After receiving Fox News’ “Patriot of the Year Award” Thursday night, President-elect Donald Trump spoke about recent talks with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, promised a review of the U.S. election and reiterated his campaign promise to deport undocumented immigrants.
It was one of the few television appearances Trump has made since winning the Nov. 5 election.
Regarding his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week, Trump boasted: “And as you know, I talked to Canada and Justin just came in because we were talking about 25% tariffs — that’s just the beginning.”
GREENVALE, NEW YORK – President-elect Donald Trump speaks during the FOX Nation’s Patriot Awards at the Tilles Center on December 5, 2024 in Greenvale, New York. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Trump again suggested that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to close the US-Mexico border, despite her denying the claim last week.
“I spoke the other day with the president, the new president of Mexico – a very nice woman – and we had a very nice conversation. But she said, ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ I said, ‘I’m not doing that, I’m just putting a lot of tariffs on because you’re allowing criminals to pour into our country and we can’t allow that anymore.’ And it stopped, it was so fast, Trump said.
Embracing what he called an “invasion” of the United States, Trump praised his choice of border czar Tom Homan, calling him “central casting.”
Trump also boasted of his victory while criticizing the US electoral system, claiming that his political opponents tried to rig the 2024 election but failed because his support was “too big to rig.”
“We won the popular vote by millions and millions of votes. We won all seven swing states, and we won the most votes ever achieved, by millions, by a Republican candidate,” Trump said.
Recalling the 2020 election, in which President Joe Biden defeated Trump by more than 7 million votes, Trump called it “not a pleasant night” and a “very unfair situation.” He added: “We will get things right in this country, including elections.”
He then promised to “look at elections” as he argued for one-day voting, voter ID and proof of citizenship.
Throughout his brief 10-minute speech, Trump repeated his campaign promises to expand US oil production and lower energy prices. He also vowed again to fight crime and deport undocumented immigrants.
“It will be more successful than ever before. We will be more respected around the world than ever before. Countries will respect us again,” he said.
