President Donald Trump gave an hour-long, rambling speech Wednesday night at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C.
House Speaker Mike Johnson introduced Trump at the event and announced the president had received the first annual “America First Award.” Johnson called the prize a “beautiful golden statue … appropriate for the new golden era in America.”
Trump then launched into a meandering speech, during which he lobbed familiar insults at his perceived political foes, including former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
“If you go back to Obama, he was a great divider. He divided this nation,” Trump said. “He was a lousy president. The worst president in history was Biden. But Obama was a terrible president.”
Trump also railed against Democrats for opposing Republicans’ SAVE America Act, which would require voters to show photo ID at the polls and prove their citizenship. Many Democrats have argued the legislation could disenfranchise millions of voters.
“You have those Democrats, they stick together. Think of it — they vote against voter ID, they vote against proof of citizenship. They vote against it,” he said.
Trump then told attendees he’s “a fan of no mail-in ballots” — despite reportedly voting by mail in this week’s Florida special election.
Earlier in the speech, the president touched on the war with Iran and claimed Tehran wants to make a deal “so badly.”
“Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re doing in the Middle East with Iran. And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” Trump said.
“They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us. There’s never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran,” he added.
At one point during the event, the president also launched into a rant about how he can’t call a waitress beautiful, “because if you call her beautiful, that’s the end of your political career.”
Trump ended his speech with a rallying call for Republicans.
“We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again, and most importantly, we will make America great again,” he said. “Thank you very much Republicans, go out and win the midterms!”
The speech, where the president was heard slurring his words throughout, follows Trump’s rambling remarks during the swearing-in ceremony for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday.
There, Trump appeared to be slurring his words as he touched on voter ID, mail-in ballots and several other topics.
