line every single time you will get callers, republican callers who will sort of characterize you c as always that mocking the president which isn't the case -- >> we believe this and take you live back to kansas city, missouri, president trump about to speak to the thousands of veterans gathered here for the national vfw convention. >> isn't this a great way to start off? what a better way to bring greetings to the president of the united states. it took my introduction, it is with a great deal of pleasure and honor for me to introduce the president of united states, donald j. trump. ♪

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♪ >> thank you, lee. thank you, lee. and thank you all so to commander harmon. we're grateful for your service, for your leadership and this incredible organization. that's what it is, it's incredible. [applause] i'm honored to be a today in kansas city, missouri, to pay tribute to the men and women who

make freedom possible. kansas city, and what a special place, what a special group of people for veterans of foreign wars, you people should be very proud of yourself. i want to personally thank each and every one of you who has served our country in uniform, defendant our nation in battle and protected our great american flag. [applause] i also want to recognize a great kansas city legend who i met today at the plane come somebody i've been a fan of for for a lg time, a member of the baseball hall of fame, george brett of the kansas city royals. what is a george? he's around here. george kum how many years? 20. what was your batting average? 305. 305. i said that's pretty good.

special guy. i want to thank a true patriot, your executive director bob wallace, along with your outstanding national auxiliary, president d gilroy. thank you. and congratulations to vfw does incoming leadership, b. j. lawrence and sandeep greybull. where are they? great, great. congratulations. we are also joined by our brand-new va secretary, robert wilkie. going to be fantastic. who was just confirmed by the senate last night with an overwhelming vote if the only ones actually that voted against him were all of the people super left that are running against me

in two and a half years. every one of them. if you want to know who is running, just take a look at his score. because every single one of them, probably quite a few more but in the senate that was it. but what a great poet and is going to do a fantastic job. there's been nothing more important to me. [applause] thank you. thank you. also want to thank our acting va secretary peter o'rourke for doing such a fantastic job in the meantime, holding down the fort until wilkie got approved, and peter is going to be joining the whole team. and they are doing numbers and they're doing a job with choice and with all of the other things that we've gotten approved. they are doing some job. it was a very important

commitment that i may to you during the campaign and we are fulfilling that commitment. several terrific members of congress are here to as well. great friends of mine. they accompany so much, much. we're joined by kevin yoder from kansas, incredible guy. kevin, kevin yoder, what an incredible guy. and members of miseries congressional delegation, vicki hartzler, billy long, jason smith, along with your states attorney general, hopefully we need him so badly, hopefully your new standard to be, josh. we need to josh badly. josh, thank you. [applause] >> in fact, josh, to be favored. come appear for just a second. just shake my head. this guy is a special man. , here, josh. come here.

[applause] >> is an incredible honor to be a today. thanks to all of you for your service and what you mean to this country but how about the leadership of president donald trump? what do you think? [applause] you know, when i think about president trump there's one word that comes to mind. that word is courage. do you agree? how many people over the years have said that they will do this or they would do that, but there's one guy who has the guts to actually fulfill his promises, the gets to move our embassy to jerusalem, the guts to actually stand up against her enemies overseas. the guts to put conservatives on the supreme court of the united states, and that's a donald trump. [applause]

>> you know, the president always says, the president always has were at a turning point moment as a country, vertical time for our country and he is providing the leadership that this country needs as we lead the world into this new century. now i tell you what, i think he needs reinforcement in washington, d.c. do you agree with that? so let's do this. let's show our appreciation again for president trump and the leadership that he is giving to this country and let's redouble our efforts and recommit ourselves to stand together, working hard and making america great again. [applause] ..

the whole world was watching. we live 17 beautiful souls including nine members of one family and babies or home life was just beginning. their lives were cut short, but they and their loved ones will never, ever be forgotten. a tragedy. we will hold their memory close to our hearts. i want to thank your governor, mike person, friend of mine, great person for his leadership during this terrible tragedy along with the coast guard and all of the first responders who were incredible. thank you very much. thank you. [applause]

next year will mark the 120th anniversary of the veterans of foreign wars. the oldest major veterans organization in our country. that is pretty good, right? [applause] for more than a century, the vfw has represented american heroes who promoted american values and they did so with honor. you are the universal symbol of a patriotic pride deadbeats loudly and every single american hearts. we don't apologize for america anymore. [cheers and applause] we stand up for america. we stand up for the patriots to defend america. [cheers and applause] and we stand for our national

anthem. [cheers and applause] we are putting america first again and we are seeing the incredible result. we are destroying the bloodthirsty killers known as isis, almost gone. we are calling the threat by its real name, the name that wasn't mentioned for a long time called radical islamic terrorism. that is what it is. you have to know your enemy before you can defeat your enemy. early this year i recognized the true capital of israel, as josh said. jerusalem, where we just opened the american embassy.

[applause] they thought it would never be named and after it was named they thought it would never get built. and i built it within four months. how about that. four months. they came to my office. they had a document to be signed. $1 billion for the embassy. i said 1 billion? they didn't have a site. they didn't know anything. our great ambassador to israel called david friedman, who's a very successful lawyer in new york city. he said we can do it a lot faster. we have a great site. we could renovate the building quickly. we could open the embassy of elected to serve. he said $150,000. i said what? [applause] he said i think we can do it in four months. so we are talking about

1 billion. maybe in 20 years, probably maybe never happens. i'd rather build ships are at rather build something else if we can save the money. if we can say about money, let's use it wisely. i say david, let's not be 150. i said that $400,000. and make it nicer. and it's beautiful. it just opened and it's beautiful. so we are many years ahead of schedule. and i understand frankly every president for the many vice presidents have said we are going to open our embassy in jerusalem and they never did. they all failed. they never did it and i understand why because when it came time and people were hearing rumors about it, i was inundated with calls from every leader all over the world imploring me come even demanding that we not do it to a point

where i never took their calls or i called them back after i did it. [laughter] [applause] i was getting calls from kingston president and taters. and when i knew what it was about and say tell them i will call them next week. and then i called them and said i didn't know you felt that way. it's too late. but i understand why they didn't do it because there was tremendous pressure. we did it, we are proud of it, it is they are. enjoy it. [applause] by the way, the biggest fan may very well be the evangelicals. they wanted that built. they wanted that they are. very proud of it. [applause] we have removed unnecessary restraints on our war fighters in afghanistan. those who risk their life and limb for our country deserve

rules of engagement that give them the best opportunity to finally defeat the enemy. [cheers and applause] and we are making, for the first time in years, we are making a lot of progress in afghanistan. i withdrew the united states from the horrible one-sided iran nuclear deal. [applause] and iran is not the same country anymore. but i can say. we will see what happens. we are ready to make your real deal. not just deals done by the previous administration, which was a disaster. [applause] we are also pursuing the denuclearization of north korea

and a new future of prosperity, security and peace on the korean peninsula and all of asia. new images today showed north korea has begun the process of dismantling the key missile site and we appreciate that. we had a fantastic meeting with chairman kim and it seems to be going very well. we are joined today by many incredible veterans of the korean war. thank you for your courageous service. as you may know, we are also working to bring back the remains of your brothers in arms who gave their lives to korea and i hope very soon these fallen warriors will begin coming home to layout rest in american soil. that is starting the process. [cheers and applause]

at the very end of our meeting i said to chairman kim, good relationship, good feeling. i said i would really appreciate it if you could do that. he said it will be done. i was very happy and i think that process is starting fairly soon we hope. because we believe in no american left behind. no american left behind. i want to thank the vfw for your devotion to our fallen heroes, unknown soldiers, prisoners of war and those missing in action and their families. no one better understands the horrors of war than the people in this room. it is the warrior who bears the scars of battle and to praise most fervently for peace.

that is why we remember george washington said i got the best way to preserve the peace is to be prepared for war. [applause] and that is exactly what we do all the time. my thinking is always on military and military strength. that is why i'm proud to report we are now undertaking the greatest rebuilding of our united states military in its history. [applause] we have secured $700 billion for defense this year and $716 billion next year approved. [applause] we are ordering 147 new f-35

lightning fighters. this is an incredible plane. it is stealth. you can't see it. when i talk to people from the other side come and they are trying to order our plane. they like the fact that she can't see it. i said howdy do in doing battle with your plane? they say we have one problem. we can't see your plane. that's a big problem. stealth. super stealth, the best in the world. we make the best military equipment in the world. also remember this, jobs. [applause] we are ordering 239 apache and blackhawk helicopters. you know what they are. they are incredible. nine teen major naval vessels and nearly 8000 humvees. and these will be humvees that

are used by our great soldiers, not handed out to everybody like you've been reading about in the past. all made right here in the u.s.a. [cheers and applause] and we are adding nearly 30,000 new soldiers, and sailors come at air men and marines and i've directed the pentagon to begin the process of creating the sixth branch of our military. it is called the space force. [applause] we are living in a different world and we have to be able to adapt. a lot of very important things taking place in space and they don't just mean going up to the moon and going up to mars where we will be going very soon.

from a military standpoint, space is becoming every day more and more important. i'm thrilled to say that we have secured for military service members and their families the largest, you don't really want it, your toupee charted for this. the largest pay raise in almost a decade. [cheers and applause] you don't want it. [applause] you don't want it. anyone willing to give it up for the sake of your country? keep it. you deserve it. it's been a long time since you've gotten a raise. you deserve it. my administration is committed to ensuring that our war fighters have the tools, the resources, the fire power that they need to defeat our enemies with overwhelming force.

hopefully we'll never have to use the kind of power that i am building and helping to build for you. hopefully people will look at us and say let's pass. let's pass. [applause] america is a peaceloving nation. we do not seek conflict, but if conflict is forced upon us, we will defend ourselves and if we must, we will fight and we will do nothing but win. [cheers and applause] as the great general macarthur once said, in war there is no substitute for victory. we are also committed to ensuring when our warriors return home as veterans, they receive the best care anywhere on earth.

[applause] since taking office and working along side of the vfw. and by the way, if your representatives have done an incredible job on helping us with the va. complicated subjects. so many different things. they helped us so much. we put in legislation. i said let's make sure it's legislation that is good that works. not legislation that is obsolete. if we are going to fight like, let's get approved. we do not did some of the largest va reforms in the history of the va. probably the largest. the landmark va accountability act, which nobody thought we could get approved.

nobody. we are good at getting things approved. now when a bad person, maybe a federal employee in this case, but somebody bad mysteries or neglect or abuse is our great veterans in their time of need, we can turn to them, look at them in the eye and say you are fired, get out. [cheers and applause] before there was nothing you could do, you had to live with these people. getting rid of a lot of people. only the bad ones. the good ones we cherish. we cherish the good ones. we had some bad apples in the argonne. as promised, we established the white house, va hotline and every va medical center now offers same-day emergency mental

health care. [cheers and applause] we are greatly expanding tell a health and walk-in clinics who can get anywhere at any time. they can get what they need. they can learn about the problem and they don't have to necessarily drive long distances and weight. it's been a very big success. we are also processing veteran disability claims more quickly than ever before, by far. the va has implemented the decision ready claims, process for claims can be completed in under two weeks. we are striving for one day, but under two weeks. it used to be many, many months. last year i signed legislation. it's amazing. i just said last year.

it's been a long time already, hasn't it. that was some campaign, wasn't it? [cheers and applause] i signed legislation so that veterans can use their g.i. bill education benefits at any point in their lifetime. big difference. they never expire or so vets can get the education they need when it is right for them and with the vfw tremendous help, we pass veterans choice, the biggest thing ever. that's got to be the biggest improvement you can have. so now, if you can't get treatment that you need in a timely manner, people used to wait two weeks, three weeks, eight weeks. they couldn't get to a doctor. you will have the right to see a

private doctor immediately and we will pay for it. you know what, it is very, very cost effective and thousands and thousands of lives are going to be saved and your quality of life is going to be so much better. so you don't have to wait in line for two and a half weeks to see a doctor like in the past. veterans choice has been passed. in my administration also understands that we can not be a safe country if we are not a prosperous country. you have to see these trade deals and working on. they are a disaster. hundreds of billions of dollars of individual countries. you've got to stick it out. we've got a friday. nobody else bought it. how did it get so on balance?

they said nobody ever called. not any longer, folks. making tremendous progress. they are all coming. they don't have those tariffs put on them. they are all coming to see us. we are opening up markets. they are all aiming with anybody that likes me. they have the best lobbyists ever put together. they have some of the greatest lobbying teams put together. you've got to stop the president from putting tariffs on these countries and these companies that are ripping off the united states. you've got to stop them.

just remember, we are going to do something that honestly nobody else can do. we have a lot of -- thank you, darling. i like you, too. i like her. thank you very much. that was good timing. we are now in the midst of a great economic revival. and it is for that reason that i chose this as the time. last year, our country lost $817 billion worth of beef on trade -- billion with a b. on trade. these countries have been ripping us off for decades. it doesn't take a week. it takes a little longer. but we are going to get it done. we camp is $817 billion.

we rebuilt china. what the european union is doing to us is incredible. they made $151 billion last year on trade deficit with the european union. they sound nice, but they are rough. they are all coming in to see me tomorrow. that's change. they did want to change that i said we are going to tariffs or cars. bmw. i said we are going to tariffs or cars. i -- they said when can we show up? would tomorrow be okay? folks, stick with us. amazing. remember they are the biggest, best, strongest lobbyists and they are doing a number.

just stick with us. don't believe the you see from these people. the fake news. bu mac i saw a piece on nbc today, nbc. cnn is the worst. it was hard throbbing. they were interviewing people. they went through group of people. i wanted to save got to do something about this trump. in that piece was done by the lobbyist and by the people that pay higher. it was a total set a period as countries doing better than it's ever done before economically. this is the time to take off the ripoff of terrorists. we have to do it.

you know, other countries have tariffs on us. when i say i'm going to put tariffs on them, they all start screaming. china charges us when we make a car 25% tariff. we charge them 2.5%. other than that it is a fair deal. similar things with other countries. the european union is a big abuser. but it's all working out. just remember what you are singing and what you are reading is not what is happening. i'll tell you i have so many people because we have to make our country truly great again. remember, make america great again and a two and a half years is called keep america great. the way we keep america great is to make at least reasonable --

i'm not saying at least reasonable, at least not trade deals like we've come up with 25 years. we are changing it graphically. over the last little more than a year and a half, we created 3.7 million jobs since elections. african-americans, hispanic and asian unemployment has reached the lowest levels ever recorded in our countries history. the lowest levels, unemployment lowest levels. remember, used to say, i set it here. what do you have to lose. i was right. women's unemployment recently achieved a 65 year low, lowest

in 65 years. [applause] you'll like this one. veteran unemployment has fallen to the lowest level in almost 18 years. we are working to make it better. 18 years isn't so good when you hear history of 65 years. 18 years and i'll guarantee in a month or two we will be given a much higher number. take great care of our vet. consumer business and manufacturing has reached its all-time highs, confident his all-time highs. we've cut a record number of job killing regulations. even though we are only here for a short time has come anywhere near the regulation. these are unnecessary.

they would take 20 years to build a highway. we are trying to get it down to one year. and if it doesn't work and it's environmentally unsound, we are not going to approve it. we are not going to take a process 20, 21 years that it's not approved. we'll let you know in a period of a year or maybe two. right now it is too. we are trying to bring it down to one. we passed the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. biggest in history. [applause] unfortunately, we have tremendous opposition for lowering your taxes from claire mccaskill. voted against, unbelievable. she wants to know and if so you pay more.

figure this one out. i don't know, is that good? in the first quarter of this year alone, american companies repatriated a record of nearly $309. this isn't the first quarter. and it's coming back into our country with our company is in our employment in building plants and factories and headquarters in our country where it belongs. [applause] we think the number of this is all because of our tax reform and tax cuts. the numbers close to $4 trillion coming back into our country. it would never been seen by you or us or me. just like i promised, we are confronting the unfair trade deals and we are doing it like nobody's ever done because our workers have been cheated.

our companies have been cheated. they've stolen our wealth and brought it to other countries. as you know, i campaigned in that issue. it's very close to my heart. i understand that issue better than anybody. i don't like it when they close a factory in your state. or a plant in your great state and they move it to another country and they make the product. they fire all of you and make the product and they send it back into our country to be sold tax-free. i don't like that. i don't like it. we're stopping it. we are stopping it because companies are moving back into our country like never before. japan has just announced an opening up. we have a lot of companies coming back into our country. you haven't seen that for 25

years. you haven't seen it. [applause] and we need workers because our unemployment rate at 3.8% is so low were taking people off the roads in training people, but we need workers and that is why you want people coming in. people don't say this and they certainly don't report it. but i want people coming into our country. i want them coming in based on merit yet i want to merit system based on merit. the forgotten men and women of our country are forgotten no more. the democrats are trying to find out who are these people that came out to vote? where did they come from? remember that, where did they come from? they know that they are not going to the democrats to go so far left nobody can believe it. they want open borders and crime is okay. we want strong borders and we want no crime.

other than that we are very similar. other than that we are very similar. we also know that to be a strong nation we have to have these strong borders. we confront threats abroad only to allow those same threats to cross our borders and to threaten us right here at home. [applause] we help other countries protect our borders and we don't protect their own borders. how about that? we are fighting every day to secure our borders and we are doing a great job. but we are not given the tools. we have the worst loss in any country i've are in history. we have catch and release. we catch it and now we say give me a name, good, come back in a couple years will take you to

court. this is the policy of fools. catch and release. you can achieve in a criminal, you catch a bad person company released the person as soon as you catch them. we have to end it despite that we are doing a great job. and ice, thank goodness for i.c.e. we have the worst gang members, criminals, ms-13 and we are either throwing them in jail or throwing them out of our country and i.c.e. goes up there and they walk in like it's another day in the office. thank goodness for i.c.e. [applause] the democrats want to abandon i.c.e. they want to and i.c.e. they are too strong.

i think ms-13 is strong, too. the only thing they understand is strength. i.c.e. is tough and smart and they track them down and they stop tremendous amounts of crimes. these are great people and they are not being treated properly. [applause] the fact is instead of supporting our i.c.e. officers, many of these democrat politicians who are really disciples of a very low i.q. person, maxine waters and perhaps even worse, nancy pelosi, dave launched vicious fears on the brave men and women who defend our community.

i.c.e. officers work in dangerous conditions to protect our communities and more than a third have been to be veterans themselves. about a third. pop back the democratic politicians want to abolish i.c.e. they want to see open borders. can you imagine? every once in a while you hear something and usually you understand liking dealmaking. when you hear are open borders, when you hear some of the things they are proposing, it is like you can even understand it. you'd have millions of people pouring into our country. millions and millions of people. billions of people you don't want in our country, but you have millions of people.

the crime would be unbelievable and they want to get rid of the crimefighter and top of everything else. open the border and get rid of your crimefighters. you don't understand it. nobody understands it, but i hope they keep it up because we are going to have a lot of fun in four months and a lot of fun in 2020 running against them. [cheers and applause] my administration will always stand proudly with the heroes of i.c.e. and border patrol. they are heroes. i want them to know that we thank them. the veterans of foreign wars understand other than anyone the import tens of honoring those who put service to their fellow citizens before they put service to themselves. that is both at home and abroad.

here with us today is an extraordinary man who embodies the highest ideals and service to the world war ii veteran from the great state of pennsylvania. that's another one we won. we want you guys by 20 points of course. i'm not going to bring that out. i'm not going to tell that to george brett. 20 points. many of you know them well. he is a lifetime member of the vfw. sergeant alan jones. where's alan? sergeant. [applause] should we bring them up? come on.

[cheers and applause] he's only 94 and the secret service made him walk about 100 yards out of his way, but that's okay. [applause] [applause] >> thank you.

thank you. this is one of the highlights of this 94-year-old man. i want to tell you a few things may i., mr. president? stuart: i've got time. >> i had four brothers served in world war ii. my oldest brother was lost off the coast of italy. many times i just wish that he could come back to the land of the free and the home of the brave again. [applause] i've given to the veterans of foreign wars 70 years of my life. [cheers and applause]

>> thank you. my wife is with me today, but she is not here. she is not feeling well. and my children are watching me today, hopefully, to know that they are god got to stand beside the president of the united states. [cheers and applause] with the president.

mr. president, i want to ask you something. i've been told that i could never enter the oval office to washington d.c. i am going to be 95 years of age april 11th of next year. hopefully you'll allow me to bring my family into the oval office. >> yes. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> one last thing, mr. president. [laughter] i want to tell you, mr. president, this group knows

not to give the microphone to alan q. jones when he said his state convention or the nashua convention. i asked you to autograph this picture personally because this was taken to you, with you when you were running for election as the president of the united states. >> thank you. that's so beautiful. [cheers and applause] >> you got it.

thank you, alan. >> god bless you, mr. president. i wish you well in the future. [cheers and applause] >> i started to get a little bit concerned when he was finishing. well, this is the president that we'll have you in the oval office. so all of my people back there are working it out already. with honor. and we pay tribute not only to alan, but to love the heroes of the greatest generation.

and i would like to take this moment to recognize every world war ii veteran in the audience today. each of you is a national treasure. [applause] we will never forget what you did for us other from bunker hill to bellow would, from iwo jima to the landing americans have stormed into danger, stared down evil ends to strong and

tall for god, country and freedom. [applause] anytime we see an american in uniform from the army, airman or coast guard, our hearts swell with pride. and anywhere those uniforms appear, our enemies tremble with fear because they know there is no greater force for peace and justice and the united states military. [applause] to every single member of the vfw because of your service, and your kerr junior example, we are restoring the dreams and the glory and the greatness of america. we will never get in. we will never give up and we

will never stop fighting for our country our flag and freedom. together we will keep on fighting as one people, one family and one nation under god. thank you, god bless you. god bless our veterans and god bless the united state of america. thank you very much. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> the senate in recess now for their weekly party lunches. they been debating 20 night teen spending for interior, treasury,

agriculture, hud and transportation as well as a number of independent agencies. the funding will resume when senators return around 2:15 eastern time. we will have live coverage here on c-span2. >> there a lot of people who sat a while make it to read stories that are sad, disturbing, downbeat, whatever. i want to choose as a parent when my kid understands stuff that might bring them grief, but there's also a certain point beyond which when they are 14 now. when will you introduce them to the idea that not everything is perfect outside of your all-white suburb. all of those factors world together to create the perfect dumpster fire and marginalized people.

>> while we wait for the senate returned from a conversation by the 2018 midterm elections from "washington journal." >> we want to welcome back a longtime friend of the c-span upper comment the code a little report. evenen on this network for more than 30 years. >> i was onmo the first year c-span is on the year with brian lamb. it is always fun and important part of my career. that's why religiously come back whenever you