Trump to the National Federation of Independent Businesses on his rising approval numbers: "We had our highest poll numbers today. Can you believe this?...Our highest."
He explains that he only talks about polls when they're good but not when they're bad.
He explains that he only talks about polls when they're good but not when they're bad.
"We're respected again. This country is RESPECTED AGAIN," Trump says to loud cheers.
"Try staying in Mexico for a couple days. See how long THAT lasts," Trump says, I guess to would-be illegal immigrants.
Trump: "By the way, Canada? They like to talk. They're our great neighbour. They fought World War II with us...we appreciate it."
!!! Trump claims that Canadians come into the United States, buy products, and "smuggle" them back into Canada because Canada's tariffs are so high...for example, that they buy shoes in the U.S., wear them, and "scuff 'em up" to make them look plausibly old at the border.
"Canada's not going to take advantage of the United States, any longer," Trump says.
Canadians, please let me know if you've ever crossed the border to buy shoes and made them all dirty before going home so Canadian customs wouldn't notice that you're a smuggler
Trump falsely claims that the estate tax was "destroying" farmers before him. According to the Tax Policy Center, a mere 80 farms and small businesses were among the 5,460 estates likely to pay the estate tax in 2017 before Trump's tax law.
This is a speech to the National Federation of Independent Businesses on its 75th anniversary. Trump is rambling about illegal immigrants and smugglers.
Trump accuses the media of helping traffickers of children in some unknown way: "They are fake. They are helping these traffickers and these smugglers like nobody would believe. They know it."
Trump raaambling: "We have to have a real border. Not judges. Thousands and thousands of judges they want to hire. Who are these people?" "Five or six thousand more judges...can you imagine the graft that must take place?"
Nobody is proposing this many new immigration judges.
Nobody is proposing this many new immigration judges.
Trump falsely claims that nobody released at the border returns for their immigration hearing; even anti-immigration groups say almost two-thirds of people return. If they don't come back, he says, "You'll have killings you'll have murders you'll have this you'll have that."
Trump complains that immigrants are hiring "professional lawyers."
The president alleges that "professional lawyers" are giving asylum-seekers false stories to recite to judges. (Obviously, he's not providing evidence for anything.)
Trump lies that crime in Germany is up "more than 10%." (It's at a 25-year low.) He mocks "Crooked Hillary Clinton" for (apparently) correctly saying that that's a lie. "Didn't she already have her chance?" he says.
After spending almost the entirety of his speech to this business group ranting wildly about immigration, Trump complains that the media only wants to cover immigration to not cover these damaging IG hearings on the Russia probe.
Trump proudly repeats his campaign-launching claim that countries are "sending" their non-finest citizens to the U.S., though there is obviously no such government conspiracy. He says he got criticized for this but it's why he got elected.
Trump claims again - though he never takes action on this, obviously - that he's going to make a real push so that "when countries abuse us by sending their people up - not their best - we're not going to give any more aid to those countries." Applause.
Trump falsely claims that Democrats like when MS-13 enters the country and that they actively encourage this for political reasons. "They view that as potential voters. Someday. They're going to vote for Democrats."
Trump, who is in 2018, says that the Clinton campaign spent too much money attacking Trump's character and not making clear what she stood for. He says that there were so many attacks that he'd go home some nights and he'd even hate himself.
Trump 27 minutes into his speech to the small business group: "So we're here today to talk about small business."
Annnd Trump is back to immigration.
Trump boasts that the unemployment rate is at the lowest level ever recorded for African-Americans, "AND FOR HISPANICCC."
For the 18th time, Trump falsely claims that wages are "finally" rising after "22 years." They've been rising since 2014. The pace is still not very good.
For the 10th time, Trump falsely claims: "Not since Ronald Reagan have they done any major tax-cutting." Forget about Obama and Clinton - he keeps writing the George W. Bush tax cuts out of history.
Trump is telling his usual completely fictional long story about how nobody after Reagan could ever pass tax cuts until he, branding genius, decided to call them tax cuts, rather than tax "reform," which nobody understands.
For the 28th time, Trump exaggerates how much money U.S. companies had parked overseas, saying it was "anywhere from $3 trillion to $5 trillion." The highest estimate was $3.1 trillion. Experts have told me that he just made up the "$5 trillion" thing.
For the 36th time or so, Trump falsely claims the U.S. has a $500 billion trade deficit with China. It has never once been that high. It was $337 billion last year.
Trump says America's friends have treated it worse than its enemies on trade.
If it wasn't clear, Trump here was paraphrasing, kind of mockingly, Trudeau's anti-tariff argument that Canadians fought and died with Americans in World War II. He stopped himself and said "we appreciate it."
Trump says the U.S. is the best republic in the history of humankind. "I don't say mankind anymore. I say humankind. Do the women understand that?...they want me to be politically correct...a couple of women have their thumb up. You like that. You like that."
Trump: "You will soon have the Space Force, because that's where it's at. Space. That's where it's at."
Trump has concluded. He has a campaign rally tomorrow night.
A+ thread of response tweets from Canadians confessing to their duty-avoiding tricks:
