The president, speaking in Tulsa.
Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
At his rally Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, President Donald Trump explained what happened with the ramp at his West Point commencement speech one week ago. Here is the president’s explanation in full.
To show you how fake they are, you might have seen it. So last week they called me, and they said, “Sir, West Point. West Point. We’re ready.”
I said, “Oh, that’s right, I have to make the commencement speech at West Point.” You know, they delayed it for six weeks, because of COVID. So they delayed it. And I went there. One thousand one hundred and six cadets were graduated, and beautiful. Right? Beautiful get-up.
So—this is just to show you how bad the fake news is—so they say to me, “Sir, we’re ready to go.”
I say, “Let’s go!” This is after saying hello to a lot of cadets, inspecting little areas of a building that was very exciting, actually it’s beautiful, very old. Studied a lot of our great generals, some of our presidents that went there. West Point is beautiful, right on the Hudson River.
But after an hour—the general that runs it is a fantastic guy—after an hour, we land, we do some more inspections, and they say, “Sir, are you ready?”
“Yes, I am!”
So we walk like the equivalent of about three blocks, which is fine. We go on stage, which is fine. They make speeches, then I make a speech, it lasted a long time, maybe 45 minutes, maybe longer, I dunno, but a long time. The sun is pouring down on me, okay?
But they said to me before the speech, “Sir, would you like to salute each cadet? Each single cadet? Or maybe they’ll be in groups of two. Would you like to salute? Like this? Like this?” Almost six hundred times, do you know what that is? SIX HUNDRED TIMES! Thank God they were in twos! ’Cause let me tell you, you do that six hundred times, you go home and you say—it’s like a workout without a weight, right? Six hundred times! So I did that.
Then the incredible helicopters, brand new, gorgeous helicopters, the Apaches and the other new ones that we just bought, so they fly over. And the kids throw the hats in the air, it’s beautiful, it really is, and it was a beautiful day. And we’re all finished. I was on the stage for hours—HOURS!—sun, I came home, I had a nice tan, meaning I had a nice sunburn. The sun’s going right like that.
But I make the speech, right? I salute for probably an hour and a half, maybe more, but around that. Watch, if I’m off by two minutes, they’ll say, “He exaggerated! It was only an hour and twenty-five minutes. He exaggerated! He lied! He lied! He’s a liar!” These people are sick, the fake news.
So then, I finish saluting. My final salute, I said, “Thank goodness, thank you very much.” But think of it, so, essentially almost 600 times.
Now, the general says, “Sir, are you ready?”
I said, “I’m ready, general, where are we going now?” You have to understand, I left early in the morning to get there. Now it’s sort of late in the afternoon. A lot of these fakers were with us, so they know.
He said, “Sir, we can now leave the stage.”
I said, “That’s great, general, I’ll follow you.”
And he goes like this: “Right here, sir.” And the stage was higher than this one, and the ramp was probably ten yards long.
I say, “General!” Now, you gotta understand, I have the whole corps of cadets looking at me. And I want them to love their president, I did this big thing. I love them, I love them, they’re incredible. And they do! I said, “General! I’ve got myself a problem, general, because I’m wearing leather-bottomed shoes.” Which is good, if you’re walking on flat surfaces. It’s not good for ramps. And if I fall down—look at all those press back there, look at them.
And this was a steel ramp. You all saw it, ’cause everybody saw it. This was a steel ramp. It had no handrail. It was like an ice skating rink! And I said, “General, I have a problem,” and he didn’t understand that at first. I said, “There’s no way!” He understood. I just saluted almost 600 times, I just made a big speech, I sat for other speeches, I’m being baked. I’m being baked like a cake. I said, “General, there’s no way I can make it down that ramp without falling on my ass, general. I have no railing.” It’s true!
So I said, “Is there, like, something else around?”
He said “Sir, the ramp is ready to go! Grab me, sir, grab me!” I didn’t really want to grab him. You know why? ’Cause I said, “That’ll be a story too.”
So now I have a choice: I can stay up there another couple of hours and wait till I’m rescued, or I can go down this really steep, really, really, really—it’s an ice-skating rink, it’s brutal. So I said, “General, get ready, ’cause I may grab you so fast.” Because I can’t fall with the fake news watching.
If I fall, if I fall, I remember when President Ford fell out of the plane, you remember? I remember when another president, nice man, threw up in Japan, and they did slow-motion replays. It’s true! Right? “I don’t want that, general.” So he’s standing there, big strong guy, and he’s got these shoes, but they’re loaded with rubber on the bottom. Because I looked, the first thing I did, I looked at his shoes. Then I looked at mine. Very, very slippery. So I end up saying, “Okay, general, let’s go. I will only grab you if I need you.” That’s not a good story, falling would be a disaster. It turned out to be worse than anything. I would have been better off if I fell and slid down the damn ramp. Right?
So what happens is I start the journey. Inch by inch, right? And I was really bent over, too, I didn’t like that, you know, I didn’t like this picture. This picture I’m sure will be an ad by the fakers. So I was bent over, right? And then we finally reached almost the end, and the fake news, the most dishonest human beings, they cut it off, you know why? Because when I was ten feet short, I said, “General, I’m sorry,” and I ran down the rest, right? I looked very handsome, that, that was the only good part. I wouldn’t want to run down the whole thing, because a fall there would be definitely bad.
So I took these little steps, I ran down the last ten. And by the way, their tape? Take a look. In almost every instance, it ends just before I run. And they said it was the number one trending story. I called my wife, I said, “How good was that speech?” I thought it was a—hey, look, I will tell you when I make good ones and bad ones. Like so far tonight, I’m average. But we’re having fun. We’re having fun. So far tonight.
But I call my wife and I said, “How good was it, darling?”
She said, “You’re trending number one.”
I said, to our great first lady, I said, “Lemme ask you a question. Was it that good, the speech, that I’m trending number one? Because I felt it was really good.”
“No, no, they don’t even mention the speech. They mention the fact that you may have Parkinson’s Disease.” It’s true. It’s true. IT’S TRUE!
They say, “There’s something wrong with our president!” I’ll let you know if there’s something wrong, okay? I’ll let you know if there’s something—I’ll tell you what: There’s something wrong with Biden, that I can tell you.
So then my wife said, “Well, it wasn’t only the ramp. Did you have water?”
I said, “Yeah, I was speaking for a long time. I didn’t want to drink it, but I wanted to wet my lips a little bit, you know? You’re drinking for, you’re working hard up there, with the sun pouring down on you.” I love this location, the sun’s like this, this way they save on lighting, right? That’s why they did it, probably. So what happens is I said, “What does it have to do with water?”
They said, “You couldn’t lift your hand up to your mouth with water.”
I said, “I just saluted 600 times! Like this! And this was before I saluted, so what’s the problem?”
She said, “Well, I know what you did, you had on a very good red tie that’s sort of expensive.” It’s silk, because they look better, they have a better sheen to ’em. And I don’t want to get water on the tie, and I don’t want to drink much, so I lifted up the water. I see we have a little glass of water, where the hell did this water come from, right? Where did it come from? And I looked down at my tie, ’cause I’ve done it, I’ve taken water, and it spills down into your tie, it doesn’t look good for a long time. And frankly the tie is never the same. So I put it up to my lip, and then I say—because I don’t want it to! Just in case. And they gave me another disease. They gave me another disease.
Anyway, that’s a long story, but here’s the story. I have lived with more the ramp than the water, but I’ve lived with the ramp and the water since I left West Point. Not one media group said I made a good speech or I made a great speech. But the kids loved it, because they broke their barrier, which wasn’t good in terms of COVID, but they broke their barrier, and they wanted to shake hands, they wanted to, and I don’t want to tell anybody, but there were a couple of kids, they put out their hand and I actually shook their hand, okay? I actually shook it. ’Cause they were excited. They were excited! They’re with their president, they were excited. The most beautiful young people, men, women, the most beautiful young people you’ve ever seen. So think of how you feel, if you’re me. I go there. “How did I do?”
“Sir, that was a great speech.” You know, all my people, “Sir, that was one of your best, that was great.”
I say, “That’s great, I agree, it was a good speech. I liked that speech.” They don’t mention the speech, but they have me going down this ramp at an inch at a time. It’s so unfair. It really is. So unfair. They are among the most dishonest people anywhere on earth. They’re bad people. Bad people.
Okay, that’s enough of that. I wanted to tell that story. Does everybody understand that story?
"What" - Google News
June 21, 2020 at 09:32AM
https://ift.tt/3dkS2v4
At His Tulsa Rally, Trump Explains What Happened With the West Point Ramp - Slate
"What" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3aVokM1
https://ift.tt/2Wij67R
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "At His Tulsa Rally, Trump Explains What Happened With the West Point Ramp - Slate"
Post a Comment