Donald Trump made his final speech as president Wednesday morning during a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
“This has been an incredible four years. We’ve accomplished so much together. I want to thank all of my family and my friends and my staff and so many other people for being here. I want to thank you for your effort, your hard work, people have no idea how hard this family worked. And they worked for you. They could have had a much easier life,” the president told a crowd of supporters.
President Trump thanked his chief of staff Mark Meadows before turning to his wife and First Lady Melania Trump, calling her a woman of “great grace, beauty and dignity.”
He then offered the First Lady the opportunity to address the crowd.
“Being your First Lady was my greatest honor,” Melania Trump said. “Thank you for your love and your support. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. God bless you all. God bless your families. And God bless this beautiful nation.”
Trump went on to say that his administration has been “amazing by any standard, specifically noting the creation of Space Force and the vast improvement of veteran benefits.
“That in itself would be a major achievement for a regular administration. We were not a regular administration. We took care of the vets. Ninety-one percent approval rating, they’ve never had that before,” the president said, adding, “They were very badly treated before we came along.”
President Trump expressed pride in a “skyrocketing” stock market and increase in jobs that he attributed to significant regulatory changes, noting the devastation caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic didn’t keep the United Stated down for long.
“We built it twice,” he said.
Trump continued, “We got the largest tax cut and reform in the history of our country by far. I hope they don’t raise your taxes, but if they do I told you so.”
Turning back to the pandemic, Trump echoed media outlets who called the vaccine a “medical miracle.”
“We got the vaccine developed in 9 months instead of nine years, or five years, or ten years, or a long time, it was supposed to take a long time, many many years,” Trump said. “It really is a great achievement.”
“We want to pay great love, great love to all of the people that have suffered, including families who have suffered so gravely,” the president continued.
Trump recalled appointing 300 federal judges and three Supreme Court Justices before thanking the vice president and second lady, as well as “certain elements” of Congress.
Trump said he and his team “left it all on the field,” adding that they will never look back on their time in the White House and wonder if they could have worked harder because “you can’t work harder” than they did.
As cheers of “USA” and “Thank you, Trump” rippled through the crowd, Trump offered his final words as president, saying “I will always fight for you. I will be watching. I will be listening. And I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better. I wish the new administration great luck and great success. I think they’ll have great success. They have the foundation to do something really spectacular. We put it in a position like it’s never been before despite the worst plague to hit [in over 100 years].”
“So goodbye, we love you, we will be back in some form,” President Trump said.
