But wait until you see what's happening when I do run. And what they don't say is - governor of Ohio, great guy. Mike. Mike. Mike was down six. He won by seven with one day. Right? (Applause.) He was down by six. One day into the election, I went out, I campaigned, worked hard, made a speech. Jim Jordan was there. Everybody was there. It was a fantastic crowd like this. Like this. And all the people in the other ballrooms that are waiting for us.
And he ended up winning. He was down by six; he won by seven. One day. (Applause.) Then we have Georgia - the governor of Georgia. Great guy. Where's Georgia? Great guy. He was losing in the primary by 10. I got a call from David Perdue and Sonny Perdue - two great guys. "Could you endorse him?" I said, "Let me check." And I checked him. He was a Trumper before Trump was a Trumper. (Laughter.) And I said, "I love this guy." He's down by 10. He won by 40. (Applause.) Can you believe that? I endorsed him, Mark. He won by 40. Then he had a tough race against the new star of the Democrat Party - not Democratic. It's Democrat. We have to do that.
You know, it sounds prettier when we use "Democratic." I even like - I hate to say in the speech, the "Democrat Party" because it doesn't sound good. But that's all the more reason I use it, because it doesn't. (Laughter.) They should change it because it sounds much better. Rhetorically, it's much better. Much better.
But then, he had an election against their star who followed me after the State of the Union Address. I didn't think she was great. But she's their star. And who showed up? Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and President Obama.
AUDIENCE: Booo -
THE PRESIDENT: And they campaigned for her, and they worked so hard. And all our man had was Trump. (Laughter.) And we kicked their ass. (Applause.) True.
We had a rally at the airport, where 55,000 people showed up to the airport. It was one hangar. They had three other hangars that were full. They went so far back. The problem was they gave the press, like these guys - they gave the press too good a location because the people behind them couldn't see properly. I was so angry. But we had 55,000 people show up. I said, "You're going to win the election." He won the election. He won it fairly easily, against their star. And now David Perdue is going to win for senator in 2020. (Applause.)
And then - and then we had Florida, and many others. (Applause.) And we have a candidate, Ron DeSantis - (applause) - a friend. A friend of many of us in this room. But nobody knew he was running. He was running against, in the primary, somebody that was easily going to win. He was scheduled to be the next governor of Florida.
But Ron has been great to me on the witch hunt. He's been a defender of me against these phony charges of Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia. My wife said, "You never spoke to anybody from Russia, darling." I said, "That's right." (Laughter.) But Ron DeSantis - I like people that defend me. You know, when people defend me, I defend them. (Applause.)
So he came. That's why I like Mark. That's why I like Mark Levin. And I'm not sure a lot of people like him. He's tough as hell. But I like him. I love him.
But then we have Florida. So, Ron DeSantis is at three. Three. He calls up, "Sir, can I have your endorsement?" I said, "Ron, you're at three. Your opponent is, I guess, agriculture commissioner - has 22 million in the bank. His poll numbers are very good. He's up in the 20s or 30s." I said, "Ron, don't make me do this, Ron." (Laughter.) "Sir, I can win." "All right, Ron. Here we go." Because I know if he loses - which almost never happens when I endorse somebody. Almost never. Only one time, and that was because it was done in the middle of the day of the election. Nobody knew I did it. They got home, they said,
"I didn't know Trump endorsed him." But we rarely, rarely lose.
But I said,
"Ron, don't do it." I said,
"All right, I'll do it." He went from 3 to 60. To 60. (Applause.) And then he ran against a guy who had unbelievable support. He had every celebrity go into Florida. He had money all over the place. And Ron was in there pitching, and I was in there pitching with him. And we now have a great governor in the state of Florida. (Applause.)
And I could mention many others - other governors, many other states. But I'm not going to bore you with it. And I think - I really think that it's incredible what we did in the midterms. I think it's incredible.
Governor of Florida. Governor of Ohio. Remember,
"You can't win unless you win the state of Ohio." We got the governor of Ohio, and he's great. Mike. We love you, Mike. (Applause.)
As we defend American values at home, we are also defending. American security abroad. We have secured all sorts of funding, all sorts of record everything. And we will never forget our military. We will never forget our veterans. We are taking care of our veterans like they've never been taken care of before. (Applause.)
We just got them Choice, so now they can go see a doctor. (Applause.) Now they can go and see a doctor instead of waiting on line for weeks and weeks and weeks.
And we got them Accountability. You couldn't fire anybody in the VA. You had sadists. You had people that took advantage of our veterans. They've hit them. They were sadists. They were sick people. You couldn't fire them. You had thieves that were stealing - openly stealing. You couldn't fire them.
I got a bill passed: VA Accountability. Now you look at the guy, you say,
"Get the hell out of here. You're fired. Get out." (Applause.) Nobody thought we could get it. For 40 years they tried to get it. For 40 years they tried to get it; they couldn't get it. And VA Choice, they thought - for many, many decades they'd been trying to get VA Choice. You couldn't get it.
Now, instead of waiting on line for two days, nine days, three weeks - people were dying. People that weren't very sick would be dead by the time they saw a doctor, six weeks later. Now these great veterans, if there's a big wait, they go outside, they go to a local doctor. We pay the bills. They get better. Everybody is happy. And we actually save a lot of money, if you can believe it. (Applause.) And I got that approved after 44 years of being unable to get it approved - for our veterans. We love our veterans. (Applause.)
And just in finishing up, as you know, I just returned from Vietnam, where I had very productive meetings with Chairman Kim Jong Un. Very productive. We get along. (Applause.) We've developed a good relationship - very good - and made great historic progress. And I do get a kick out of all these people in previous administrations: "Donald Trump should not, under any circumstances, be doing this or that." You know, they're telling me how to negotiate. These guys died.
One administration gave billions of dollars to him and got nothing. And we haven't given him anything yet. I look forward to maybe doing something at some point. But I know one thing: I'm going to get other countries to give. Maybe not us, but I'm going to get other countries to give, and if it all works out. (Applause.) If it all works out.
But I had to walk. Because every once in a while, you have to walk, because the deal wasn't a deal that was acceptable to me. I don't like these deals that politicians make. They make a deal just for the sake of doing it. I don't want to do that. I want to make a deal that either works, or let's not make it. (Applause.)
But the one thing we have, though, is we have no testing, no missiles going up, no rockets going up. No nuclear testing. We got our great people back. We get our great, great people. And that includes our beautiful, beautiful Otto - Otto Warmbier - whose parents I've gotten to know, who's incredible.
And I'm in such a horrible position, because in one way I have to negotiate. In the other way, I love Mr. and Mrs. Warmbier, and I love Otto. And it's a very, very delicate balance. He was a special young man. And to see what happened was so bad. It was so bad.
And a lot of what I do with respect to North Korea, and any success that we hopefully have - and we've had a lot. We're given no credit. They don't remember that, in the last days of the Obama administration, rockets were flying all over the place, nuclear testing was going on. Mountains were being - these are big mountains. They were being shoved over three, four inches. People thought it was massive earthquakes, then they found out, no, that was nuclear weapons - nuclear testing. So much. We're getting the remains back of a lot of our soldiers from many, many years ago. (Applause.) Mike Pence was in Hawaii. It was one of the most beautiful ceremonies.
We've made a lot of progress, and we'll continue to make progress. And I really think what we're doing there is very important. But we actually had to walk, but I think we had a very good meeting. In fact, when I came home, they put out a statement that, actually, they were willing to do much less on the sanction front. But you see, that's not what happened there.
So already, I think we're negotiating. And I'll tell you this: North Korea has an incredible, brilliant economic future, if they make a deal. But they don't have any economic future if they have nuclear weapons. It's really a bad thing for them. So we'll see how it all goes. But I think it's going well. I think we learned a lot over the last couple of days.
And again, the relationship seems to be very, very strong. And that's an important thing, especially when we're dealing with this kind of a situation. (Applause.)
For years, you watched as your leaders apologized for America. You saw that. Would you like to apologize? No. I'm not apologizing. (Applause.) Now you have a President who is standing up for America.
After decades of building up foreign nations, we are finally building up our nation, and we are doing it with American hands, American grit, and with beautiful, beautiful American steel. (Applause.)
We are fighting to ensure that every young American inherits the same blessings and the same boundless opportunity that our ancestors fought to secure with all of their heart, might, and soul.
Now more than ever, we need the proud men and women of CPAC. And I want to thank everybody here, because it is incredible. Your organization is incredible. Matt and Mercedes, incredible. (Applause.) You're energized, you're mobilized, and you're engaged. We need your voice. We need your patriotism. We need your commitment.
We need your incredible spirit on the Fourth of July. We are having, in Washington, D.C., a great tribute to America. I hope you can all come. Fourth of July - keep it open. We want to bring millions of people into the city, and we want people to come who love our country. Those are the people we want. The Fourth of July. (Applause.) A salute to America.
Now is the time to embrace the promise of our history. Now is the time to defend our American legacy. And now is the time to seize our glorious destiny.
And, by the way, I'm watching those doors. Not one person has left, and I've been up here a long time. (Laughter.) I said, "Matt, is that okay?" He said, "I love it. Don't leave."
But not one person. So if you hear tomorrow, when they read "people left" - nobody left early. There hasn't been one person that's left. But when you read it, you just say "fake news." (Applause.)
This magnificent nation will always be the home of those who cherish life, who love liberty, and who defend the sacred rights given to us by Almighty God. (Applause.)
Together, we are one people, one family, and one nation, forever united behind one great American flag. (Applause.)
Thank you to everybody in this room and to all of the other rooms, all over the campus and all over the country. We're hooked in all over the country. Thank you very much.
I want to thank CPAC. What a job they've done. What a job Matt Schlapp and his family have done in such a short period of time, in bringing this to a level like it's never been before.
God bless you. God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
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