After receiving Fox News’ “Patriot of the Year Award” on Thursday night, President-elect Donald Trump discussed recent talks with Canadian and Mexican leaders, promised a review of the US election and repeated a campaign promise to deport undocumented immigrants.
It was one of Trump’s few televised appearances since winning the November 5 election.
around him Meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week, Trump boasted: “And as you know, I talked to Canada and Justin came on the plane because we talked about 25% tariffs, that’s just the beginning.”
GREENVALE, NEW YORK – President-elect Donald Trump speaks at FOX Nation’s Patriot Awards at the Tilles Center on December 5, 2024 in Greenvale, New York. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Trump again suggested that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to close the US-Mexico border, though denying the claim last week.
“The other day I spoke with the president, the new president of Mexico — a very nice woman — and we had a very nice conversation. But she said, ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ I said, ‘I’m not putting a lot of tariffs because you’re letting criminals into our country and we can’t take it anymore.’ And it stopped, it was very quick,” Trump said.
Railing against what he called the US “invasion”, Trump praised his own Choose Tom Homan as the frontier czarcalling it “central casting”.
Trump also boasted of his victory while criticizing the US electoral system, saying his political opponents tried to rig the 2024 election but failed because his support was “too big”.
“We won the popular vote by millions and millions of votes. We won all seven swing states, and we won the most votes by a Republican candidate by millions,” Trump said.
Recalling the 2020 election, when President Joe Biden defeated Trump by more than 7 million votes, Trump called it “not a pleasant night” and “a very unfair situation.” He added that “we will manage to correct things in this country, including the elections”.
He then promised to “look at the election” as he argued for one-day voting, voter ID and citizenship verification.
During the brief 10-minute speech, Trump repeated his campaign promises to increase US oil production and lower energy prices. He also promised again to fight crime and deport undocumented immigrants.
“It will be more successful than ever. We will be more respected all over the world than ever before. Countries will respect us again,” he said.
