Donald Trump in CPAC 2016-2019
On Environment:
Cutting overbearing regulations helps farmers & builders
Some of the environmental regulations that I cut--they have the most beautiful titles. And sometimes [I say to myself] I'm going to close my eyes and sign this, because I'm going to get killed on this one. I get so much thanks. The country knows what
I'm doing. We couldn't build, we couldn't farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmentalism. It is crazy. And I signed certain bills, I would have farmers behind me and have house builders behind me.
Source: Speech at the 2018 CPAC Convention
Feb 23, 2018
On Homeland Security:
Strong military is essential for national security
We have kept our promises to rebuild our military. Eliminating the defense sequester, which is a disaster. And I don't know if you saw the number--$700 billion--you know ultimately that comes before everything else. We can talk about lots of things. If
we don't have a strong military, you may not have your houses, your homes, your beautiful communities. We better take care of our military--these are the greatest people and we're going to take care of our veterans, we're going to take care of the vets.
Source: Speech at the 2018 CPAC Convention
Feb 23, 2018
On Immigration:
Opposes Catch-&-Release laws; throw criminal aliens in jail
With our foreign partners we have helped charge or arrest more than 4,000 members of the savage gang, MS-13. They don't like guns. You know why? They're not painful enough. These are animals. They cut people. They cut them. They cut them up in little
pieces, and they want them to suffer. And we take them into our country. Because our immigration laws are so bad, and when we catch them, it is called "catch and release." We have to, by law, catch them and then release them. Catch and release.
And I can't get the Democrats and nobody has been able to for years to approve common-sense measures that when we catch these animal killers, we can lock them up, and throw away the keys. In 2017, our brave ICE officers arrested more than
100,000 criminal aliens who have committed tens of thousands of crimes. And, believe me, these are great people. They cannot--the laws are just against us. They're against safety. They don't make sense.
Source: Speech at the 2018 CPAC Convention
Feb 23, 2018
On Energy & Oil:
Green New Deal does not fulfill America's energy needs
Green New Deal--I encourage it. I think it's really something that they should promote. They should work hard on. It's something our country needs desperately. But I'll take the other side of that argument only because I'm mandated to. But they should
stay with that argument. Never change. No planes. No energy. When the wind stops blowing, that's the end of your electric. Let's hurry up. "Darling, is the wind blowing today? I'd like to watch television, darling." No, but it's true.
Source: Speech at the 2019 CPAC Convention
Mar 2, 2017
On Foreign Policy:
Defend our American legacy & seize our glorious destiny
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. 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.
Source: Speech at the 2019 CPAC Convention
Mar 2, 2017
On Principles & Values:
Supports religious liberty, and the motto, "In God We Trust"
Every day, we're restoring common sense and the timeless values that unite us all. We believe in the Constitution and the rule of law. We believe in the First Amendment right. And we believe in religious liberty.
And we believe strongly in the Second Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms which is under siege, folks. They have a lot of plans.
It's under siege. Be careful. But I'll protect you, I promise you that. I'll protect you. Because it all has to come through my office. And we hopefully are going to be here for six more years, so you're in good shape.
We believe in the American Dream, not in the socialist nightmare. And we believe in the words of our national motto: In God We Trust.
Source: Speech at the 2019 CPAC Convention
Mar 2, 2017
On War & Peace:
North Korea has no economic future if they retain nukes
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.
Source: Speech at the 2019 CPAC Convention
Mar 2, 2017
On Environment:
We're going to put regulation industry out of business
We're preparing bold action to lift the restrictions on American energy, including shale oil, natural gas and beautiful clean coal and we're going to put our miners back to work. Miners are going back to work, folks.
Sorry to tell you that, but they're going back to work. We have begun a historic program to reduce the regulations that are crushing our economy, crushing. And not only our economy, crushing our jobs because companies can't hire.
We're going to put the regulation industry out of work and out of business. And by the way, I want regulation. I want to protect our environment, I want regulations for safety, I want all of the regulations that we need and I want them to be so strong
and so tough, but we don't need 75 percent of the repetitive, horrible regulations that hurt companies, hurt jobs, make us non-competitive overseas with other companies from other countries, that we don't need.
Source: Speech at the 2017 CPAC Convention
Feb 24, 2017
On Free Trade:
Bernie Sanders and I agree: no big quagmire trade deals
Bernie [Sanders] people voted for Trump, you know why? Because he's right on one issue; trade. He was right about trade. Our country is being absolutely devastated with bad trade deals. So he was right about that; we got a lot of Bernie support.
For too long, we've traded away our jobs to other countries.I've followed through on my campaigning promise and withdrawn America from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. So that we can protect our economic freedom.
And we're going to make trade deals, but we're going to do one-on-one, and if they misbehave, we terminate the deal and then they'll come back and we'll make a better deal. None of these big quagmire deals that are a disaster. Just take a look--by the
way, take a look at NAFTA, one of the worst deals ever made by any country, having to do with economic development. It's economy un-development, as far as our country is concerned.
Source: Speech at the 2017 CPAC Convention
Feb 24, 2017
On Immigration:
Throw immigrant criminals out of U.S. and keep them out
We are also going to save countless American lives. As we speak today, immigration offers are finding the gang members, the drug dealers and the criminal aliens and throwing them the hell out of our country. And we will not let them back in. They're
not coming back in, folks. They do, they're going to have bigger problems than they ever dreamt of.I'm also working with the Department of Justice to being reducing violent crime. I mean, can you believe what's happening in Chicago as an example?
Two days ago, seven people were shot and I believe killed. Seven people, seven people, Chicago, a great American city,
seven people shot and killed. We will support the incredible men and women of law enforcement.
Source: Speech at the 2017 CPAC Convention
Feb 24, 2017
On Principles & Values:
First Amendment allows us to strongly criticize fake news
I love the First Amendment; nobody loves it better than me. Nobody. I mean, who uses it more than I do? But the First Amendment gives all of us--it gives it to me, it gives it to you, it gives it to all Americans--the right to speak our minds freely.
It gives you the right and me the right to criticize fake news and criticize it strongly. And many of these groups are part the large media corporations that have their own agenda and it's not
your agenda and it's not the country's agenda, it's their own agenda. They have a professional obligation as members of the press to report honestly. But as you saw throughout the entire campaign, and even now, the fake news doesn't tell the truth.
Doesn't tell the truth. Doesn't represent the people. Never will. We have to go out and we have to speak our minds and we have to be honest.
Source: Speech at the 2017 CPAC Convention
Feb 24, 2017
On War & Peace:
Trillions have been wasted on protecting other countries
For too long, we've traded away our jobs to other countries. So terrible. We've defended other nations' borders while leaving ours wide open, anybody can come in. We're going to build a wall, don't worry about it. We're building the wall.
We're building the wall. In fact, it's going to start soon. Way ahead of schedule, way ahead of schedule.We've spent trillions of dollars overseas, while allowing our own infrastructure to fall into total disrepair and decay.
In the Middle East, we've spent as of four weeks ago, $6 trillion. Think of it. And by the way, the Middle East is in--I mean, it's not even close, it's in much worse shape than it was 15 years ago.
If our presidents would have gone to the beach for 15 years, we would be in much better shape than we are right now, that I can tell you.
Source: Speech at the 2017 CPAC Convention
Feb 24, 2017
Page last updated: Jul 26, 2019