywhere in the world.
We have the greatest military equipment anywhere in the world. And it's not even close.
Our patriot systems, our tomahawks, our ships, our submarines. We are so far ahead of
Russia's number two. But we're 15 years ahead of them in terms of submarine development. And
we've just started. When you hear about autonomous and all the other things I've seen today,
the United States Navy is enforcing one of the most effective and impenetrable blockades in
history. Nobody's ever seen a blockade like that with no ships, zero getting in. Every once in a
If it doesn't have oil, we just sink the ship.
Yet oil shipments from outside of Iran right now, they're back to almost higher than they've ever
been. In other words, the Hormuz Strait belongs to the United States Navy and the United States
of America. That's where it belongs. And that's where it is right now. With all of that being
said, we don't need their oil. Others need their oil and they need it badly. But we're getting it
out and we're getting it out at record levels. Our Navy is also ending the bloody rain of drug
cartels and savage foreign gangs here in the Western Hemisphere. Drugs coming in by ocean
and sea are down 97 percent. That's, you know, for the great football players. They watch this.
They watch this. They anybody coming in by sea who's working one of those drug boats, I consider
them to be the bravest men maybe anywhere in the world. Because those boats are being knocked out.
They used to. They call it interdict. They used to grab them and bring them to a court in Miami or
Texas, and they'd be out the following day, bringing drugs back into our country. Now we
take out the boats. Think of it. Drugs, fentanyl is down by sea, by ocean and sea, by the Gulf of America,
the Gulf of America, not Mexico. That was a little rough time when I did that. I got a call from the
President of Mexico. No, no, President. She's a very nice woman, beautiful woman, beautiful voice.
And she said, No, no, President. Very elegant. Please, please tell me it's not so it's so I'm
sorry. So we changed the name from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. It is so I'm sorry.
And no, no. But it's one of those things. I always felt it. You know, it didn't take long.
It was sort of amazing. We have 93 percent of the coastline. They have seven and never made
sense to me. That was called the Gulf of Mexico. During their recent deployment, the sailors aboard
the USS Billings alone helped intercept nearly three tons of illegal narcotics from the cartels,
saving countless lives. And with the Navy support, we captured the outlaw known as the dictator of
Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and won the war in exactly 148 minutes. They don't talk about that.
They say, Oh, we're in for six months into Iran. Iran's bigger. But we really ended it as soon as
the B-2 bombers hit, because that was the end of their nuclear. That was 95 percent of the reason
we did it. Maybe 100 percent. This fearless, confident and strategic use of American power
shows why we're investing so heavily in the shipyards and Navy of the future. We want to
action for all future generation. Last year, I proudly signed into law a record-setting defense
budget, and this year is going to be 1.5 trillion. I believe I don't want to speak too early,
but we broke the trillion mark and we're going to be at 1.5. At the same time,
we're cutting costs of other things, which are waste. But we're going to have new ships and
drones and aircraft and missiles and everything. Our equipment is the most advanced. And by the
way, the drones people are saying about drones and other countries of our drones are superior
to anything. When you see the new set of drones, you're not going to believe it. It was superior
drones anywhere in the world. It's not even close. But most importantly, it's all very proudly
stamped and made in the USA. We stamp it made. Everything is stamped and made in the USA.
We're fighting to include a hard-earned pay raise for every sailor, soldier, airman,
Coast Guardsman, Space Guardian. I love Space Force. That was my baby. And Marine. Of course,
last year, I also gave our service members a warrior dividend. We call it. It was supposed
to be one thousand seven hundred and seventy five dollars. Seventeen. Seventy five. And I said,
I look, I'm reading it. I said, well, you know, if you had one dollar to it, it would be 1776.
That means something. I said, do you think I called up Russell vote? I called up Howard Lutnick,
called up my group. Do you think we could find an extra dollar to make it 1776? They said,
I think we can do that. We made it right. We made it 1776. And it was great. Everybody said,
oh, we'll never be able to do that. Well, we did it. We got it done. We made the payment.
And now we're going to be giving five thousand dollars to every adult
citizen of our country. And we'll be able to do it where the Democrats can't do it.
As you know, they won't be able to do it because they don't believe in
wealth. They don't believe in tariffs coming in. They don't believe it. All the money that
we have pouring in will be the exact opposite. You'd end up in it. You'll end up in a 1929
depression if they ever take over. So less than two years ago, our country
was laughed at by our enemies, but they're not laughing anymore. They don't laugh at us anymore.
They laughed at us. They thought we were stupid people. Americans respected again. And
I think they're respected. I think we're respected like never before. A short time ago,
as said by numerous leaders, King of Saudi Arabia, many leaders said it.
Sir, a short time ago, we thought your country was dead. And now you have the hottest country
anywhere in the world with the hottest country anywhere in the world. Since taking office,
we've secured commitments for money that nobody's ever thought even imaginable. There's never been
anything like it. The Republic of Korea has given us 150 billion dollars recently. That all goes
into shipbuilding, and that was a way of buying down their tariffs. They want to buy down their
tariffs. I said you got to pay for it. The Korean company Hanwha is spending billions of dollars to
revitalize the historic shipyard in Philadelphia. Big old shipyard. Billions of dollars. Hadrian
Manufacturing and the U.S. Navy are investing 2.4 billion in Alabama.
Saronic is investing 3.2 billion dollars in Texas to build a new shipyard on the
beautiful shores of the Gulf of America. And we're buying icebreakers from Finland. We're
making them with them and also buying them. They specialize in icebreakers. It's all they
do is they make icebreakers and they build the best icebreakers. And we said, Come on,
we want to know about that. We're building them ourselves with Finland. We're buying a few
because we need them badly. With our combined efforts, this will be a golden age like no
country has ever seen and like our country has never seen. But it will also be a golden age of
shipbuilding. And the workers at Arsenal 2 and Sparrows Point will be leading the way. What we
see today will be nothing when you come back in one year. And when you come back in two years,
you're not going to believe what you see. Generations ago, these grounds hummed with
the sound of hammers and saws carving out some of the most beautiful wooden ships.
Think of it. Wooden ships of the day long time ago, much more than 100 years. Now,
with the men and women of Andrew, the workers of Maryland and the warriors of the U.S. Navy,
which is just a special, special group. This place will roar with the sound of high tech
manufacturing, building ships and submarines that will be feared by our enemies all over
the world. They got to be feared. They're going to be feared, respected and feared with American
hands, American heart and American grit. We will build the future of America's Navy
right here in Baltimore, and it will be a future of peace through strength. We have never been a
stronger country than we are right now. We have never had a greater military. I believe we've
never had greater leaders. Our country is doing better than it's ever done before. With the envy
of the world that we're going to keep it that way. I want to thank you all very much. God bless you
all. God bless the U.S. Navy. God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much, everybody.
You can't.
