>> where's the governor?

[indiscernible]

president trump: you really got hit. no question about it. i want to thank the folks who have come here. really great dangers involved at the beginning. we give him a plus in texas. we thought could rest for a couple of days but before he got any rest we had florida. then you had louisiana. then you had other places.

louisiana, we don't say it often, louisiana got hit often -- hard. then he came to florida and we gave another a plus. all of a sudden we said there is another one heading to puerto rico and to the u.s. virgin islands. not one, it was too. i was going to be here a week ago if you remember. that was the day of the second hurricane. brock has been unbelievable. whichas been a category 5 few people have ever even heard of. it hits land and boy did it hit lance. elaine.o thank you, thank you very much. acting secretary. tom is here someplace. great job. great job. to all of my people, i have to say general buchanan a few days

ago. you are a general. there is a reason you are a general. he is no games. i said give me a general, i don't want a general that plays games. the whole team has been amazing. your governor has been, who i did not know, i heard things about him. he is not even from my party and he started at the beginning preceding what we did. he was tremendously supportive level of problem that you had at the beginning before and what happened with respect to the tremendous storms that hit the beautiful island. i want to tell you that right from the beginning this governor did not play politics. he did not play it at all. he wasn't saying it like it was and giving us the highest grades.

on behalf of our country i want to thank you. [applause] also want to thank your congresswoman, who actually represents the largest number of people of any congressperson in the united states. i know that. 3.5 million people, right? congresswoman jenniffer gonzalez , who i watched the other day and she was saying such nice things about all of the people who have worked so hard. do you think you could say a little bit what you said about us today? it is not about me, it is about the incredible people from the military, fema, first responders. doi have never seen people workg so hard in my life and >> thank you. maria, wewere hit by

were hit by irma. coming together, more than 4000 people. navy, army, fema, and all the staff working together. they were here before, during, to staynd they continue boots on the ground during maria. the level never got of communication within the federal government and local government. used to it, but never before a category 5. devastation is unheard of. we have the federal government by our side, doing the job, all of the questions and requests.

it will continue to send in more people, drivers, and resources. thank you for all you have been doing. president trump: president trump: i want to thank you because you were really generous. everybody saw this comments and we really appreciate it. it is so important when you have men and women who have worked so hard and so long and many of them came from two other cutting -- catastrophic hurricanes. they came from texas, louisiana, florida, and -- how many nights rest have you gotten? >> day 43. president trump: we are going to keep him for a couple of weeks and by that time i say get out. i special guy, i will tell you. [applause] in addition to tom i want to think linda mcmahon small business.

i say she is in charge of small business and a small business is massive business. she has done and credible job, built a great company with her husband and i wanted her so badly for this position because there is nobody that knows how to build a country like those. amazing inhas been business and now she is doing an incredible job as the administrator. we want to thank you very much. mick mulvaney is a here right there. of a thingcharge called budget. i hate to tell you puerto rico but you have thrown our budget out of whack. we spent a lot of money on puerto rico and that is fine, we saved a lot of lives. every death is a corner. -- harbor. -- horror.

but if you look at a real tragedy like katrina, and you look what happened here was really a storm that was just totally overpowering. nobody has ever seen anything like this. what is your discount -- death count? 16 people certified. verses in the thousands. you can be very proud of all of your people. 16 verses literally thousands watching can be proud of what has taken place in torture become. i want to pay a special thanks to the navy. who do we have? what a job. you have ships, i saw them flying in. boy, this looks like big stuff. the job you have done, there are no docs. there were just devastated.

no docs, no nothing. i want to thank the navy. would you like to say something? [applause] [indiscernible] president trump: i don't have to mention the marines because we have general kelly. where is general kelly? he likes to keep a low profile. look at him in the back. boy, is he watching. you have no idea. ,.

not a bad general. you don't get any better than general kelly. on behalf of the marines i would say they have done some job. can we also mentioned people i've gotten to know and respect even more in texas. that is the coast guard. -- job.ob you they would go right into the middle of that. i wouldn't want to be doing it but i want to thank everybody. the coast guard are special people. a lot of people got to see the real coast guard during this incredible trouble. texas was incredible what they did. we really appreciate it.

[indiscernible] president trump: the runway is now open. >> [indiscernible] president trump: so amazing that we are ordering hundreds of millions of dollars of new airplanes or the air force, especially the f 35. do you like the f-35? >> awesome airplane. president trump: how do they do in fights? we do very well.

you can't see us. literally you can't see it. that is an extensive plate you can't see you we cut the price substantially. something other administrations would never have done. where's the coast guard? who can speak? where's our coast guard representative? get over here. come here. come here. my man. on behalf of the country. >> i don't think there is anything the men and women of the coast guard would rather do than help the fellow american citizens. this is what we do on a daily basis and getting to help our fellow citizens is just what our duty is all about. in texas itump: came in, it did devastation,

then went into the coast. they would load up with water and come in. nobody has ever seen water like that. the coast guard would follow. lives.ve 16,000 hard to believe. the coast guard itself in texas saved 16,000 lives. they went right through that hurricane and there are not too many people who would have done it leave me. -- believe me. senate minority leader chuck schumer criticized the president's characterization of the humanitarian crisis in the island territory.