Thank you, President Trump, for your service to our country.
I had the honor and privilege to bid former President Donald Trump farewell this morning while he and the former First Lady Melania Trump boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland one last time.
It was only the second time I got to hear a Trump speech in person. The first was his Inaugural four years ago. And so perhaps it was fitting that I only ever got to see both his first and last speeches as President.
It was also the last Make America Great Again rally — for now — complete with the classic rock and other oldies tunes pounding on the loud speakers. That was fun.
Before proceeding to his remarks, he invited his wife to the podium to say a few words. She said: “Being your First Lady was my greatest honor. Thank you for your love and your support. You will be in our thoughts and prayers. God bless you all. God bless your families. And God bless this beautiful nation.”
Trump began by naming some of his many accomplishments, including the creation of the U.S. Space Force: “We created a new force called Space Force. That in itself would be a major achievement for a regular administration. We were not a regular administration.” No, they were not.
President Trump was an outsider who came to Washington, D.C. to shake things up, which he did, renegotiating trade deals with Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Japan and even got China to agree to a phase one trade deal with the 25 percent tariff on $250 billion of goods in effect and another 7.5 percent on the remaining $300 billion of goods.
He and his White House, including senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, helped broker historic peace treaties, the Abraham Accords, between Israel and her neighbors Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco, normalizing diplomatic relations.
Trump put American sovereignty first, and summoned the will to construct some 450 miles of new steel border fencing along the southern border, fulfilling his signature campaign promise.
At the send-off speech, Trump touted reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which made it easier to fire and remove bad employees and to deploy additional resources that expedited health care received for those who fought for our nation: “We took care of our vets, our beautiful vets. They were very badly treated before we came along.”
Trump also talked up the deregulatory agenda which he credited for the job creation seen during his tenure, with a 50-year low in unemployment as recently as Feb. 2020 before the Chinese coronavirus struck.
“When we started, had we not been hit by the pandemic, we would’ve had numbers that would have never been seen. Already, our numbers are the best ever,” Trump said, pointing to the more than 16 million jobs recovered since April when labor markets bottomed last year, forming a V-shaped economic recovery that still has some ways to go.
Trump appeared to be in good humor, telling his assembled supporters: “I hope they don’t raise your taxes, but if they do, I told you so.” That got a good laugh.
“You’re going to be seeing some incredible things happening, and remember us when you see these things happening… I’m looking at elements of our economy that are set to be a rocket ship up… We have the greatest country in the world. We have the greatest economy in the world,” Trump said, predicting that the economic recovery would continue robustly over the coming months.
The real key, Trump said, would be the Covid vaccine now being distributed he said would drive new cases down: “[A]s bad as the pandemic was, we were hit so hard just like the entire world was hit so hard. Places that thought they got away with it didn’t get away with it, they’re suffering right now. We did something that is really considered a medical miracle. They’re calling it a miracle, and that was the vaccine.”
Trump also touted the 234 federal judges confirmed including three Supreme Court justices.
Trump thanked his supporters and the American people: “You are amazing people. This is a great, great country. It is my greatest honor and privilege to have been your president. 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.”
He wished the new Biden administration well: “I wish the new administration great luck, great success. I think they’ll have great success. They have the foundation to do something really spectacular.”
Finally, Trump concluded, “The things that we’ve done have been just incredible, and I couldn’t have done them without you. So, just a goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form.”
Now, that I am certain of. He shall return. And thank you, President Trump, for your service to our country.
We’ll never get another president like you. Made in America. Farewell, Mr. President.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
