Unedited, but with some emphasis added, the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America addresses his troops (as shared by the
White House press office).
6:32 PM
Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. (Applause.) I am thrilled to be here. Thrilled.(Applause.) And if you think that was an easy trip,
you’re wrong, but I am thrilled -- 19th Boy Scout Jamboree -- wow -- and to
address such a tremendous group. Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it’s about 200 people. (Laughter.) It
looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today. (Applause.) You set a record. That’s a great honor, believe me.
Tonight, we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington, D.C. --
you’ve been hearing about with the fake news and all of that. (Applause.) We’re going to put that aside. And instead we’re going to talk
about success, about how all of you amazing young Scouts can achieve your
dreams. What to think of -- what I’ve been thinking about -- you want to
achieve your dreams. I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics
when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts? Right? (Applause.)
There are many great honors that come with the job of being President of
the United States, but looking out at this incredible gathering of mostly young
patriots -- mostly young -- I’m especially proud to speak to you as the
honorary President of the Boy Scouts of America. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
You are the young people of character and integrity
who will serve as leaders in our communities, and uphold the sacred values of
our nation.
I want to thank Boy Scouts President Randall Stephenson, Chief Scout
Executive Michael Surbaugh, Jamboree Chairman Ralph de la Vega, and the
thousands of volunteers who have made this a life-changing experience for all
of you, and when they asked me to be here I said absolutely, yes. (Applause.)
Finally, and we can’t forget these people, I especially want to salute
the moms and the dads and troop leaders who are here tonight. (Applause.) Thank you for making scouting possible. Thank you, mom and dad --
troop leaders.
When you volunteer for the Boy Scouts, you are not only shaping young
lives, you are shaping the future of America. (Applause.) The
United States has no better citizens than its Boy Scouts. (Applause.) No better. The values, traditions, and skills you learn here will
serve you throughout your lives, and just as importantly they will serve your
families, your cities, and in the future and in the present, will serve your
country. (Applause.) The Scouts believe in putting America first.(Applause.)
You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians, and I see
the swamp. And it’s not a good place. In fact today I said we ought
to change it from the word swamp to the word cesspool or, perhaps, to the word
sewer. But it’s not good. Not good. (Applause.) And I
see what’s going on, and believe me I’d much rather be with you. That I
can tell you. (Applause.)
I’ll tell you the reason that I love this and the reason that I really
wanted to be here is because as President, I rely on former Boy Scouts every
single day, and so do the American people. It’s amazing how many Boy
Scouts we have at the highest level of our great government. Many of my
top advisors in the White House were Scouts. Ten members of my cabinet
were Scouts. Can you believe that? Ten. (Applause.)
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is not only a Boy Scout, he’s your
former national president. (Applause.)
The Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence -- good guy -- was a
Scout, and it meant so much to him. (Applause.) Some of you here
tonight might even have camped out in this yard when Mike was the governor of
Indiana, but the scouting was very, very important. And by the way, where
are our Indiana Scouts tonight? (Applause.) I wonder if the
television cameras will follow you. They don’t like doing that when they
see these massive crowds. They don’t like doing that. Hi, folks. (Applause.) A lot of love in this big, beautiful place. A lot of
love, and a lot of love for our country. There’s a lot of love for our
country.
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is here tonight. Come here,
Ryan. (Applause.) Ryan is an Eagle Scout from Big Sky Country in
Montana. (Applause.) Pretty good. And by the way, he is doing
a fantastic job. He makes sure that we leave our national parks and
federal lands better than we found them, in the best Scouting tradition. So thank you very much, Ryan. (Applause.)
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, of Texas, an Eagle Scout from the Great
State. (Applause.) The first time he came to the national jamboree
was in 1964. He was very young then. And Rick told me just a little
while ago, it totally changed his life. So, Rick, thank you very much for
being here. And we're doing a lot with energy. (Applause.)
And very soon, Rick, we will be an energy exporter. Isn’t that nice
-- an energy exporter? (Applause.) In other words we’ll be selling
our energy instead of buying it from everybody all over the globe. So
that's good. (Applause.) We will be energy dominant. And I’ll
tell you what, the folks in West Virginia who were so nice to me, boy, have we
kept our promise. We are going on and on. So we love West Virginia. We want to thank you.
Where’s West Virginia by the way? (Applause.) Thank you.
Secretary Tom Price is also here. Today Dr. Price still lives the
Scout Oath, helping to keep millions of Americans strong and healthy as our
Secretary of Health and Human Services. And he’s doing a great job. And hopefully, he’s going to get the votes tomorrow to start our path
toward killing this horrible thing known as Obamacare that's really hurting us,
folks. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
By the way, you going to get the votes? He better get them. He better get them. Oh, he better --
otherwise, I’ll say, Tom, you're fired. I’ll get somebody. (Applause.)
He better get Senator Capito to vote for it. You got to get the
other senators to vote for it. It’s time. After seven years of
saying repeal and replace Obamacare, we have a chance to now do it. They
better do it. Hopefully they’ll do it.
As we can see just by looking at our government, in America, Scouts lead
the way. And another thing I’ve noticed -- and I’ve noticed it all my
life -- there is a tremendous spirit with being a Scout, more so than almost
anything I can think of. So whatever is going on, keep doing it. It’s incredible to watch. Believe me. (Applause.)
Each of these leaders will tell you that their road to American success
-- and you have to understand, their American success, and they are a great,
great story was paved with the patriotic American values as traditions they
learned in the Boy Scouts. And some day, many years from now, when you
look back on all of the adventures in your lives, you will be able to say the
same: I got my start as a Scout just like these incredibly great people
that are doing such a good job for our country. So that's going to
happen. (Applause.)
Boy Scout values are American values, and great Boy Scouts become great,
great Americans. As the Scout Law says: “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal”
-- we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.
AUDIENCE: “helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful,
thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.” (Applause.)
That was very impressive. (Laughter.) You've heard that before.
But here you learn the rewards of hard work and perseverance. Never
ever give up, never quit. Persevere. Never, ever quit.
You learn the satisfaction of building a roaring campfire, reaching a
mountain summit, or earning a merit badge after mastering a certain skill. There’s no better feeling than an achievement that you’ve earned with
your own sweat, tears, resolve, hard work. There’s nothing like it.
Do you agree with that?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
I’m waving to people back there so small I can't
even see them. Man, this is a lot of people. Turn those cameras
back there, please. That is so incredible.By the way, what do you think the chances are that this incredible,
massive crowd, record-setting is going to be shown on television tonight? One percent or zero? (Applause.)
The fake media will say: President Trump -- and you know what this
is -- President Trump spoke before a small crowd of Boy Scouts today.
That's some -- that is some crowd. (Applause.)
Fake media. Fake news. Thank you. And I’m honored by
that, by the way, all of you people they can't even see you. So thank
you I hope you can hear.
Through scouting you also learn to believe in yourselves -- so important
-- to have confidence in your ability, and to take responsibility for your own
life. When you face down new challenges, and you will have plenty of
them, develop talents you never thought possible, and lead your teammates
through daring trials, you discover that you can handle anything. And you
learn it by being a scout. It’s great. (Applause.)
You can do anything. You can be anything you want to be. But
in order to succeed, you must find out what you love to do. You have to
find your passion. No matter what they tell you -- if you don't -- I love
you, too. I don't know. It’s a nice guy. (Applause.) Hey, what am I going to do? He sounds like a nice person. He,
he, he, he. Thank you. I do. I do love you.
AUDIENCE: We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump!
By the way, just a question, did President Obama
ever come to a jamboree?
AUDIENCE: No!
And we’ll be back. We’ll be back. The
answer is no, but we’ll be back.
In life, in order to be successful, and you people are well on the road
to success, you have to find out what makes you excited. What makes you
want to get up each morning and go to work? You have to find it.
If you love what you do and dedicate yourself to your work, then you will
gain momentum, and look -- you have to, you need to. The word momentum --
you will gain that momentum, and each success will create another success. The word momentum.
I’ll tell you a story that’s very interesting for me when I was young. There was a man named William Levitt -- Levittowns, you have some here,
you have some in different states. Anybody ever hear of Levittown? (Applause.) And he was a very successful man. He was a homebuilder
-- became an unbelievable success, and got more and more successful. And
he built homes, and at night he’d go to these major sites with teams of people
and he’d scour the sites for nails and sawdust and small pieces of wood. And they’d clean the site so when the workers came in the next morning,
the sites would be spotless and clean, and he did it properly. And he did
this for 20 years, and then he was offered a lot of money for his company.
And he sold his company for a tremendous amount of money. At the
time especially -- this was a long time ago -- sold his company for a
tremendous amount of money. And he went out and bought a big yacht, and
he had a very interesting life. I won’t go any more than that because
you’re Boy Scouts, so I’m not going to tell you what he did.
AUDIENCE: Booo --
Should I tell you? Should I tell you?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
Oh, you’re Boy Scouts, but you know life. You
know life. So -- look at you. Who would think this is the Boy Scouts,
right?
So he had a very, very interesting life, and the company that bought his
company was a big conglomerate. And they didn’t know anything about
building homes, and they didn’t know anything about picking up the nails and
the sawdust and selling it -- and the scraps of wood. This was a big
conglomerate based in New York City, and after about a ten year period they
were losing a lot with it. It didn’t mean anything to them, and they
couldn’t sell it.
So they called William Levitt up and they said, would you like to buy
back your company, and he said yes, I would. He so badly wanted it, he
got bored with this life of yachts and sailing and all of the things he did in
the south of France and other places. You won’t get bored, right? You
know, truthfully, you’re workers. You’ll get bored too. Believe me. (Applause.) Of course, having a good few years like that isn’t so
bad. (Applause.) But what happened is he bought back his company,
and he bought back a lot of empty land. And he worked hard in getting it
zoning, and he worked hard on starting to develop.
And in the end he failed, and he failed
badly. Lost all of his money. He went personally bankrupt, and he
was now much older. And I saw him at a cocktail party, and it was very
sad because the hottest people in New York were at this party. it was the
party of Steve Ross who was one of the great people -- he came up and
discovered -- really founded -- Time Warner, and he was a great guy. He
had a lot of successful people at the party.
And I was doing well so I got invited to the party. I was very young, and
I go in -- but I’m in the real estate business -- and I see 100 people, some of
whom I recognize and they’re big in the entertainment business. And I
see, sitting in the corner, was a little old man who was all by himself. Nobody was talking to him. I immediately recognized that that man
was the once great William Levitt of Levittown, and I immediately went over --
I wanted to talk to him more than the Hollywood show business communications
people.
So I went over and talked to him, and I said, Mr. Levitt, I’m Donald
Trump. He said I know. I said, Mr. Levitt, how are you doing? He goes, not well, not well at all. And I knew that, but he said
not well at all. And he explained what was happening and how bad it has
been and how hard it has been. And I said what exactly happened? Why did this happen to you? You’re one of the greats ever in our
industry. Why did this happen to you? And he said, Donald, I lost
my momentum. I lost my momentum. A word you never hear when you’re
talking about success. When some of these guys that never made ten cents,
they’re on television giving you things about how you’re going to be
successful, and the only thing they ever did was a book and a tape.
But I’ll tell you, it was very sad, and I never forgot that moment. And I thought about it, and it’s exactly true. He lost his
momentum. Meaning, he took this period of time off long -- years -- and
then when he got back, he didn’t have that same momentum. In life, I
always tell this to people, you have to know whether or not you continue to
have the momentum, and if you don’t have it that’s okay. Because you’re
going to go on and you’re going to learn and you’re going to do things that are
great. But you have to know about the word momentum.
But the big thing: Never quit. Never give up. Do
something you love. When you do something you love -- as a Scout I see
that you love it. But when you do something that you love you’ll never
fail. What you’re going to do is give it a shot again and again and
again. You’re ultimately going to be successful, and remember this,
you’re not working. Because when you’re doing something that you love
like I do -- of course I love my business, but this is a little bit different. Who thought this was going to happen? We’re having a good time. We’re doing a good job. (Applause.) Doing a good job. But when you do something that you love, remember this, it’s not work.
So you’ll work 24/7, you’re going to work all the time, and at the end of
a year you’re not really working. You don’t think of it as work. When you’re not doing something that you like or when you’re forced in to
do something that you really don’t like, that’s called work. And it’s
hard work and tedious work.
So as much as you can, do something that you love. Work hard, and
never ever give up, and you’re going to be tremendously successful. Tremendously successful. (Applause.)
Now with that, I have to tell you our economy is doing great. Our
stock market has picked up -- since the election November 8th. Do we
remember that date? (Applause.) Was that a beautiful date? (Applause.) What a date. Do you remember that famous night on
television, November 8th, where they said -- these dishonest people -- where
they said there is no path to victory for Donald Trump? They forgot about
the forgotten people. By the way, they're not forgetting about the
forgotten people anymore. They're going crazy trying to figure it out. But I told them, far too late. It’s far too late.
But do you remember that incredible night with the maps and the
Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red, it was
unbelievable, and they didn't know what to say? (Applause.)
And you know we have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College
-- popular vote is much easier. Because New York, California, Illinois --
you have to practically run the East Coast. And we did. We won
Florida. We won South Carolina. We won North Carolina. We won
Pennsylvania. (Applause.)
We won and won. So when they said, there is no way to victory,
there is no way to 270. I went to Maine four times because it’s one vote,
and we won. But we won -- one vote. I went there because I kept
hearing we're at 269. But then Wisconsin came in. Many, many years
-- Michigan came in.
And we worked hard there. My opponent didn't work hard there
because she was told -
AUDIENCE: Booo!
She was told she was going to win Michigan, and I
said, well, wait a minute, the car industry is moving to Mexico. Why is
she going to move -- she’s there. Why are they allowing it to move?
And by the way, do you see those car industry -- do you see what’s
happening, how they're coming back to Michigan? They're coming back to
Ohio. They're starting to peel back in. (Applause.)
And we go to Wisconsin -- now, Wisconsin hadn’t been won in many, many
years by a Republican. But we go to Wisconsin, and we had tremendous
crowds. And I’d leave these massive crowds. I’d say, why are we
going to lose this state?
The polls -- that's also fake news. They're fake polls. But
the polls are saying -- but we won Wisconsin. (Applause.) So I have
to tell you what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and
all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for
Make America Great Again. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
And I’ll tell you what, we are, indeed, making
America great again. What’s going on is incredible. (Applause.)
We had the best jobs report in 16 years. The stock market on a
daily basis is hitting an all-time high. We're going to be bringing back
very soon trillions of dollars from companies that can't get their money back
into this country, and that money is going to be used to help rebuild America. We're doing things that nobody ever thought was possible.
And we've just started. It’s just the beginning. Believe me. (Applause.)
In the Boy Scouts you learn right from wrong, correct?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
You learn to contribute to your communities, to take
pride in your nation, and to seek out opportunities to serve. You pledge
to help other people at all times. (Applause.)
In the Scout Oath, you pledge on your honor to do your best and to do
your duty to God and your country. (Applause.)
And by the way, under the Trump administration, you’ll be saying, merry
Christmas again when you go shopping. Believe me. Merry Christmas. (Applause.)
They've been downplaying that little, beautiful phrase. You're
going to be saying, merry Christmas again, folks. (Applause.)
But the words duty, country, and God are beautiful words. In other
words, basically what you're doing is you're pledging to be a great American
patriot (Applause.)
For more than a century that is exactly what our Boy Scouts have been. Last year you gave more than 15 million hours of service to helping
people in your communities. (Applause.)
Incredible. That's an incredible stat.
All of you here tonight will contribute more than 100,000 hours of service
by the end of this jamboree -- 100,000. (Applause.)
When natural disaster strikes, when people face hardship, when the beauty
and glory of our outdoor spaces must be restored and taken care of, America
turns to the Boy Scouts because we know that the Boy Scouts never, ever, ever
let us down. (Applause.)
Just like you know you can count on me, we know we can count on you
because we know the values that you live by. (Applause.)
Your values are the same values that have always kept America strong,
proud, and free. And by the way, do you see the billions and billions and
billions of additional money that we're putting back into our military?
Billions of dollars. (Applause.) New planes, new ships, great
equipment for our people that are so great to us. We love our vets.
We love our soldiers. And we love our police, by the way. Firemen, police -- we love our police. (Applause.) Those are
all special people. Uniformed services.
Two days ago, I traveled to Norfolk, Virginia to commission an American
aircraft carrier into the fleet of the United States Navy. (Applause.) It’s the newest, largest, and most advanced aircraft carrier anywhere in
the world, and it’s named for an Eagle Scout, the USS Gerald R. Ford. (Applause.) Everywhere it sails, that great Scout’s name will be
feared and revered, because that ship will be a symbol of American power,
prestige, and strength. (Applause.)
Our nation honors President Gerald R. Ford today because he lived his
life the scouting way. Boy Scouts celebrate American patriots, especially
the brave members of our armed forces. Thank you very much. Thank
you. Thank you. (Applause.)
American hearts are warmed every year when we read about Boy Scouts
placing thousands and thousands of flags next to veterans’ gravesites all
across the country. By honoring our heroes, you help to ensure that their
memory never, ever dies. You should take great pride in the example you
set for every citizen of our country to follow. (Applause.)
Generations of American Boy Scouts have sworn the same oath and lived
according to same law. You inherit a noble American tradition, and as you
embark on your lives, never cease to be proud of who you are and the principles
you hold dear and stand by. Wear your values as your badge of honor. What you've done, few have done before you. What you've done is
incredible. What you've done is admired by all. So I want to
congratulate you, Boy Scouts. (Applause.)
Let your scouting oath guide your path from this day forward. Remember your duty. Honor your history. Take care of the
people God put into your life, and love and cherish your great country. (Applause.)
You are very special people. You're special in the lives of
America. You're special to me. But if you do what we say, I promise
you that you will live scouting’s adventure every single day of your life, and
you will win, win, win and help people in doing so. (Applause.)
Your lives will have meaning and purpose and joy. You will become
leaders, and you will inspire others to achieve the dreams they once thought
were totally impossible, things that you said could never, ever happen are
already happening for you. And if you do these things -- and if you
refuse to give in to doubt or to fear -- then you will help to make America
great again. You will be proud of yourself, be proud of the uniform you
wear, and be proud of the country you love. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
And never, ever forget, America is proud of you. (Applause.)
This is a very, very special occasion for me. I’ve known so many
Scouts over the years. Winners. I’ve known so many great people. They've been taught so well, and they love their heritage. But this
is very special for me. And I just want to end by saying very
importantly: God bless you. God bless the Boy Scouts. God
bless the United States of America.
Go out. Have a great time in life. Compete and go out and
show me that there is nobody -- nobody -- like a Boy Scout.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank
you. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END
7:10 P.M. EDT
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