Donald Trump, “Address to the Republican National

Convention”
July 21, 2016

Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination
for the presidency of the United States.

Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country
back to safety, prosperity, and peace. We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But
we will also be a country of law and order.

Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and
the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp
this danger is not fit to lead our country.

Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our
streets and the chaos in our communities. Many have witnessed this violence personally,
some have even been its victims.

I have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will
soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored.

The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any
government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.

It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation. I will present
the facts plainly and honestly. We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.

So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully-crafted lies, and the media myths
the Democrats are holding their convention next week. But here, at our convention, there
will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.

These are the facts. Decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being
reversed by this Administration’s rollback of criminal enforcement. Homicides last year
increased by 17% in America’s fifty largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years. In
our nation’s capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They are up nearly 60% in nearby
Baltimore. In the President’s hometown of Chicago, more than 2,000 have been the victims
of shootings this year alone. And more than 3,600 have been killed in the Chicago area
since he took office.

The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50% compared
to this point last year. Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered
deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.
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The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year
already exceeds the entire total from 2015. They are being released by the tens of
thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or
resources.

One such border-crosser was released and made his way to Nebraska. There, he ended the
life of an innocent young girl named Sarah Root. She was 21 years-old, and was killed the
day after graduating from college with a 4.0 Grade Point Average. Her killer was then
released a second time, and he is now a fugitive from the law.

I’ve met Sarah’s beautiful family. But to this Administration, their amazing daughter was
just one more American life that wasn’t worth protecting. One more child to sacrifice on the
altar of open borders. What about our economy?

Again, I will tell you the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your
morning newspaper: Nearly Four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty,
while 58% of African American youth are not employed. 2 million more Latinos are in
poverty today than when the President took his oath of office less than eight years ago.
Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely.

Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000. Our manufacturing
trade deficit has reached an all-time high – nearly $800 billion in a single year. The budget
is no better.

President Obama has doubled our national debt to more than $19 trillion, and growing. Yet,
what do we have to show for it? Our roads and bridges are falling apart, our airports are in
Third World condition, and forty-three million Americans are on food stamps.

Now let us consider the state of affairs abroad. Not only have our citizens endured
domestic disaster, but they have lived through one international humiliation after another.
We all remember the images of our sailors being forced to their knees by their Iranian
captors at gunpoint. . . . Libya is in ruins, and our Ambassador and his staff were left
helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over to the radical Muslim
brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos. Iran is on the path to
nuclear weapons. Syria is engulfed in a civil war and a refugee crisis that now threatens the
West. After fifteen years of wars in the Middle East, after trillions of dollars spent and
thousands of lives lost, the situation is worse than it has ever been before.

This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness.

But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America’s legacy. The problems we face
now – poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad – will last only as long as
we continue relying on the same politicians who created them. A change in leadership is
required to change these outcomes. Tonight, I will share with you my plan of action for
America.
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The most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents, is that our plan
will put America First. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. As long as we are led
by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations
will not treat America with respect. This will all change in 2017.

The American People will come first once again. My plan will begin with safety at home –
which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders, and protection from terrorism. There
can be no prosperity without law and order. On the economy, I will outline reforms to add
millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth that can be used to rebuild America.

A number of these reforms that I will outline tonight will be opposed by some of our
nation’s most powerful special interests. That is because these interests have rigged our
political and economic system for their exclusive benefit.

Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my
opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place. They are throwing
money at her because they have total control over everything she does. She is their puppet,
and they pull the strings.

That is why Hillary Clinton’s message is that things will never change. My message is that
things have to change – and they have to change right now. Every day I wake up
determined to deliver for the people I have met all across this nation that have been
neglected, ignored, and abandoned.

I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible
and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who
work hard but no longer have a voice.

I AM YOUR VOICE.

I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put
their personal agendas before the national good. I have no patience for injustice, no
tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens.

When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or
the basic decency to enforce our laws – or worse still, has sold out to some corporate
lobbyist for cash – I am not able to look the other way.

And when a Secretary of State illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000
of them so the authorities can’t see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every
different form and faces no consequence – I know that corruption has reached a level like
never before.

When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was “extremely careless” and
“negligent,” in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor
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compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for
her terrible crimes.

In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime
and getting away with it – especially when others have paid so dearly. When that same
Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favors to special interests
and foreign powers I know the time for action has come.

I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that
cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone
can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was
rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance.

But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade.
Millions of Democrats will join our movement because we are going to fix the system so it
works for all Americans. In this cause, I am proud to have at my side the next Vice President
of the United States: Governor Mike Pence of Indiana.

We will bring the same economic success to America that Mike brought to Indiana. He is a
man of character and accomplishment. He is the right man for the job. The first task for our
new Administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and
lawlessness that threatens their communities.

America was shocked to its core when our police officers in Dallas were brutally executed.
In the days after Dallas, we have seen continued threats and violence against our law
enforcement officials. Law officers have been shot or killed in recent days in Georgia,
Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee.

On Sunday, more police were gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three were killed,
and four were badly injured. An attack on law enforcement is an attack on all Americans. I
have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of
our police: when I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order our
country.

I will work with, and appoint, the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the
country to get the job done. In this race for the White House, I am the Law And Order
candidate. The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the
presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous
environment for everyone.

This Administration has failed America’s inner cities. It’s failed them on education. It’s
failed them on jobs. It’s failed them on crime. It’s failed them at every level.

When I am President, I will work to ensure that all of our kids are treated equally, and
protected equally.
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Every action I take, I will ask myself: does this make life better for young Americans in
Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Ferguson who have as much of a right to live out their dreams
as any other child America?

To make life safe in America, we must also address the growing threats we face from
outside America: we are going to defeat the barbarians of ISIS. Once again, France is the
victim of brutal Islamic terrorism.

Men, women and children viciously mowed down. Lives ruined. Families ripped apart. A
nation in mourning.

The damage and devastation that can be inflicted by Islamic radicals has been over and
over – at the World Trade Center, at an office party in San Bernardino, at the Boston
Marathon, and a military recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by
an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted our LGBT community. As your
President, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence
and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. To protect us from terrorism, we need to
focus on three things.

We must have the best intelligence gathering operation in the world. We must abandon the
failed policy of nation building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq,
Libya, Egypt and Syria. Instead, we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of
destroying ISIS and stamping out Islamic terror.

This includes working with our greatest ally in the region, the State of Israel. Lastly, we
must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by
terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.

My opponent has called for a radical 550% increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing
massive refugee flows coming into our country under President Obama. She proposes this
despite the fact that there’s no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they
are or where they come from. I only want to admit individuals into our country who will
support our values and love our people.

Anyone who endorses violence, hatred or oppression is not welcome in our country and
never will be.

Decades of record immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for
our citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. We are going to have an
immigration system that works, but one that works for the American people.

On Monday, we heard from three parents whose children were killed by illegal immigrants
Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and Jamiel Shaw. They are just three brave
representatives of many thousands. Of all my travels in this country, nothing has affected
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me more deeply than the time I have spent with the mothers and fathers who have lost
their children to violence spilling across our border.

These families have no special interests to represent them. There are no demonstrators to
protest on their behalf. My opponent will never meet with them, or share in their pain.
Instead, my opponent wants Sanctuary Cities. But where was sanctuary for Kate Steinle?
Where was Sanctuary for the children of Mary Ann, Sabine and Jamiel? Where was
sanctuary for all the other Americans who have been so brutally murdered, and who have
suffered so horribly?

These wounded American families have been alone. But they are alone no longer. Tonight,
this candidate and this whole nation stand in their corner to support them, to send them
our love, and to pledge in their honor that we will save countless more families from
suffering the same awful fate.

We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and
the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities. I have been
honored to receive the endorsement of America’s Border Patrol Agents, and will work
directly with them to protect the integrity of our lawful immigration system.

By ending catch-and-release on the border, we will stop the cycle of human smuggling and
violence. Illegal border crossings will go down. Peace will be restored. By enforcing the
rules for the millions who overstay their visas, our laws will finally receive the respect they
deserve.

Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied
– and every politician who has denied them – to listen very closely to the words I am about
to say.

On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake
up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced. We are going to be
considerate and compassionate to everyone.

But my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. My plan is the exact
opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton. Americans
want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Communities want relief.

Yet Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness.
Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further reduce your jobs and wages,
and make it harder for recent immigrants to escape from poverty.

I have a different vision for our workers. It begins with a new, fair trade policy that protects
our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat. It’s been a signature message of my
campaign from day one, and it will be a signature feature of my presidency from the
moment I take the oath of office.
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I have made billions of dollars in business making deals – now I’m going to make our
country rich again. I am going to turn our bad trade agreements into great ones. America
has lost nearly-one third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of
disastrous trade deals supported by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Remember, it was Bill Clinton
who signed NAFTA, one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country.

Never again.

I am going to bring our jobs back to Ohio and to America – and I am not going to let
companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without
consequences.

My opponent, on the other hand, has supported virtually every trade agreement that has
been destroying our middle class. She supported NAFTA, and she supported China’s
entrance into the World Trade Organization – another one of her husband’s colossal
mistakes.

She supported the job killing trade deal with South Korea. She has supported the Trans-
Pacific Partnership. The TPP will not only destroy our manufacturing, but it will make
America subject to the rulings of foreign governments. I pledge to never sign any trade
agreement that hurts our workers, or that diminishes our freedom and independence.
Instead, I will make individual deals with individual countries.

No longer will we enter into these massive deals, with many countries, that are thousands
of pages long – and which no one from our country even reads or understands. We are
going to enforce all trade violations, including through the use of taxes and tariffs, against
any country that cheats.

This includes stopping China’s outrageous theft of intellectual property, along with their
illegal product dumping, and their devastating currency manipulation. Our horrible trade
agreements with China and many others, will be totally renegotiated. That includes
renegotiating NAFTA to get a much better deal for America – and we’ll walk away if we
don’t get the deal that we want. We are going to start building and making things again.

Next comes the reform of our tax laws, regulations and energy rules. While Hillary Clinton
plans a massive tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate
who has declared for the presidential race this year – Democrat or Republican. Middle-
income Americans will experience profound relief, and taxes will be simplified for
everyone.

America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world. Reducing taxes will cause new
companies and new jobs to come roaring back into our country. Then we are going to deal
with the issue of regulation, one of the greatest job-killers of them all. Excessive regulation
is costing our country as much as $2 trillion a year, and we will end it. We are going to lift
the restrictions on the production of American energy. This will produce more than $20
trillion in job creating economic activity over the next four decades.
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My opponent, on the other hand, wants to put the great miners and steel workers of our
country out of work – that will never happen when I am President. With these new
economic policies, trillions of dollars will start flowing into our country.

This new wealth will improve the quality of life for all Americans – We will build the roads,
highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow. This, in turn, will create
millions more jobs. We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send
them to a safe school of their choice.

My opponent would rather protect education bureaucrats than serve American children.
We will repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare. You will be able to choose your own
doctor again. And we will fix TSA at the airports! We will completely rebuild our depleted
military, and the countries that we protect, at a massive loss, will be asked to pay their fair
share.

We will take care of our great Veterans like they have never been taken care of before. My
opponent dismissed the VA scandal as being not widespread – one more sign of how out of
touch she really is. We are going to ask every Department Head in government to provide a
list of wasteful spending projects that we can eliminate in my first 100 days. The politicians
have talked about it, I’m going to do it. We are also going to appoint justices to the United
States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution.

The replacement for Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views and principles. This will
be one of the most important issues decided by this election. My opponent wants to
essentially abolish the 2nd amendment. I, on the other hand, received the early and strong
endorsement of the National Rifle Association and will protect the right of all Americans to
keep their families safe.

At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical community who have been so good to
me and so supportive. You have so much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent
you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits.

An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious

I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all
Americans. We can accomplish these great things, and so much else – all we need to do is
start believing in ourselves and in our country again. It is time to show the whole world
that America Is Back – bigger, and better and stronger than ever before. . . .

I have loved my life in business. But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for
our country – to go to work for all of you. It’s time to deliver a victory for the American
people. But to do that, we must break free from the petty politics of the past.
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America is a nation of believers, dreamers, and strivers that is being led by a group of
censors, critics, and cynics.

Remember: all of the people telling you that you can’t have the country you want, are the
same people telling you that I wouldn’t be standing here tonight. No longer can we rely on
those elites in media, and politics, who will say anything to keep a rigged system in
place. Instead, we must choose to Believe In America.

History is watching us now. It’s waiting to see if we will rise to the occasion, and if we will
show the whole world that America is still free and independent and strong.

My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three-word loyalty pledge. It reads: “I’m With
Her”. I choose to recite a different pledge.

My pledge reads: “I’M WITH YOU – THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.”

I am your voice.

So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future,
I say these words to you tonight: I’m With You, and I will fight for you, and I will win for
you.

To all Americans tonight, in all our cities and towns, I make this promise: We Will Make
America Strong Again.

We Will Make America Proud Again.

We Will Make America Safe Again.

And We Will Make America Great Again.

THANK YOU.