well, good morning.

thank you, jeff, for that heartfelt introduction.

and thank you all for being here for this exciting and historic day. it is such an honor to serve as the first lady of north dakota. it's also an honor to stand before you today to introduce my husband, our governor, doug burgum. doug is a man of integrity, compassion and courage who cares deeply about the future of our country. his family's deeply rooted in dakota. he comes from the hearty stock of pioneers. his life has been directly influenced by a long lineage of strong, powerful and intelligent women. his great grandmother, lynda

slaughter, was one of the state's earliest pioneers. she arrived in north dakota by steamboat. coming up, the missouri river after the civil war. she was an author and a correspondent who fought for women's right to vote. lynda was the first woman in dakota territory to hold an elected office, a superintendent, a burly county schools. she beat out several male candidates at a time when she could not even vote for herself. in 1892, she earned the distinction of becoming the first female in the country to vote for a presidential candidate at a national convention. her daughter, doug's grandmother, jessamine slaughter, was the only female

and the first ever class of students at north dakota state university. back in 1890, a year after north dakota became a state, doug's amazing mom, katherine, was a widowed mother of three. when she reentered the workforce as the dean of the college of home economics at dsu after doug's father died of the tooth thousand great plains team members, 51% were female, which was unheard of in the software industry when they merged with microsoft in 2001. and many of them became senior level executives at microsoft. it's clear that doug has been influenced and surrounded by strong women his entire life. which brings me to my next topic. me.

after becoming first lady, i made the decision to go public about my battle with the disease of addiction. today, i stand before you as a person celebrating over 21 years and long term recovery. i chose to stop living with the shame and stigma of the disease of addiction which had affected my life since high school. i made a choice to become a face and voice of recovery. doug has been a magnificent supporter and partner on this journey. i'm grateful that our work together on recovery reinvented has touched many lives in every community in our state and around the world. but there is still so much work to do. over 30 million families in our country experience the disease of addiction, and many know the

tragedy and heartbreak of the incomprehensible 110,000 u.s. overdose deaths in 2022 and fentanyl is still pouring into our country through our open southern border. the sense of community and optimism in many of our towns and main streets in north dakota is so different than other places in our country right now. like many of you, i can't remember a period in my lifetime when our country has been more divided. today, i offer you a message of hope that there is a better way. doug cares deeply. he's a valued and mission driven guy, and it shows in everything he does. and now his mission is to bring out the best of america.

and to improve every american life from the boy who lost his father at a young age to the executive who would bring thousands of jobs to north dakota. doug has always shown perseverance and resilience. he is north dakota's biggest champion. he has never given up on our state or the people that matter most to him. and now his goal is to improve opportunities for every american. and that's really what doug's campaign is going to be all about improving lives and bringing out the best of america. we need to focus desperately on that as a country to stop the division and the fighting.

doug will get it done. doug is truly carried on. the north dakota pioneers spirit of his family into the 21st century through new ideas and innovation. he is a visionary leader who has dedicated his life to serve the people of north dakota as an entrepreneur, owner and a governor. he has a proven track record of creating jobs, growing businesses and transforming government. he has championed bold initiatives of diversify to diversify the economy, improve behavioral health care, access, and enhance environmental stewardship. he is a partner with a tribal nations which with which we share borders in north dakota, especially in the areas of education, behavioral health care services and law enforcement. and doug is a strong champion

for the new presidential library in the north dakota badlands to honor theodore roosevelt. he's been recognized nationally for his innovative and collaborative approach to governing, which has earned him bipartisan support and respect. doug is not a politician. he's a problem solver who listens to all perspective and finds common ground. he is a leader who inspires others to dream big and act boldly. he is a patriot who loves this country and wants everyone to make it better for all of us who.

that's why i'm proud to stand by his side as he runs for president of the united states. i know he has the vision, the experi tions and the heart to lead our nation forward. please join me in welcoming my husband and our governor the next president of the united states, doug burgum.

and. oh, wow. feels like espn gameday. and here what you think of that. well, thank you. and our hearts are full of gratitude for everyone who's made this moment possible, including all those that have gone before us and all of you that are joining us here today. thank you all. catherine. i'm so grateful for you,

grateful to be on this journey with you. i've witnessed firsthand how your brave and powerful decision to share your personal story of recovery has touched countless lives and through your groundbreaking work on recovery, invented, you have literally saved lives. catherine, i love you. our state loves you. and. and i know america is going to love north dakota's amazing first lady. together, catherine, i have so much gratitude for all the burgum and helga's family members. we get our siblings, our cousins. second cousins, third cousins, nieces, nephews, even aunt joan to hear all the way from california. so we know we can get one vote in california and but all those close friends, all of you that are here today, looking back in the risers and i'm i think that

one third of our class of 16 is standing back there high school. so thank you and dave and everybody that's back there. but thanks to thanks to all of you that have encouraged us. you've supported us and you've believed in us throughout our lives. this is definitely a family decision, and we are grateful. also today, we got a whole boatload of elected officials here, fellow statewide and state legislators, mayors, tribal chairs and tribal leaders from our five sovereign nations with whom we share geography. all of you that are elected today, you're in the arena, and we're grateful for each of you for your service. thank you. but especially, we want to thank today the people of north dakota who we're so honored to serve. you took a chance on us in 2016, and that was another race where everybody said, we're starting out as a long shot in the dark

horse. so we think this is a good place to be. but i want to thank you all because reelecting us in that landslide in 2020, our 40 plus point victory margin was the largest in the country of any of 11 governor's races that year. you were the ones that all made that happen. thank you. thank you so much. and again, thank you all for being here today that are watching here in the room and those in the overflow areas. but i want to thank you for being here. there's so many we know friends around the country that are watching online. today is just the start of showing how much we can achieve when we all work together. i grew up in arthur, a tiny town of 300 people. yeah. part of the other 300 people

that didn't go to. but our parents were a gift. they taught us not just by their words, but by their actions. dad, world war two, navy veteran taught us the importance of service to country and the community. mom, she taught us the importance of caring deeply listening, thoughtfully respect everyone. and from the earliest days, dad, mom. not sure why, but they supported my entrepreneurship, my risk taking, whether it was crazy ideas like launching a newspaper or when i was eight years old in elementary school or wilderness canoe trips or hitchhiking to alaska as a teenager. but it was a cold saturday night in january and we were ready to head out to play a neighboring town. kindred when they pulled me off the bus to tell me that our dad was dying. i was a freshman in high school. that was tough. but north dakota was the kind of place your neighbors rally around you.

it was also, interestingly, the birthplace of the good samaritan society of america at that time. we like to kind of brag that arthur had a population of 400, not 300. we got to that big number because we proudly counted the over 100 residents in the good samaritan home. good, sam, in those days, they they took everyone in, regardless of age or abilities. and so a way our whole town was about taking care of each other, but helping those in need, about neighbor helping neighbor. every small town in america is like that. but arthur, especially. if somebody was in need, a neighbor was always there to help out. we see that across the entire state of north dakota today. if a farmer has a serious health issue, all the neighbors rally to get the crops planted or harvested in every spring in north dakota, like this spring in ranch country. neighbors help neighbors with spring roundups and drownings. i'll never forget the way our

town lifted up our family and supported us all. when mom had to go back to work after dad died. other dads like joe peltier and my uncle al burgum, lester zimmerman all made sure i was doing okay. mom was driving to and from fargo for work and every night after basketball or football practice when mom was still working late in fargo, i'd go to helen williams house for a fabulous dinner. homemade rolls and a wonderful chocolate milkshake. i'll always remember her generosity and kindness and her daughter, julie barner, is here today. julie, over here. it shouldn't be a surprise that small town values have guided me my entire life. small town values are at the core of america. and frankly, big cities could use more ideas and more values from small towns. right now.

along with cousins and friends. i worked every summer at our family's grain elevator, including some jobs like shoveling out rotten grain out of the pit. those jobs should be featured on discovery channel's dirty jobs. actually. one time we were all so dirty and we smelled so bad from that rotten grain. we went across the main street to go to the arthur cafe and walt man came out and said, no, well, we'll serve you out here on the curb. you guys can't come in. i worked on the farm for jack swapping grain every harvest, all through high school and all through college, and help pay for college. i even worked as a chimney sweep. the minimum wage in north dakota was $2.30, and i figured out that i could earn $40 an hour sweeping a chimney. i loved working outside. i loved climbing. and i got to wear a top hat and

tails when it was 20 below. oh. and of course, this is a time when there was an energy crisis going on. opec had quadrupled oil prices and a lot of people were burning wood in their homes. so the threat of chimney fires was real. the clean chimney prevents those fires. so it's a chance to help people. and for me, the career had a real appeal, because when you're a chimney sweep, you have an opportunity to move up fast and always stay in the black. thanks for laughing. not groaning because i trump for my kids. i had to have at least one dad joke in this presentation. but i believed then and i still believe now. and i believe it deeply that unlimited opportunity exists everywhere in america. i literally bet the farm to help turn a small startup into $1,000,000,000 company in north dakota. people thought i was crazy.

a software company in north dakota. but we ignored those who said north dakota was too small, too cold, and too distant to build a world class software company. we did it anyway. we built great plains software and a company that served 140,000 businesses in 132 countries. and we did it with team members from more than 220 small towns across north dakota. at the time, we went public, we were one of the top five most successful nasdaq ipos ever. only in america. four and a half years later, by the time we joined forces with microsoft, we had just over 2000 team members. 1200 of them based right here in fargo. 400 team members across the rest

of north america. and 400 great plains team members based around the globe. it's a tribute to the commitment of our partners and our team members and our investment and their absolute courage to take a stand against the conventional wisdom. that said, it just couldn't be done. some people called us an amazing overnight success story. the truth is, we were an overnight success story, 18 years in the making. when you start a software company here, you need to be willing to go against the grain and reimagine what's possible. and that's exactly what we did when we ran for governor in 2016. we shook things up a bit. we cut $1.7 billion in spending our first year in office. we cut red tape and streamlined services, working with other statewide electeds and the legislature. we balanced the budget every year. we bolstered cybersecurity.

we brought life back to our main streets. we made record investments in education, strengthened tribal relations, built infrastructure, unleashed energy production, and diversified the economy. north dakota is both growing and getting younger. one of the only states that's doing that and we have the third lowest unemployment in the country and the highest participation in the nation. and again, working with the legislature this past year, we achieved historic pension reform, helped pass term limits, and enacted the biggest tax cut in state history. we know we can do the same for america. right now. the world, our economy, our both

changing rapidly and how we respond will define our future. technology is changing every job, every company in every industry. and this change will become more rapid than ever before. we need new leadership for the changing economy. we need a leader. understands the real work that americans do every day. someone who's worked alongside our farmers, our ranchers, and our small business owners? someone who's held jobs where you shower at the end of the day, not at the beginning. someone who's got decades of success selling our technology overseas and knows the threats and the risks to our future from foreign state sponsored competitors. stealing and pirating our intellectual property. we need a leader who's experienced firsthand that we win as a country when our innovators and entrepreneurs cancer and when every single person can grow and thrive to unlock the best of america.

we need a leader who's clearly on three things economy, energy and national security. and that is. and that is why. and that is why today i'm officially announcing i'm running for the president of the united states of america. thank you.

that was so sweet, mary. thank you. godmother to our kids. i should point that out anyway. the economy needs to be the absolute, top priority. every small business owner in every family in our country is feeling the corrosive, hidden tax on their lives. driven by the biden induced inflation. inflation is the worst. it hurts those the most. who can afford it the least? but innovation that's always been the driver of america. innovation, overregulation. innovation, overregulation. we say it every day in north dakota. innovation. overregulation is how you the challenges we face today. regulation looks backwards. innovation looks towards the future.

the biden administration is obsessed with creating mountains of federal red tape. these regulations raise costs for every american consumer. they hamper our ability to compete in the world marketplace. they siphoned time and investment away from innovative solutions and the way we retain our nation's position, which is so important to everything we do, our position as the world's largest, most dynamic and most powerful economy is through innovation for well over a century, american innovation from telecommunications, electric light to flight itself. and the power of american agriculture. think of it feeding the entire world. america has led the way yet. yet when i was in high school, we were told two things were absolutely certain about our future.

the world is going to run out of food and the world is going to run out of energy. however, today we live in a world of abundance. because of american innovation, innovation has paved the way for a better life for all americans. and the potential in the possibility the coming breakthroughs in software, in biotech, energy and health care can continue. this trend. but due to overregulation, that brighter future for americans is now at risk. let's get back to common sense. let's eliminate red tape, get inflation under control. cut taxes, reduce the cost of living, and help every american realize their fullest potential. it takes energy to get things done in america clean, reliable, low cost energy brings manufactures roaring back to the us and reduces our supply chain. risk us energy policy can not be

separated from either. our economy or from our national security. energy policy directly underpins both, and we need to stop buying energy from our enemies and start selling energy to our friends, allies. america produces energy cleaner and safer than anywhere else the world. if you care about the global environment, you should be fighting to have every drop of energy produced in the united states. and when we're truly energy independent and we're supporting our allies, that's when we stabilize the globe and restore america. as the leader of free world. putin only dared to invade ukraine because our allies in western europe were all dependent on russian energy.

we need to recognize the real threats to america and strengthen our national security. growing up in a small town, you learn quickly. the enemy isn't each other. our enemies aren't our neighbors down the street. our enemies are countries that want to see our way of life destroyed. in a country built on neighbors helping neighbors. we become a country of neighbors fighting neighbors. we should all be fighting to unite the country against common enemies like china, russia, iran, north korea and the drug cartels. and we all know joe biden isn't getting the job done and too often is making things worse. gas prices are too high and the biden ministration enacts policies that make us more dependent on foreign oil. that makes no sense. american families are struggling under the weight of record

inflation and the response from democrats increase size of the irs to target americans. that makes no sense. an out-of-control border that is ignored by the white house. well, killer drugs like fentanyl infiltrate our communities. and 110,000 individual tragedy is occur through overdoses. think of that 110,000 and families in 2022 lost a son, a daughter, a mother, a father, a sister or brother. and we're doing nothing. the border. that makes no sense. and we're facing a very real threat from china. and joe biden's green new deal policies, they're only going to shift our dependance from opec to sinopec. that makes no sense. we could go on for hours, but we don't need to. where we come from, when something isn't working, you stop and you try something new.

that's common sense. joe biden has got to go. if you want to ensure that joe biden is a one term president, i hope you're going to join our campaign by visiting doug burgum dot com. and you believe that the economy energy and national security are critical to our future? remember, that's why i'm running for president. and if you want more small town common sense in washington, in our big cities, we'll make that happen. and if you think that we need a governor and business leader who understands this changing economy, i want to earn your vote.

because this campaign, this election is all about what it takes to bring out the best of america and every american life. after my dad died, i saw firsthand what it means to be the best of america. when the people of arthur, north dakota, lifted up our families, when we built great plains software with team members from small towns across the nation just like arthur. it showed the best of america, the best of america exists. it exists in the smallest towns and in the biggest cities. the best of america is there on our farms, on our factory floors, and in tiny startups with big dreams. every day. students see the best of america when they're inspired by their teachers. we see it in our brave military, our dedicated police, and our selfless responders. it's there through the sleepless nights of new mothers and fathers loving their newborns and also in the loving

caregivers who are taking care of those that are in the twilight of their life. when we take the time to look, we can see that we are surrounded by the best of america. working together, we will unlock the best of america in all of us. please join us on mission. with your support, we will improve every american life. thank you. god bless you. god bless america.

please welcome business leader and north dakota governor. doug burgum, small town america with more work around this country. good morning, florida. let me begin with gratitude to the republican party of florida. christian, all your leadership, all of you that i met last night, all those county chairmen and especially all of you that are here today. your dedication of, your time and your resources to electing republicans, the work that all of you do matters you matter, your enthusiasm, your commitment matters. and in 2024, it matters more than ever. thank you. florida gop and.

with blue states like california, new york and illinois are losing population, electoral votes, republic and red states like north dakota and florida are growing. in fact, north dakota last year had the highest gdp in the nation, the highest gdp per capita. all republican led states. low taxes, freedom and liberty. limited government and innovation. action, not regulation. are the keys to economic growth and people are responding by voting with their feet. over the last decade, north dakota and florida are both among the top ten states for population growth. but i need to tell you, each january the sales pitch we use to get families to move to north dakota is slightly different than use in florida, where it's not just about the weather. we're now we're basically advertising right now that we've got a shark free hurricane free anaconda, free alligator free. it's very safe. very safe in north dakota. matter of fact, there are no

hotels in north dakota that actually have alligators inside the hotel. like i saw this morning. but i'm running for president because needs a 180 degree change in the direction we're joe biden is taking us. joe biden is wrong on the economy. wrong on energy and wrong on national security. the terrorist attacks in israel and russia's invasion of ukraine are terrible symptoms of biden's policies. but the disease itself is joe biden. it started with a disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan. it continued with biden keeping western europe completely dependent on russian energy, which enabled and paid for putin's invasion of ukraine. biden's energy policies help china, and they hurt the u.s. and then just in september, under an ill conceived five person hostage exchange, joe biden funneled $6 billion to iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. the end result, a horrific

attack on israel and surprise, eight more hostage taking. that's what happens when you put $1,000,000,000 price tag on americans heads. simply put, joe biden's policies, they empower dictators and terrorists throughout the world and the world is less safe for americans and it drives inflation at home. from day one, i focus on three interconnected issues that affect everything single one of you in every single america. and that's the economy. that's energy. and that's national security. if we get these things right, we improve every american life. we unlock the best of america. that's our mission. and that's why we're running. i grew up in a tiny town in north dakota. 300 people woke. that was something we did at 5 a.m. to start the day. i held about every job you can imagine working on the farm, the ranch, the grain elevator, starting a construction company. when i was in high school, even paid my way through college, working as a chimney sweep. every job i held was one where you took a shower at the end of

the day instead of the beginning. what? and when? i'm your president will have someone who understands and respects the real work that americans do every day. and that includes all everybody in law enforcement and all of our military as well. respect those. my dad died when i was a freshman in high school. he was a world war two navy vet. my mom, a widow with three kids, went back to work to make ends meet. i understand what americans are feeling with economic insecurity under joe biden. in my mid-twenties, i literally bet the farm to help grow a tiny startup into a worldwide billion dollar company. i've been making payroll every two weeks since my mid-twenties. i've created more jobs than all the other candidates combined. i know what it takes to sign the front of a paycheck, not just the back. we built a company that served customers all the world, 140

businesses and 132 countries. when i your president will have someone in the white house who knows what it takes to win in the global economy. that's what we did for decades. and now with technology and ai, it's changing every job, every company in every industry. and it needs to change the government as well. i know exactly how to do this. i. i was in the private sector my whole life until 2016. we jumped into a governor's race, 60 points down, won the primary by won the general by over 40 points in 2020. we won again by over 40 points, the largest margin of any governor's race in the country. in our first four months in office, we cut $1.7 billion from a $6 billion general fund. more than 25% of the budget. and we kept every train running on time. yes, you can cut spending and improve services. yes, it is possible and it

starts with treating you, the taxpayer like a customer. after cutting spending, we slashed red tape. just this last year, we passed 51 more red tape reduction bills. we literally crowdsource ideas from our citizens on how we can get government out of their businesses and out of their lives. we've cut taxes. every legislative session i've been governor. we provided over $1,000,000,000 in additional property tax relief. we've eliminated income taxes for active military and veterans. and last session, we enacted the largest tax cut in state history. and now a majority of our citizens pay no income tax at all today. thank you. today, north dakota is both growing and getting younger and we've got the second lowest unemployment and the highest workforce participation rates in the nation. the place we start improving every american life is focusing on the economy.

biden nomics is a set of reckless fiscal policies guided by extreme liberal ideology built into an endless swarm of new and dangerous regulations. high inflation is really a hidden joe biden tax. right now, all of you. every american inflates and is costing the average family $700 more a month. that's 80 $400 a year. it's a massive hidden tax hike from joe biden. everyone, especially those that are living paycheck to paycheck. and if you're part of that lucky half of america that's been able to put away some savings, joe biden's inflation has come like a thief in the night. it's stolen nearly 20% of your purchasing power from your savings account. interest rates are a 23 year high. they're pushing the american dream of homeownership out of reach for millions and worse. if joe biden had his way. your actual taxes would go up more. a lot more. his budget called for seven $4.7 trillion with a t trillion. that's a thousand billion.

4.7 trillion in new and increased taxes to put that number in perspective, that's over $14,000 of additional taxes for every man, woman and child in america. we know that joe biden's reckless policies actually created the runaway inflation. but now he's bragging that inflation is this year than last year. that's like telling someone. hey, congratulations, your pay cut is half of what it was last year. joe biden. the mainstream media are trying to sell american nomics. america's not buying it. biden's red tape and regulations are hamstringing job creators with almost unimaginable layers of federal red tape. they're driven by bureaucrats, liberal ideology. that defies economics. they defy physics and they defy common sense. this never happens. one would never happen if we put some in the white house. but this does what happened when you put somebody in the white house like joe biden, who's never created a job in the private sector, as your as your president, i'll fix this crazy economy. we'll get inflation under control. we'll cut taxes will lower gas

prices, and we'll help people realize their fullest potential. to stop inflation and to make the u.s. safer and more prosperous, we need to reverse joe biden's green fantasy energy policies. on day one of our administration. we will stop buying energy from our enemies and we'll start selling energy to our allies. america produces energy cleaner and safer than anywhere else in the world. anyone who actually cares about the environment actually cares about it should want every drop in every electron of energy produced here in the united states. when we become. yes, when we become truly energy dominant superpower and we support our allies, we will actually prevent wars like the one putin started in ukraine, will stabilize the globe and will america, as the leader of the free world. instead, joe biden's policies

turned russia and iran into china's discount gas station. at the same time, he's subsidizing electric vehicle production with your tax dollars. even though china controls 80% of the world's rare earth minerals needed to make ev batteries. it makes no sense. it's like joe biden's energy policies were actually written by china china. as as governor of one of the largest energy producing states in america, and as a business leader who built multiple global software companies. i understand what it takes for america to win when we increase energy production, stop inflation, we grow jobs, and we weaken dictators. last, we need to recognize the real threats to america and strengthen our national security. and that includes border security, food security, energy security. in a country built on neighbors helping neighbors, we become a country of neighbors fighting

neighbors. we need a leader who's going to fight to unite the country against our common enemies like china, iran, north korea, russia and the mexican drug cartels. it's time for america to have a commander in chief who understands how to make america both safer and more prosperous without a fundamental change in direction away from joe biden. we're headed towards a century dominated by the chinese communist party and an axis of anti-american regimes with a change. we can usher in an unprecedented era of mass flourishing with breakthroughs in education, health care and more, which will improve every american life. we can create another incredible american century. this moment demands a president focused on and leeching american potential. i understand from all my work in the private sector the economic challenges and the innovation

opportunities of this moment. we must also recognize that border security is national security, and our national security is compromised. every day that we do not control our own borders. the the likelihood that hamas have entered america has increased dramatically over the last two and a half years. the radical left support of our open border policy has overwhelmed our defunded border patrol and put american people in danger. i've been down to the border more times than joe biden. we've had troops from our state there, multiple deployments throughout my time as governor, including flying helicopter missions from san diego to the gulf's gulf coast, trying to stop transnational criminal organizations that are helping the mass invasion. six and a half million people and, 300,000. we've lost more than five vietnams. five vietnams of americans dying

of. overdose deaths. i will use all the diplomatic information and military capability to stop that from happening. it took joe biden two years to get to our southern border. i've been there repeatedly as governor. i'll get there in my first two weeks as your president. ronald reagan spoke of a shining city on a hill. america need not to be perfect for it to be exceptional. i've had people working for me around the world in all those countries. i've had people working for me that didn't have the right to vote, didn't have the right to free speech and have the right to assemble. i learned as a young person how exceptional our country is and the opportunities that we provide in our constitution. it provides the foundation for never ending work of achieving the historic and aspiration national vision presented by our founding fathers. but right now, under joe biden is creeping towards world war

three. we're in a cold war with china. we're in a proxy war with russia. we're in a proxy war with iran. to defeat those adversaries, we must have a leader who understands the power of free societies and free markets. ronald reagan taught us how to win cold wars. it starts with having the strongest economy. i remember visiting parts of eastern europe just before and after the fall of the berlin wall, back in the 1980s and in the early 19 9090s. i actually went through checkpoint charlie in the 1980s. i witnessed poland's transition to a democracy. at the dawn of that following decade, i saw entrepreneurs coming out of being suppressed by communist countries and flourishing. it's a reminder when we think about what ronald reagan said of the power of a president who lifts america up and lifts up freedom and liberty at home and abroad. ronald reagan famously told us, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. sometimes people remember that,

but they forget the second part of the quote. and i think it's the most important freedom must be fought for and protected. or we'll spend our later used years telling our grandchildren what it was like when america was free. all of you were here fighting for freedom. i'm a proven governor and a proven global business leader. i'm a washington outsider. i actually know how to shrink government and improve services. as your president, i will bring out the best of america and i will improve every american life. thank you, florida gop. have a fantastic day. we're going work around the country onone of the most resped

governors, one of the most respect did governors in the country. brilliant guy, made a lot of money. and then he said, let me run for office. we know about that. and he is truly from dakota and done really an incredible job. and he's a friend of mine. become friend of mine and a really good one. doug burgum doug. thank god he's still 80. when i became governor, it was the same night that donald trump was elected back in november 16 and the world changed because i've had an opportunity to serve under joe biden as president and donald trump. when donald was president, our nation was safe and our nation

was prosperous. joe biden, his weakness has led to war. his weakness and his appeasement has led to our adversary, like iran and russia, making of billions of dollars, selling oil to china. economy, energy, national security. those are all three tied together. there's one candidate in this race that understand us how to make our nation more secure, our nation more prosperous. it's the person who did it when he was president, before. that's donald j. trump. biden has been a disaster on the economy. he's been a disaster on energy, and he's been a disaster on national security, including the border under donald j. trump. our cities were safer. our country was safer. and we were absolutely economically better off than we are to now. joe biden's energy policies are our dictators, and they're hurting our economy. they're raising the prices of what you pay for gas in car, food on your table, and energy

to heat your homes. we need donald trump. america needs donald trump and the reason why we do is because he's the individual that knows how to solve these problems. he knows how to keep america safe. he knows how to make us more prosperous. and i want to tell you, i've got an ask for all of you in new hampshire. i've met a lot of you campaigning around the state. but the ask is this, tamara, you've got to get out and bring your friends. you've got to bring everybody in vote because the eyes of the world are on new hampshire tomorrow. they're going to be looking at how you vote. we end this primary tomorrow in new hampshire with a fantastic win. and guess what? it's not just america. it's every foreign dictator it's every terrorist group is going to be rethinking their plans when they know we've got a strong and experienced president who will stand up to them and bring and make america great again. thank you. thank you very much, doug. all state. hey, they did a very good job. did that you'll be seeing a lot

of them. and we have another one. everybody knows them. and today it was a big story. the biggest story out there. he's engaged to be married. we never thought this was going to happen. what's going on? a very, very fine. a man that we worked so closely and i worked so closely with, he was in the senate. he's been there now a long time. and one of the most respected people in all of washington, senator tim scott, south carolina. all right. all right, all right. if if you want four more years of donald trump, let me hear you scream. i know if you want the race to be over tomorrow, let me hear you scream. laura, come on. y'all want full? four more years of low inflation under donald trump.

how would you go on four more years of low crime and high law and order under donald j. how many y'all want me to stop talking so you can hear from your next president? donald j. trump whoa, whoa. you you. oh oh, yeah. oh, yes,

it's. good evening, north carolina. are you ready for a great evening to get even better? you should be, because we've got your next governor backstage here. and yolen and marx coming out here after me. so let's get ready to take it up to the next level. i want to just say right off the bat, being here tonight, how fantastic to be here. you have to say when you're in a place like north dakota, a place like north carolina, this is the best of america. you start off a dinner like this with a prayer and a pledge surrounded by people that, you know, care about your communities and care about your your kids and your schools and you care about the future of this country.

and if you didn't, you wouldn't be here. and we did that in such a great way. and i want to just take a minute to and say, can we just say thank you to all the people that prepared that food and service tonight as well. you've had a lot of attention. there's great speakers rolling through here. you had eric and laura here last night and how wonderful you i mean, you must know how important north carolina is when now we've got the co-chairs of the rnc are both from where, north carolina. this state is so important. you're so important. you're so important to the future of this country. what happens here could determine actually the actual direction of our entire country. and therefore, the country, the world. and so i want to just say, it's an honor to be with you tonight and and it's an honor because i because of the gratitude i have for all of you. i think when the chairman said it, when he came out, he said, you know, we know that sometimes when you're a republican these days, you're a conservative,

you're going to get attacked left and right for whatever. and sometimes you may think you can't even talk to a neighbor. you're afraid we're going to say, but you got the courage to be here, to stand up, to be counted, and we need you to have that courage going forward, because we need more than just republicans to elect leaders like mark robinson. we got to have independent. we got to be out talking to people and telling our story the way you heard some of these great statewide candidates. so whether it's you know, ed, keesha, jason, susan, all the leaders that are here, but all of you, theodore roosevelt, one of our great republican presidents, we're building a presidential library to theodore roosevelt in north dakota in the middle of the badlands. and it's an audacious project, $400 million state of the art presidential library in a town of 120 people. that's true. but it is right next to the entrance. the theater, roosevelt national park, the only national park named after an individual. but one of the you know, one of the famous quotes that he had

did not the critic that counts to the credit belongs those that are actually in the arena, those whose faces are marred by dust and sweat and blood. and if you're someone who's decided that you're going to be in the arena and be a candidate or if you're someone who's decided you're going to knock on doors, you're someone who's going to volunteer and make phone calls. you're in the arena if you're here tonight, if you've been at this convention since thursday and you're going to the prayer breakfast tomorrow morning, you're in the arena. so i just want to say again, you matter. you're in the arena. i want to start off with gratitude for all of you. thank you for being in the arena. give yourselves a hand for being here. the other reason why it's an honor to be here tonight is, i'm told i mean, the whole reason we're here, we know the engine that's driving this train is a businessman from new york. and in 2012, there was a new york businessman that gave a keynote at this same dinner, in the same venue. it smashed all the party records who was here that night? some of you were here. so there's a few hands that are going up. but i know that north carolina, you got on your license plate first and flight, but i think it

makes sense. the tar heels, it was also there for years before he was elected president. you could even say that the beginning of president trump's political career blasted off right here, maybe in this ballroom and this is where it's going to keep going right here with all of you. so way to go in north carolina. i mean. and before we get any further into this thing, i mean, we no one's really brought up the fact that i'm from north dakota as opposed to north carolina. but i just want to tell you, because many of you probably never been to north dakota, you don't know you're from north dakota. but i just want to take a minute and think what it's like every time you see a list of all the states alphabetically. we're behind you guys. and and so i'm proposing that there's a new list that if you have a state that has a geographic label in front of it, like the word north, it should be listed in order of those that are actually north, the furthest north one would be would be

ahead on that list. that's what i'm kind of thinking. but i don't know where that's going to go. but just a thought. but but i was i thought it was cool. you guys got we don't have we don't have a toast in our state. we don't have a state toast. and right after the pledge you had the state toast. and i'm looking at the state toast and you know where that we're the strong go great. and we're the weak grow strong i mean like that's all cool and then but the word carolina is not in there so i'm taking that thing home to me. it executive order tuesday morning right after memorial day. the official toast of the north state, the northernmost of the state's name north, will have a new toast. so thank you. thank you for that. but it's it's tough growing up when you've got north in your name and you guys maybe don't have this with south carolina but in when we were was just a

prairie and we were a territory free and they came in and they barely knew how to survey and they created the line between north and south dakota. and it wasn't quite right. so a few years ago they were doing some work to make sure that the line between north and south dakota was actually accurate. and so then there's a rancher that i know in western north dakota and his headquarters of his ranch was right on the border, but it was on the north dakota side. and then they came through and receive aid and it turns out that his house was actually in south dakota. and so the press went to him. they said, well, you know, how do you feel about this? and he said, well, thank goodness, because i couldn't have taken one more of those north dakota winters. okay. i just want to say, i allowed my adult children, allow me. one day i joke for speech and i've now used it up. okay, that was it. but do you know, you know, you guys know how when a joke

actually becomes a dad joke, it becomes apparent. does that i'm sorry, does that count as a second one? did i go over my limit? okay. all right. but hey, i. i grew up in a small town in north dakota. in north dakota, not north carolina, called arthur, population 300. there were 16 kids in my class that was fantastic. learn to deal with a lot of change. are methodist minister moved away and nancy shearson was in our class and then we went down to 15 but then when i was in third grade, kevin skewness and his family moved in. so we're back up to 16. so prepared me for life dealing with a lot of change, but it was a great it was a great fantasy. still life. my mom my mom was a stay at home mom. she was involved in the community school board, church, all the things that you do, fantastic, growing up, working

on the farm, working at the grain elevator. you know, every job i had grown up was a job where you took a shower at the end of the day, really understood how the all the things worked. and my dad was a he was a world war two navy vet. and i learned so many things from him. and i just want to take a minute on this memorial day weekend. i mean, on veterans day, we said we, you know, celebrate veterans memorial day is really a special world. we talk about those people who have given it all. and one thing i learned from my dad, i know because know we all know this generation. we know about mias because of the tragedies of korea and south vietnam and what went on there. but it was in world war two. there's 80,000 mias in the history of america, 80,000 from the civil war. i mean, that's the revolutionary war all the way through. and 80,000, 40,000, those mias or world war two pacific soldiers or sailors. soldiers and sailors who were who never came back. and a lot of those were like the fellow fellows, people that

served along with my dad. my dad was on a destroyer in okinawa, 151 destroyers there, and 139 were hit by kamikazes. and so it's only by only by the grace of god that my siblings and i ever were set on this earth. so we give thanks for that. but i right now, i know that freedom's not free and we wouldn't be celebrating memorial day weekend with all all our veterans. so it's all if you've served in our country, in any service, in any branch, or if you're still active, it could you please stand and let us give us your appreciation on this memorial day weekend. look at that. wow. go north carolina. thank you all. well, i'm not surprised. but anyway, had a great life. and then when i was a freshman in high school, my dad passed away of a brain tumor that he'd been battling for a couple of years. and so my mom was a widow with three kids and she went back to work and and she put was putting

food on the table and gas in the car and paying the mortgage and keeping a roof over her head. and i understand that that's what a lot of americans are going through right now. and with joe biden's economics, i mean, there's economic uncertainty across this country. and i got a great appreciation for those, you know, heroic efforts of working parents and single parents and working moms and and as well as the deep respect for everyone in uniform. so when i was in college, i was i said, hey, i got to pay my way through college. i was an entrepreneur. i tried a bunch of different things. one of the things i found out, i mean, the minimum wage is like, you know, buck 75 going to 235. and i found out that you could get if i started a chimney sweeping company, i could sweep chimneys and get paid 40 bucks an hour, 40 bucks an hour. that was more than like plumbers. electricians were getting paid. and and so i was doing that while i was going to school. and in north dakota. and so, you know, it's 20 below. you're climbing around on roofs. you know, we're in a top hat and tux singing was extra, but it

was it was it was great. and i you know, people would say, you know, why did you why did you become a chimn sweep? and i said, well, look, i always wanted a career where i could move up fast and always stay in the black was at three, was at the third one or just guys are too quick. okay. anyway, but but anyway, fast forward after that, after after grad school and i was working like a lot of young people, i'd be like, hey, there's, you know, the north dakota was shrinking. young people were moving away. there wasn't much opportunity. you were coming out of that high inflation of, you know, the jimmy carter era. but, you know, ronald reagan got elected this morning in america. things are going along. and i was walking down the hallway at work and i saw somebody with an apple two computer and physical, and i was like those earliest electron spreadsheet. and i said, wow, that is going to change everything that's changing what i just did the last two nights on a piece of paper. and so i said, wow, what do you know? i got to get into that business. and so i moved back to north

dakota. i got 160 acres, a dry land farm ground that maybe a lot of ground in north carolina, north dakota. in north dakota, you need a thousand acres in those days to farm. now, you might need 5000, but i there's a little patch of farm ground and i literally i mortgaged it. i literally bet the farm to start a software company. and we had ten kids and that started when we were young. and this little start up, everyone thought we were crazy, you know, no one had ever heard of software. and it was in 1980s, like, what is that? and if you in they knew what it was then they said you can't do it here. i've had people tell me my whole life what you can't do and you can't do it here. but we started with young folks and we started with a dream. and then 18 years later we were an overnight success story. but and in between all that, we had some near-death business experiences and we also had a lot of hard work. but i learned a lot of lessons and we started with those ten. we built a company of 2000 people. we had 1200 in fargo, 400 rest of north america, and 400 rest

of world. so as a young, i was young and i was still at that time single. the we had 140,000 customers in over 120 countries countries around the world making software in fargo, north dakota. and we had people working for us. we had partners and customers and they didn't they didn't have the right to free speech in some of these countries. they didn't have the right to vote. they have the right to assemble. they certainly didn't have the right to bear arms. and so you grow in appreciation like, wow, we had a chance to be able to build this business and create these jobs and change people's lives and bring young people back to north dakota and thrive and prosper because of the united states, america and the customers we were serving didn't have the freedoms that we had. so starting with my dad and and starting with that experience, i'm like, wow, this place is special. the united states of america, there's no place like it on earth. it's amazing. and so one later, in 2016, kids were grown up and we had an open

seat and decided to run for run for governor and like jason said, i'd never run for office before and got elected the same same first time that president trump did in 2016. and i'll tell you that was a party that night, because we went into that night thinking that i was going to have to be governor under hillary clinton. yikes. and we we came out of that and it was like, yeah, baby, this is going to be great. i endorse president trump that early that in may that earlier that year. and i endorsed him in 2020. and so it was easy to win endorse him this year. and and i can i can tell you right now i'll just tell you one thing. i've had a chance to serve as governor under president trump and under president biden. and people say, why are you going around the country helping campaign for president trump? and i said, i don't want anything. i want a single thing for president trump other than he gets elected. and katherine, first lady feels the same way. but what i do understand, because i've got a front row seat, which you're not reading about in the papers, which is because it's not laws passed by

congress. we in north dakota's a natural resource state. we're under under a full blown attack regulatory regime, a biden bureaucrats. there's over 30 different rules and mandates that have come down on the state of north dakota that are trying to shut down how we produce baseload energy. they're trying to shut down the oil and gas industry, and i don't think they know it, but they're also going to kill agriculture in the process because if you kill if you kill internal combustion machines and say the whole the all of the united states is going to be have a future built on ev cars. if you do that and you get rid of the internal combustion machine, you know what happens to the agriculture from across the midwest. all the way to north dakota, half the land in iowa, you know, half the corn crop in iowa goes towards fuel. it doesn't go towards towards food. it goes search fuel. half the soybean crop. this country goes towards biodiesel. you killed the internal combustion machine and you've just have killed agriculture. every piece of land is going to drop. every small town is going to be crippled. don't even know if they're doing that. but they've got some idea that somehow we're going to save the planet by by buying batteries

from the world's largest polluter, china and that we're going to you know, that we're going to a country that controls 85% of the rare earth minerals. we finally spend 40 years. and under president trump get out of the underneath the yoke of opaque and then they want to enslave our future to a country that is that is actually. our number one strategic threat. that's the existential threat is right now is china. so anyway, that's that's why i'm doing this because i see it firsthand. and we decided we could have run for a third term. we decided not to. and we said we'd better spend our time this year making sure president trump gets reelected versus us winning in north dakota and joe biden being in office. it cracks me up when they talk about republicans being a threat to democracy. the opposite of democracy is dictatorship. a dictatorship is when people give you a third. what i say a rule. a rule is 800 to 1400 pages long.

that's the stuff that they're sending out us. i mean, our revenue as a state. i told our legislature three weeks ago, which is rare, but i went and testified in front of the interim committee on the budget committee. i said, look, if president trump wins, we're going to have higher revenues, a state, we're going to have lower expenses. if biden wins, we're going to have much lower revenue coming into the state of north dakota and we have much higher expenses. they said we're the expenses for. i said we're going to have to hire much more lawyers because we're going to be spending all of our time what we're doing now, which is suing the federal government. so anyway. but despite his war on on natural resources, we're still thriving because we've got a state where we've cut taxes, we've cut taxes by the largest margins that's ever been done in our state. we got the lowest unemployment rate in america. we were number one in real gdp growth and people are fleeing, you know, the blue metros coming to places like north dakota. so our population is growing and it's getting younger and our families are staying there and people are having having kids and more kids, which is great. and i'm you know, you probably figured out already i'm a

competitive guy and i love being when we're number one. it's great when you're governor, we're number one. number one. and on birth rate, north dakota, we were number two. and i said i said we're number two. you know how how do we get what do we have to do to get to number one? and and they said, well, well, sure, that could be tough. and i said, why? they said, well, utah is number one. so we might have to be happy with number two, but we're going to we have some young people working on this at home, but. but we do we have to turn this country around, you know, and we got to turn it around. and it's simple. and i talked about this last year campaigning. but, you know, biden's wrong on three things. and they're all interconnected. he's wrong on national security and that includes border security. you guys, i'm sure, talked about this in. but it's just, you know, you've talked about everything. we are a border state. we've got 325 miles of canada.

we've got issues up there. but as a governor, commander in chief, i've had we've had north dakota national guard deployed to the southern border. i've been down there more times than biden and harris combined, not posting and not, you know, putting stuff, oh, look at me. i'm at the border. i'm going down there as the commander in chief, talking to our troops that are down there, helping to secure our country. and i tell you, it's super underreported. but he's he's wrong on national security. he's wrong on the border. biden's wrong on he's wrong on energy policy. as i talked about. i mean, it's completely, completely wrong headed on that. and then he's wrong on the economy because if you blow up, you know, energy, that's going to be the core thing that drives inflation across every product that you consume or buy. doesn't matter whether it's the shoes on your feet or the, you know, the appliances in your home or whatever it is. if you if an energy costs are high, everything's going to be high. and and so we got to get somebody in the office and, you know, who understands that president trump understands

that, you know, he is a legendary businessman and negotiator. he did so many great things. he created countless jobs in his private sector career. he understands the plight of working people. you've seen that in recent weeks. i was with him in new jersey when there is 107,000 people there. and the and so i had i had someone from the liberal media say to me, oh, there couldn't possibly be 107,000 people there. and i said, no, i, yeah, i think you're probably right. 107,000 because when we were driving in, i saw about 15,000 people on the way in that couldn't get into the state. they were lying on the side of the road for miles in blue new jersey. we drove by. we were in the motorcade. we drove by new jersey firehouses that had the fire trucks out and the flags were flying and the firemen were in uniform. we drove by a exit where they were doing traffic control and there was a new jersey highway patrolman standing and saluting as the motorcade went by.

and then we got there and, you know who was there? it's not a demographic. it was americans and it was americans who work. there wasn't anybody in that 107,000 people that came there to see if if someone was going to get their student loan forgiven, know there was people there that worked for a living. they care about the country, they care about their communities and they care about their future. and they want to make sure that someone is going to preserve the american dream for them. and they know that that person is donald j. trump. and of course, when you've got high inflation and we've got, you know, high prices for food, gas, electricity and high interest rates, and you can't afford to buy a house that is the definition of killing the american dream. and that's by nomics, but with maga nomics with president trump, that works for everybody. when he was president, we had low interest rates, we had low

inflation. we had incredible job creation. our borders were secure and the world was safe. i mean, it's exactly the opposite. and so it is a important that through all the noise that you hear when i said at the beginning, important for all of you that are in the arenas you've got to, you know, talk to independents, talk to talk to people that you may haven't talked for a while. i'm sure everybody in this divisive time has said, oh, i've got relationships that have ended because of politics, but i'm telling you, now's the time to reach out. ask them, you know, ask them how they're doing because every single one of them there isn't a person in america that's escaped the biden inflation and tax. and this taxes is an insidious tax as it comes. if you're part of americans, if you're like 40% of americans that have savings and like all of you in this room, work to put away your savings and you've got a savings account that says this is how much is in my floor, okay? or for a1k or my savings account. yeah, the numbers the same. the values gone down by 20% under joe biden in a matter of three years. it's kind of like a thief in the night and stolen your savings.

and if you you know, if you're someone who doesn't have savings and you're just a working mom or working dad and you're trying to and you're at the checkout line, the grocery store, and you said, we don't maybe i should put i got to put a few items back because i don't have enough cash to take food home. and that's happening every day in this country right now. inflation is it's just incredible and it's not. we used to talk about democrats about tax and spend. this is borrow and spend. they're not there's not it's not tax revenue. they're borrowing money from foreign countries and spending it on their ideals. logical agenda. most of what is driven by the idea that somehow they're going to be the ones that with the moral authority to save the environment and then i just want to challenge that right here, because if you if you shut down u.s. energy production and i can tell you, as an energy producing state, we our nation produces energy cleaner, smarter, safer, faster than anyone else in the world. and in a in if you shut down the u.s. energy the way they're trying to shut it down, you know

what happens. you know who produces more iran, russia, venezuela. take those three right there. we're all in we're in conflict. we're in proxy wars with iran and russia. and you know what they do with their increased revenue under joe biden? oil production in north dakota is down. production in iran is way up. and when they have that money from selling all that president, president trump had iran almost bankrupt. he had sanctions that actually worked. joe biden has lifted all those. they're trying to go back to the obama nuclear deal. they're trying to negotiate with iran. iran funds hezbollah, hamas, saudis. and then all of you, you know, all of us, we get to listen about, oh, congress is debating how much money we're going to give to our team. we're paying for the other side. joe biden's energy policy is paying for russia's war. they're paying for iran's war. we we don't need to be funding both sides of the war. if we were producing u.s. energy, the environment would be cleaner and our adversaries would not have the money to fight wars against us.

know and and and did you stick with this theme? and the other thing is just again, it's just complete craziness. they want to have everything in the in our country be electrified. and they got a whole bunch of agencies running around saying run, electrify every car and every stove and every home, and we're going to put in all this. they're going to do that. and then they come to places like north dakota, where we produce enormous amounts of baseload energy and they go, here's a bunch of rules and you've got to shut down your power plants. okay? i mean, if we have less supply and more demand, what's going to happen? prices going up, price of electricity under joe biden was flat for 30 years. price of electricity is up 30%. but then now, if the electricity is going to come from intermittent sources, it will be less reliable. so if it may, i don't say it's too late. i'm president trump will do everything he can. but if joe biden is reelected, it's not going to be 2035. in 2025, we will have biden blackout and biden brownouts across this country because their policies are destroying

our electric grid at a time when we could be heading towards world war three. and it's completely irresponsible. and another reason why we got to get president trump back in office. so i and then the last thing which tied back to energy, the lng export facilities, liquid natural gas president trump shut down nord stream two. he just shut it down. this is a giant pipeline coming from russia into europe. all of the allies that your relatives and others fought for in world war two fought and died in normandy so we could free western europe. they've been our allies for 70 years and then president trump, that'd be a bad idea. they were dependent on russia. russia's are adversary. and then what does joe biden immediately gets in, approves, approves it and then also in western europe is totally dependent on them and he shuts down our lng export capacity which would then supply it to

our allies. so literally it's like it's so simple. president trump will sell american clean energy to our friends and allies. joe biden wants our allies to buy it from our enemies. that's the opposite between the two of them. and when we do that, that's how that's how we end up in two wars. we're in a war with russia, proxy war. we're in a war with iran, and we're in a cold war with china. and china is the most dependent nation in the world on energy and and you could walk softly, carry a big stick like theodore roosevelt. you could go over send over some cabinet leaders from biden say, hey, if you guys you guys need food and energy to run your country every day. how about this? we've got food and energy. have you ever heard i've heard them talk about that as a point of leverage. no. they go over there and talk about, oh, you know, could you please start reducing your co2 emissions by 2035? and then china's literally building a coal plant to a month. they're building two coal plants a month. world's largest polluter. it is absolutely ridiculous what's going on. i don't understand it. and then like we just saw again, the joe biden drain, the strategic petroleum reserve of

the united states in half before the midterms. he turned the strategic petroleum reserve, which was set up for world war three, turn it into his own private political petroleum reserve because its whole point was trying to get the price down before the midterms. it worked because he drained about 400 million barrels and then this last weekend he drained a million barrels before memorial day weekend to try to take credit in case, you know, gas went down a million barrels. we produce a million barrels in north dakota by suppertime. i'm serious. i mean, it's like so again, i mean, they're hoping that americans don't understand the size of the scale because in one time it was two years ago, it was strategically horrible for america. and this is just a press release. so they manipulate it on both ends of the thing. but president trump will fix all of that. and we're not just going to be energy independent, but he's going to reduce inflation. he's going to protect national security. he's going to win the cold war with china. he's going to unleash america's energy in america, will become what we should be, which is energy dominant, because when we're energy dominant, your prices go down and the world

becomes safer and the environment becomes more cleaner. that's what happens when the us leads. joe biden, you know, has been so weak on foreign affairs and and president trump was he was the he was the epitome of peace through strength and and right now, you know what's happening on our campuses and around the country, it's it's happening for political reasons, in part because joe biden can't stand up to one wing of the party. and that one wing of the party is the hamas wing of the democrat party that are actually he's afraid of them. he needs their votes to win in michigan and wisconsin. so then he's you know, if you were going to be had an ally and someone was your ally, you would say things like this. you'd say, look, we we're with you, we're allies. and then you'd say to hamas, hey, you want you want aid released the hostages, you want a ceasefire, release the just release the hostages. release the hostages. and then we'll talk.

and what does joe biden says to israel, stop fighting hamas. make sure you give them aid. and he's actually negotiating for hamas he's negotiating. you know, president biden will not president trump would never negotiate with terrorists. joe biden is no go shooting for the terrorists. it's just again, it's completely. but here we go is crazy. as all those liberal campus protests got. and there was one, you know, a great example of student leadership right here in north carolina where the fraternity guys stepped up to protect the flag. you all saw that story. but then you see there was a go fund me account for him and and there is people around the country sending in small checks like $10,000, whatever they they raised they raised $500,000 for a patriotic ranger or something they were going to do. but but it was fantastic that they were out there because, you know, there we are in washington

at george washington university, and they've got, you know, the statue of george washington draped for days with the flags of terrorists. and so kudos to north carolina. best of america going on here. way to go. let me close with a couple final thoughts. the it's been many times but that 2024 election that's coming up in november. it may very well be the most important election in your lifetime. the most important election in your kids lifetime and the most important election year. your grandkids lifetime. president trump is remarkable individual. he's running full steam ahead. presidential campaign while being attacked by a two tiered justice system. i had a chance to be with him in court a week ago tuesday and to see the strength of what he goes through and to see the unfairness of that system, you know, sit there for five weeks when they haven't even been clear about was there actually even they can't even articulate

what a crime may or may have been? it's just the whole thing is absurd to me as a businessperson. and then what happened that night? well, then he he's got a phone calls. the world leader, he had a meeting in person with the prime minister of australia. and one of the one of the night that i was there. so he does that all day after he's been up early in the morning and then he does that in court all. then he's on the phone call and then he's meeting with world leaders. then he goes to a fundraiser and then he goes back and starts more phone calls and repeats it again. if you were just going to say, i had an opportunity to work as a corporate officer, ceo, chairman in public companies for over 20 years. before i got anything i never in my career saw a ceo in any industry work as hard as he works every single day. and when he's working that hard he's working that hard for all of you and for our country. why he's doing it. i think one question you could ask when you're talking to your your neighbors that might be

undecided about where to go in this thing. is this classic question. ronald reagan was the one that really brought it up. what you said the you know, it's one of the most powerful, simple questions we can ask an election year is ask someone, are you better off than you were four years ago is simple. are you better off than you were four years ago? and if if this person is honest about living in joe biden's america and with biden by nomics what's the answer going to be? the answer is going to be no. that alone should be the strongest indicator that if you just had a regular, regular election, you know, don't vote for the incumbent. take a chance on the next person. but what do we have going on here? we have something that's never happened in our lifetime and won't happen again. hasn't happened since grover cleveland. we as a country have been given a chance. we don't have to guess what the next president is going to be like. number 47, because we know because we know when president trump was in office, we know that the world is peace. we know that our country was prosperous. we know that interest rates were down. we know all that.

so this is the easiest choice ever for a voter because you can pick about what do you have now versus what you had before. and if what you have now is not better than what you had before, that should be the end of the whole discussion. so forget all the other distractions and everything that, you know, the cable news and everybody is trying to shout about this, that and the other thing and just ask people in their hearts and in their family for the kids, are they better off than they were before? and in the answer, if they're honest, is going to be no, they're not, unless they had a lot of student loans or something. but getting okay. but i'm saying, again, i want you to leave with that. but but when i when i leave here tonight, i know one thing because i know how important north carolina is and i know how committed all of you are. and i know that the leadership in this party i know that the those of you here, that supporters, the core folks this your friends, all the people that were here as delegates the last few days that maybe we had to go back to their families. but you've got the power right here in north carolina to ensure

that that our party and our nation once again is heading in the right direction and want to say to all of you and those of us that live other states that may or may not begin with north, but around america, the other 49 states, they're counting on north carolina and they're counting you to do what it takes to make sure that we win because that engine at the top of the ticket, when that engine is pulling hard, you know who's going to get elected and you know what's going to happen because we're going to make america safe again. we are going to make america strong again. we're going to make our borders again. we're going to make america again. we're going to make america prosperous again. and when we do that, and that engine called donald trump is driving, we are going to put mark robinson in the governor's residence here in this state and all those state elected officials you heard before are going to ride that train the way through. and i got to say one thing about mark. i you know, i've been involved with rga the last seven years as

a governor. rga is coming in strong behind mark robinson. you can't coordinate, but i can just say those words here that we're going to be supporting him in this race and supporting him big. this is the race that matters in all the other governor's races around the country. we've got republicans teed up to win. this is the one that is this is the one that. right now is a close race. we're going to be in it. we want you to be in it. we want you out there supporting mark. but the way this thing works for everybody on, that ticket is you got it. you can't take don't if you see a poll that says donald trump is up by five, let's get them up by ten. as we say, we got to win this thing big. it pulls everybody with them. and if we're doing that together in north carolina, you're going to have the happiest night in november with mark robinson as your governor, donald trump as your president. all these other state officials working together and we're going to make north carolina great again. going to make america great again. thank you. north carolina. thanks for having me here tonight. great to be with all of you.

so, governor, thanks so much for joining you. ran a great campaign for president and infused the campaign with amazing ideas on energy on economic development the fact that a businessman is something that is greatly lacking in this administration. tell us your assessment of things and what you're i'm sure you'll be working over the next four months to get donald trump elected. how do you see the world right now? thank you so much for being here. well, thank you, steve, and good

morning, everybody. i want to just start with gratitude. you know, committed prosperity, the amazing work at all of your doing, and then everybody hear this today. i mean, the work that happens because of your support, your participation all of you're here because you care our country. you're here because you care about your communities. you care about kids and your grandkids. and you know that their future depends on how we do as a country. our strength has always been rooted in our economic strength and. and so the ideas that are being discussed in the work that's being done by this committee is so important. so i just want to say thanks to all of you for being here. thanks for all of you being in the arena. and what an amazing panel. i'm honored to be included in with these icons of american history that are up here, i met this guy. i have and and met him studied both of you. so that's a great, great to be here. but we have a an incredible opportunity. we're on the cusp right now of of unleashing a new wave of activity driven by artificial

intelligence, artificial has got an opportunity to transform job every industry. i and you know, every company in it's going to do that and it's going to hit us sooner and faster. the next wave that's coming this year is going to be an order of magnitude better and stronger than the what's here right now. but we have and we have a lead. i mean, we're in an air race with china. the existential threat our country is not. it's not the, you know, a degree temperature rise, 2100, the existential threat is what we have right now with adversaries and especially china. we have a bunch of ways that we can win the cold war with china. we're not doing it right now. they have because of people like harold, we've got energy security in our country. china imports 11 million barrels of oil a day. we've got the best farmers and ranchers in the world we produce. so much food. we've got food security which we never ever talk about it. we just take it for granted because that's something we have china to import food to feed

those people every day. but the one thing that they're doing that we're not under joe biden with his energy policies, he's shutting down baseload energy in our country right now. if you if the rules and regulations that they've tried to do to shut down our baseload and think that we can just live on intermittent, that would be solar and wind, you know that only works when sun shines and the wind blows. we need baseload to be able to have manufacture we need baseload electricity that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter, what? and of course, nuclear is is part of that solution the future? but it's not yet. but what we have right now, china is building. they've got commissioned over there the world's largest polluter right now, world's largest in co2 emissions. they are opening more plants. they have more coal plants under construction right now than everything we have in the united states. you could shut down every plant we have in the us, totally destabilize our grid, which is what the biden energy policy is trying to do. and china will build more than that at the same time. so we're not doing anything relative to saving environment

with this policy of of sort of you know economic martyrdom around around a false head, around a some climate goals. and then we have a we we we have this the thing which is 88 takes electricity. the whole time i was in technology, we consumed about 1% of the nation's electricity for 30 years, even though everybody a cell phone, everybody had a personal computer, the efficiency was there. and we were about 1% that could grow to 6 to 10% of the total demand for electricity. this country could go to data centers to drive. i and i, like i said it's an arms race. you know, here we're it to try to make a job more efficient. china's using it to to impact their military and and so we are the world order is going to be determined by who leads in ai. that can't happen unless we have it. once we have energy here. and then we also again this

thing, which harold is know in our state, the sky is incredible. and what harold what harold did what harold did with horizontal drill drilling, think of that as innovation. they don't think oil guys as tech guys. what harold was a miracle the block in which is one of the largest oil fields in the world, as in many cases a 30 foot strip of hard rock shale, 10,000 feet below the ground. and that guy figured out how to go down two miles, turn a corner, drill sideways for two miles and turn hard into oil. and without that, we wouldn't have the marcellus. we wouldn't have the permian, we wouldn't have the bark. and that's that's a no. it is a a and you want to talk about a tax cut. what harold did, that's like trillion, $1,000,000,000,000, literally $1,000,000,000,000 of saving to all of you and everybody that works for you because every consumer in america paid less for their food, their clothes, their gas in their car. they heat their home because of what harold hamm did, an american indian american innovation. and that innovation can accelerate if we have a if we

lose arms race, it's over with china. so i know you've got a crazy day to day and you're one of the top surrogates for the president. what how do you see things going in the election? what do you think is the path to victory? what do you think donald trump has to do to win? well, i think we're we're in a incredible position versus where we were three weeks ago and there's just been win after win after win. and in the middle of that, something that was in, you know, a horrifyingly millimeter away from, you know, chaos and mourning. but we went when donald trump won that debate, that wasn't like winning a debate. that was knockout. i mean, that was like a rocky style knockout. and he didn't just knock out a candidate that got exposed that there's been a giant conspiracy hiding. president biden's condition, which would that everybody's been complicit on it. and, you know, including vice president harris, everybody around the white house, the media i mean, it was i mean, that was i think if all of you

weren't surprised, if all you watched was msnbc and then you saw that, you're like shocked because you've been told that, hey, this guy is a rocket science behind closed doors and then you're you're seeing what you unsee, what you saw with your eyes that no matter how much how much positioning and spinning they do, but so the whole ruling regime that was put together in 2020 you know elizabeth warren nominating everybody that, you know for all of the stuff that's driving every company crazy you know i mean, her her appointees in ftc, s.e.c. and all these other places that are affecting mergers and regulation, she's all the climate warriors that are bearing a state like north dakota with, 30 plus rules and regulations. one of each just one of those is the smallest is 800 pages. they typically are 1400 pages. we've run out of lawyers in north dakota trying to fight the federal government on regulation in order talked about the president being, the greatest president. the other thing that he did was he got of a lot of regulation during the time that he was

office, which is a relief. so there's that when that night threw their party into complete disarray. so that would be great then. the next morning, supreme court case is started coming in the chevron deference, which is going to help the economy. that's a big win. yes. and and you have and then you have these other court cases that have been a win win, win win win for the president. and then, of course this this a mm. away from a complete change in history on saturday night and then that i think you know created an image which is real president trump's first response when you know when got up was was the courage, the resilience the spirit the fight and that picture which will now, you know, be in children's school books 100 years from now of him with his fist up, with the flag flying over his head. that contrast versus joe biden. i mean, again if you're an independent or you're a democrat, you look at that and you say, wow, we have to worry. different things going on.

and in a world where we're in a we're in a proxy war with iran we're in a proxy war with russia. we're in a cold with china. president trump is actually a deterrent himself. i mean, he's people look at president trump and they like if we do something, he'll do something back. i mean, he's a deterrent. he's like a national security joe biden. they look at him and go, hey, you know, we can do whatever we want. he's not going to do anything. i mean, we're empowering a terrorist group or empowering countries. we empower putin and then back joe energy policies are funding iran and russia. those countries are benefiting from his effort to down u.s. energy. that's helping those countries. iran's production is under under joe. north dakota's production is