Photo of Donald Trump

Remarks at the Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado

October 18, 2016

In 21 days, we are going to win the state of Colorado and we're going to win the White House. We're going to take it back. [applause]

And while I'm at it, make sure you mail in those ballots before election day. Early voting starts on the 24th, you've got to mail them in. But get there, November 8th.

I'd like to also start today by recognizing the incredible military contributions of Colorado Springs, a place I actually know very well. One of the most beautiful places, by the way. We have such amazing people working at Fort Carson, Peterson Air Force Base, the United States Space Command, NORAD, Schriever Air Force Base and the United States Air Force Academy. Good place. [applause]

I've got many friends that went to the Air Force Academy, all very smart. They love their airplanes, that I can tell you. The courage and selflessness of our service members and their devotion to each other and to their country are the traits that we need to make America great again. [applause]

Great people. Together, we're going to deliver real change that puts America first. You don't hear that term very much. We don't hear that term very much anymore, do we? America first, right? If I win, it's going to be America first every single time, that I can tell you. Believe me. [applause]

We're going to end the government corruption and we're going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. [applause]

We are going to renegotiate our terrible trade deals, end illegal immigration, stop the massive inflow of refugees from other countries, reduce surging crime, cut taxes big league and end regulations. [applause]

Unleash job-producing American energy, rebuild our great military, which sadly has become very depleted, but the greatest people on Earth. We're going to take care of our veterans like they have never been taken care of before. And repeal and replace the disaster known as Obamacare. [applause]

Your jobs will come back under a Trump administration. Your incomes will go up under a Trump administration. Your taxes will go down under a Trump administration. [applause]

Your country and I tell you, your country is so proud of you, but right now we have to help our country. We have to help our country. It is under siege in so many ways. By the way, you could almost stay, especially from the dishonest media, that's for sure. [applause]

Very dishonest. Your companies won't be leaving Colorado under a Trump administration. They'll be expanding and there will be new companies coming in. Right now, we're not growing at all as a nation. You look at our jobs report, a disaster. Last week a jobs report, total disaster. Look at our GNP, total disaster.

Under my plan, we're going to grow at 4 percent. Right now, we're at about 1 percent. [applause]

China's at 7 percent. India's at 8 percent. We're at 1 percent and it's going to be going down if we keep if Hillary Clinton gets in, you will set record lows, believe me. That I can tell you. [applause]

We're going to create at least 25 million new jobs in 10 years. And by the way, did you see the protesters yesterday, where they call them. The protesters are paid a lot of money by the DNC. And I kept saying, I wonder why those people are here? Because they never seem to have much on their mind, other than stand up and protest.

And yesterday it came out, but it was barely covered by the media. But it's all over the media. They were busted. They were paid $1,500 each and were given cell phones go up and disturb Trump rallies. And I sort of always knew it, in Chicago, even last night. We had people stand up for no reason. It's like, what are they doing here? And can you imagine, that's a big story, hardly covered by the media. [applause]

So bad. We're also going to create a new government that answers to the people. Hillary Clinton—Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt person ever to run for the presidency. [applause]

She shouldn't be allowed to run for the presidency after what she's done. I'll tell you. It's true. Newly released, two days ago, FBI documents reveal just how deep the corruption goes. The undersecretary of state, Patrick Kennedy, illegally pressured the FBI to unclassify e-mails from Hillary Clinton's illegal server. [applause]

It's hard to believe. And nothing happens to her, folks, and nothing ever happens. In other words, the State Department was trying to cover up Hillary's crime of sending classified information on a server our enemies could easily access. [applause]

The FBI document show that Patrick Kennedy made the request for altering classification as part of a very, very serious quid pro quo. Not allowed to do it. This is a felony corruption. Yesterday, I said Undersecretary Kennedy must immediately resign. [applause]

The media barely covers this event, by the way. [applause]

This is a bigger event than Watergate and they practically refuse to cover it. Today, I'm calling for him to be fired. [applause]

Clinton and her cronies have sacrificed your security, your family's safety and your country's safety as though it meant nothing at all to her. [applause]

Remember also that Hillary lied under oath to Congress, saying that she never sent or received classified information on her secret server. Right? She never received it on that insecure server, that she should have never been allowed to have. That you're not allowed to have. And pretended not to know. Remember this one: that the letter "C" meant confidential information was classified. [applause]

She thought it was the lettering of a paragraph. [applause]

There's never been a time in our country's history where anything like this has gone on. And the FBI, there must be people in there, based on what you read, that are ashamed of what's happened. And the Department of Justice, there must be people in there that are ashamed, absolutely ashamed of what's been going on.

Hillary then told the FBI she couldn't remember 39 times. And then in written testimony last week, under oath, she said that she couldn't remember another 21 times. Bad memory. She's got a terrible memory. [applause]

This elaborate, criminal cover up included Hillary's deleting and bleaching of 33,000 e-mails. The disappearance of 13 iPhones, some by hammers, two boxes of e-mail evidence gone missing, that was as of last week. Can you imagine they're now missing on top of everything else, two boxes of e-mails? And the destruction of laptops, in a secret deal with the FBI. [applause]

This truly is, and I said it, this truly is many times worse than Watergate. And we're going to put an end to it on November 8th. [applause]

Going to do it. [applause]

Another series of leaked e-mails show top officials in the Clinton campaign scheming to take massive sums of money from registered foreign lobbyists. And then you wonder why we do so badly. But you don't hear the media talking about that at all, do you? You don't see it at all. As WikiLeaks proved, the media, is merely, and it truly is, it's just an extension of the Clinton campaign. [applause]

The press has created a rigged system and poisoned the mind of so many of our voters. They have rigged it from the beginning by telling totally false stories. Most recently about phony allegations where I have been under constant attack. They attack my business. I built a great business but, although most people do admit that. They attacked my wonderful family. They attacked my temperament.

But I built an incredible company, those papers are filed. And I'm fortunate to have a beautiful and loving family. You all saw Melania last night on television. Did a great job. [applause]

That she even has to do that is a shame. And my temperament has always been just about my greatest strength. We have a winning temperament. Our country doesn't win anymore. We don't win anymore. This is an election about truth. And you're not going to get it from the dishonest media.

Some people can't handle the truth. No matter what people may think of me, the one thing they know is that we're going to tell the American people where we stand, where we are. We're going to tell them the truth. [applause]

Now even though we're doing pretty good in the polls, I don't believe the polls anymore. I don't believe them. I don't believe them. And if there's 10, and if there's one or two bad ones, that's the only one they show.

Believe me, folks, we're doing great. If we keep our spirit, and if we go out and win, this is another Brexit, believe me. They are so worried. That's why they've become vicious and hostile and dirty because they see what's going on. This rally set up just a short while ago; look at the number of people, packed. But every rally is the same way. [applause]

At her rallies, very few people show up, when she has the energy to go to the event. Which isn't often. She's doing debate prep. She did so much debate prep. Did we beat her badly in that second debate? [applause]

Sort of funny. She's been doing this for 30 years. Now she has to do debate prep for five days. You know what the debate prep is? It's resting. It's lying down, going to sleep. I think the media's trying to discourage our people from going out to vote. And it was just brought up to me by a reporter in the back.

They said, you know, it's very interesting, when you were fighting 17 people, the media was nasty, but they really got nasty when we started to take the lead in the polls. They said, "Wait a minute, this thing's going to happen. It's going to happen."

Change stop our jobs from leaving, our companies from leaving, strengthen our military, preserve our Second Amendment. They're saying, this is going to happen. And it is true. Made up stories. They're liars and made up stories.

Without the media and all of the other corrupt entities that have helped her along the way, she would be nothing. She would be nothing. She really—she would be doing so badly. Even my worst critics agree that the media has come after us like they have never come after anyone before. It's my badge of honor.

I mean, you know, what am I going to do? Even the New York Times, which is totally dishonest, by the way—here's the good news about the New York Times. They won't be in business much longer. Do you see what they're losing? [applause]

They are dying. They are dying. And they're dying also because they're very dishonest. But one of their biggest columnist-reporters wrote a story about how bad it is. He said, let's face it—this is in the New York Times "balance has been on vacation since Mr. Trump stepped onto this golden Trump Tower escalator to announce his candidacy."

Can you believe that? They're admitting it. They don't even care. It actually said that we don't care. They will do anything to stop what we're doing. Not me, it's what we're doing. It's an agenda. It's going to agenda of change. But we won't let them stop maybe the greatest movement in the history of our country.

History is watching us now, waiting to see if we will rise to the moment. We have to rise. We have to do it. We're under tremendous opposition. We have the greatest people in the world. That's what I've learned. Somebody said, what's the most important thing you learned? How great the American people are. I've gone all over the country.

I have two things I've learned that, and I've learned how totally dishonest the media is. It's so dishonest. I've learned that, too. They are the most dishonest people I've ever dealt with. Not all of them, but, honestly, like 75 percent. Some are very good, but for the most part, yes.

We have stories that we think are going to unbelievable stories. They turn out—they make them as bad as possible. We have stories on the other side that would normally dismantle a campaign, and they don't even report them. It's a disgrace. What's going on is a disgrace.

But we've only just begun to fight, believe me. We have three weeks. You know what, we have three weeks. And I hear we're going great in Colorado. My people in back said, "You're going to win Colorado, doesn't matter what they say." [applause]

Get out and vote. But they even want to try and rig the election at the polling booths where so many cities are corrupt. And you see that. And voter fraud is all too common. And then they criticize us for saying that. And we have even Republicans, "Oh, that's such a terrible thing to say."

Well, take a look at Philadelphia, what's been going on. Take a look at Chicago, take a look at St. Louis. Take a look at some of these cities where you see things happening that are horrendous. And if you talk about them, they say bad things about you. They call you a racist. They call you all—and by the way, speaking of that, nobody will do more for the African-American citizens of this country than Donald Trump, nobody, nobody. Nobody will do more for the Latino community than Donald Trump, I can tell you.

In 2014, the Washington Post, another beauty, published an article entitled, "Could Non-Citizens Decide the November Election?" The article found that 14 percent of non-citizens were registered to vote, 14 percent were registered to vote. And we're not supposed to talk about it. And your Republican leaders said, "Oh, this—everything is peachy-dory," right? And it also found non-citizen voting may have given Democrats the pivotal sixtieth vote needed to pass Obamacare. It's a Washington policy, not me.

The system is also rigged by the donors giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Crooked Hillary's campaign. It's rigged. It's a bad system. The reason Hillary Clinton pushes for NAFTA—or the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will also be a disaster—NAFTA's the worst trade deal ever signed, ever made, by anybody in the world.

We're a one-way highway out. We get the drugs, right? We get the drugs. We get the unemployment. We get the empty factories. Mexico and other countries get the cash. They get the employment. They get the plants.

And for completely open borders—she wants completely open borders, is because her international donors control her every move. If we let Crooked Hillary's cartel and—and just remember this—run this government, history will record that 2017 was the year that America lost, truly lost, its independence, truly lost its independence.

And by the way, this is our final shot, folks. In four years, it's over. You're never going to be able to win. You're never going to be able to win. It's tilting. It's going to be a one-party system. This is your final shot for the Supreme Court, for your Second Amendment. I mean, this is your final shot, November 8th.

So hopefully you'll do what you know you have to do. Get out of bed and vote. No matter how you're feeling, no matter how you're feeling.

It is indeed time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. This is why I'm proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again. First, I'm going to institute a five-year ban on all executive branch officials lobbying the government after they leave government service, right?

Second, I'm going to ask Congress to institute its own five-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and their staffs. That's a simple one. And they know this should be done, but they're not going to do it, but they'll do it if I get in.

I'm going to, number three, expand the definition of lobbyists so that we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves [applause]

Right? I've been talking about that for years. Decades of failure in Washington and decades of special interest dealing must and will come to an end. And remember, by the time this ends, I will have spent over $100 million on my campaign. Hillary's spent nothing. She gets all her money from the special interest donors. And my interest is you; my interest is you. [applause]

We have to break the cycle of corruption, and we have to give new voices to change. And we have to—we have no—do we have a choice? So that we can have a government that works again and can function properly, which our government doesn't right now, including giving Iran $1.7 billion in cash. [booing]

And remember the deportation of 800 people? Turned out to be 800 people, then went to 1,800 people.

And they were going to be deported for good reason. You know, if our country deports somebody, they've got to be pretty, pretty out there. Well, they pressed the wrong button, and congratulations, we have 1,800 new citizens of the United States.

And when I said, "undo it," they said that wouldn't be constitutional. Hey, folks, how stupid are we being led? The time for congressional term limits has finally arrived. Not only will it end our government corruption, but we will end the economic stagnation that we're in right now. No growth.

My plan for the economy can be summed up in three very beautiful words: jobs, jobs, jobs. It will happen. [applause]

At the center of our historic jobs plan will be fixing our terrible trade deals, which I've wanted to do from the beginning; 47 million Americans are in poverty and 45 million Americans are living right now on food stamps. It's hard to believe this is our country.

We have nearly an $800 billion annual trade deficit in goods with the world. And the worst so-called recovery since the Great Depression. Do you know that? The worst since the Great Depression. Colorado has lost one in seven manufacturing jobs since Bill Clinton signed NAFTA, and a deal supported by Hillary Clinton very strongly.

And this I thought was a typographical error, because I figured they meant 700 or 7,000, but it wasn't: We've lost 70,000 factories since China's entry into the World Trade Organization. Another Bill and Hillary backed disaster.

We are living through the greatest job theft in the history of the world. More jobs have been stolen from our country, so stupidly we let them go. We let our companies go so foolishly. We don't know what we're doing. A Trump administration is going to renegotiate NAFTA, stand up to the foreign cheating, and stop the jobs from leaving our country, and have jobs come back in the other direction. [applause]

As part of our plan to bring back our jobs, we're going to lower our business tax from 35 percent to 15 percent. [applause]

We are right now the highest-taxed nation in the world. That's one of the reasons our companies are leaving. We're also going to fix our inner cities—45 percent of African-American children, under the age of six are living in poverty; 58 percent of African-American youth are not working. Almost 3,500 people have been shot in the city of Chicago.

Can you believe this? Since January 1st. The national murder rate has experienced the largest single year increase in more than 45 years. Can you believe that? Murder, highest rate in 45 years.

So you don't—they don't seem to. She said, "nobody cares." And you're right, they don't seem too. So to those African-Americans suffering, to those Latinos suffering, I say: What do you have to lose? Elect Donald Trump. I will fix it. We will fix it. [applause]

We will fix it. We're going to get a very big African-American vote. We're going to get a very big Latino vote. Because the Democrats come in, they want your vote. And as soon as you give them the vote, they say, "See you in four years." They don't do anything. It's gotten worse and worse for both the African-Americans, the Latino-Hispanics. It's gotten worse and it will only get worse.

They want your vote. Hillary Clinton said she was going to fix up the state of New York when she ran for the Senate. It is a total disaster. We will be a rich nation once again. But to be a rich country, we must also be a safe country. [applause]

Our national security begins at the border. Speaking in secret, to a foreign bank [applause]

I promise, we will build the wall. [applause]

Hillary Clinton said her dream is for total open trade. There go your jobs; and open borders—there goes your country. Simple as that.

There are already a record 65 million people in the United States who speak a language other than English. It's in their interest and everyone's interest to control immigration so past arrivals can integrate into society and really join the middle class and the upper class.

But in a secret speech to Goldman Sachs, she said, "Citizens who want to control immigration are un-American." In other words, if you want to have a border, you want to have a wall, which creates a country. Even if you want people to come in, but come in through a legal process, she considers that un-American. So Hillary thinks most of the country is either deplorable, irredeemable, un-American, racist, or basement dwellers in the case of the Bernie Sanders people. She said they were basement dwellers. Hillary's plan includes an open border with the Middle East, meaning generations of radicalism and terrorism spreading and growing within our shores.

We will be the great Trojan horse folks. As sure as you're standing there. Just today, an Iraqi refugee approved for entry by Hillary Clinton's State Department pled guilty to joining ISIS. He entered as a refugee in November of 2009. And then we approved for a green card in 2011. It's one of hundreds of examples of the United States voluntarily admitting people from the world's most dangerous places who turn out to be terrorists.

So let me state this as clearly as I can. If I'm elected president of the United States, I am going to keep radical Islamic terrorist the hell out of our country. We have enough problems. [applause]

We have enough problems. We've got big problems: $20 trillion in debt. We have problems like you wouldn't believe. We'll also stop the crisis of illegal immigration. A Trump administration will secure and defend our borders. And we will build that wall and Mexico will pay for that wall. [applause]

We just got the first-ever endorsement from our ICE and Border Patrol Office. First time they've ever done it. ICE was just last week. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton allowed thousands of criminal aliens to be released because their home countries would not take them back. They were too evil. They were too evil drug lords, heads of gangs. I mean these people were evil. They wouldn't take them back.

So we come over, we bring, they won't take them back. Oh, take them back, drop them on the streets. And then you wonder why the murder rate is the highest in 45 years and other things.

The ICE officer described Hillary's proposal as quote, "The most radical immigration proposal in U.S. history." Here's a summary of the Hillary plan. She wants to support sanctuary cities.

She wants Social Security, Medicare and lifetime welfare for illegal immigrants by making them all citizens. They get taken care of better than our great vets. That won't happen. She wants Obamacare for illegal immigrants. Obamacare is not going to be here much longer, folks. You see what's going on. Regardless. No deportation of Visa overstays. Expanding catch-and-release on the border. She wants it expanded. In other words, catch them and say, "Oh, you can go."

Expanding President Obama's unconstitutional executive amnesty, including instant work permits for millions of illegal workers. Freeing even—there go your jobs—freeing even more criminal aliens by expanding Obama's non-enforcement directives.

And this is to me, the beauty of them all. Obama has allowed thousands and thousands and thousands of people to come in, Syrians from the Middle East. She wants an increase of 550 percent in Syrian refugees into our country. [booing]

Either we win this election, or we lose our country. Under a Trump administration, it's going to be America first. [applause]

Here are some of the amazing things we're going to do for our country starting in 2017. We're so close. We have to get it over the line. We're so close. Forget the press. Read the internet, study other things, don't go for the mainstream media. Most of them—good news—fortunately most of them won't be around very much longer, in my opinion. They're going down. Financially, big trouble. A lot of big trouble. They've got a lot of big trouble. That's good.

We're going to have—and I do get a lot of honesty over the internet. You do get some dishonesty, too, but at least you can separate it. We should have a choice. We're going to have the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan and maybe even bigger. We're going to eliminate every unnecessary job-killing regulation. We are going to defend religious liberty, provide school choice to every low- income child in America. And get rid of common core so that we can have education locally. [applause]

We are going to support the men and women of law enforcement. [applause]

Law and order and justice. Law and order and justice. We are going to save something that is under tremendous stress. We're going to save your Second Amendment. [applause]

And we're going to appoint justices to the United States Supreme Court who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. [applause]

You have 21 days to make every dream you've ever dreamed for you family, for your grandchildren, for you children, for yourself, for your country to come true. Our campaign is powered by our love for this country and our love for our fellow citizens. There's a lot of love in this room. A lot of love. And we don't want a divided country. We want to bring other people. We want to love everybody in our country. It's a campaign about rejecting the cynicism and the elitism of our failed political establishment. On November 8th, the arrogance of Washington, D.C. will come face to face with the righteous verdict of the American voter. That's you, and you.

I am going to fight so hard for every citizen, of every background, for every single stretch of this nation. I am going to fight for every child living in poverty. I'm going to fight for every mom whose lost her child to illegal immigration and drugs and gang violence, and the viciousness that it all builds.

I'm going to fight for every community whose jobs and factories have turned into dust. And those jobs and factories are not with us any more. They're in other countries, making everybody rich but us. [applause]

I'm going to fight for every person in this country who believes government should serve the people, not the donors and the special interests. [applause]

And with all the money she made, she doesn't put up any money into her own campaign. That's pretty remarkable. I'm doing it. I'm going to fight to bring us all together. We're not going to be divided anymore as Americans. Imagine what our country could accomplish if we started working together as one people, under one God, saluting one American flag. [applause]

Thank you. In 10 years, in 20 years, in 30 years, you're going to look back at this rally for the rest of your life. You're going to remember this beautiful day in this great state and in this truly great country. This is a movement that they have never seen before. They've never seen anything like this before. There has never been like this before.

You're going to look back at this election and say, "This is by far the most important vote, you've ever cast, for anyone at any time." [applause]

Once again, we're going to have a government of, by, and for the people. [applause]

You will see, and be so proud of your country again and hopefully you'll be so proud of your president again. [applause]

We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again.

Thank you, everybody. God bless you. November 8th, go out and vote. November 8th. God bless you, everybody. [applause]

NOTE: Remarks as delivered.

Donald J. Trump, Remarks at the Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/326374

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