‘With a heart full of gratitude and boundless optimism’: Text of Trump’s acceptance speech

FPI / August 28, 2020

President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the conclusion of Thursday’s Republican National Convention:

Friends, delegates, and distinguished guests: I stand before you tonight honored by your support; proud of the extraordinary progress we have made together over the last four years; and brimming with confidence in the bright future we will build for America over the NEXT four years!

As we begin this evening, our thoughts are with the wonderful people who have just come through the wrath of Hurricane Laura. We are working closely with state and local officials in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, sparing no effort to save lives. While the hurricane was fierce, one of the strongest to make landfall in 150 years, the casualties and damage were far less than thought possible only 24 hours ago. This is due to the great work of FEMA, law enforcement, and the individual states. I will be going this weekend. We are one national family, and we will always protect, love and care for each other.

Here tonight are the people who have made my journey possible, and filled my life with so much joy.

For her incredible service to our nation and its children, I want to thank our magnificent First Lady. I also want to thank my amazing daughter Ivanka for that introduction, and to all of my children and grandchildren – I love you more than words can express. I know my brother Robert is looking down on us right now from Heaven. He was a great brother and was very proud of the job we are doing. Let us also take a moment to show our profound appreciation for a man who has always fought by our side, and stood up for our values – a man of deep faith and steadfast conviction: Vice President Mike Pence. Mike is joined by his beloved wife, a teacher and military mom, Karen Pence.

My fellow Americans, tonight, with a heart full of gratitude and boundless optimism, I proudly accept this nomination for President of the United States.

The Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln, goes forward united, determined, and ready to welcome millions of Democrats, Independents, and anyone who believes in the GREATNESS of America and the righteous heart of the American People.

In a new term as President, we will again build the greatest economy in history – quickly returning to full employment, soaring incomes, and RECORD prosperity! We will DEFEND AMERICA against all threats, and protect America against all dangers. We will LEAD AMERICA into new frontiers of ambition and discovery, and we will reach for new heights of national achievement. We will rekindle new faith in our values, new pride in our history, and a new spirit of unity that can ONLY be realized through love for our country. Because we understand that America is NOT a land cloaked in darkness, America is the torch that enlightens the entire world.

Gathered here at our beautiful and majestic White House – known all over the world as the People’s House – we cannot help but marvel at the miracle that is our Great American Story. This has been the home of larger-than-life figures like Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson who rallied Americans to bold visions of a bigger and brighter future. Within these walls lived tenacious generals like Presidents Grant and Eisenhower who led our soldiers in the cause of freedom. From these grounds, Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on a daring expedition to cross a wild and uncharted continent. In the depths of a bloody Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln looked out these very windows upon a half-completed Washington Monument – and asked God, in His Providence, to save our union. Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt welcomed Winston Churchill, and just inside, they set our people on a course to victory in the Second World War.

In recent months, our nation, and the entire planet, has been struck by a new and powerful invisible enemy. Like those brave Americans before us, we are meeting this challenge. We are delivering lifesaving therapies, and will produce a vaccine BEFORE the end of the year, or maybe even sooner! We will defeat THE VIRUS, end the pandemic, and emerge stronger than ever before.

What united generations past was an unshakable confidence in America’s destiny, and an unbreakable faith in the American People. They knew that our country is blessed by God, and has a special purpose in this world. It is that conviction that inspired the formation of our union, our westward expansion, the abolition of slavery, the passage of civil rights, the space program, and the overthrow of fascism, tyranny and communism.

This towering American spirit has prevailed over every challenge, and lifted us to the summit of human endeavor.

And yet, despite all of our greatness as a nation, everything we have achieved is now endangered. This is the most important election in the history of our country. At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas.

This election will decide whether we SAVE the American Dream, or whether we allow a socialist agenda to DEMOLISH our cherished destiny.

It will decide whether we rapidly create millions of high paying jobs, or whether we crush our industries and send millions of these jobs overseas, as has foolishly been done for many decades.

Your vote will decide whether we protect law abiding Americans, or whether we give free reign to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens.

And this election will decide whether we will defend the American Way of Life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.

At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice. So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?

In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just, and exceptional nation on earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins.

Our opponents say that redemption for YOU can only come from giving power to THEM. This is a tired anthem spoken by every repressive movement throughout history.

But in this country, we don’t look to career politicians for salvation. In America, we don’t turn to government to restore our souls – we put our faith in Almighty God.

Joe Biden is not the savior of America’s soul – he is the destroyer of America’s Jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American Greatness.

For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses, and told them he felt their pain – and then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship their jobs to China and many other distant lands. Joe Biden spent his entire career outsourcing the dreams of American Workers, offshoring their jobs, opening their borders, and sending their sons and daughters to fight in endless foreign wars.

Four years ago, I ran for President because I could not watch this betrayal of our country any longer. I could not sit by as career politicians let other countries take advantage of us on trade, borders, foreign policy and national defense. Our NATO partners, as an example, were far behind in their defense payments. But at my strong urging, they agreed to pay $130 billion more a year. This will ultimately go to $400 billion. Secretary General Stoltenberg, who heads NATO, was amazed, and said that President Trump did what no one else was able to do.

From the moment I left my former life behind, and a good life it was, I have done nothing but fight for YOU.

I did what our political establishment never expected and could never forgive, breaking the cardinal rule of Washington Politics. I KEPT MY PROMISES.

Together, we have ended the rule of the failed political class – and they are desperate to get their power back by any means necessary. They are angry at me because instead of putting THEM FIRST, I put AMERICA FIRST!

Days after taking office, we shocked the Washington Establishment and withdrew from the last Administration’s job-killing Trans Pacific Partnership. I then approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, ended the unfair and costly Paris Climate Accord, and secured, for the first time, American Energy Independence. We passed record-setting tax and regulation cuts, at a rate nobody had ever seen before. Within three short years, we built the strongest economy in the history of the world.

Washington insiders asked me NOT to stand up to China – they pleaded with me to let China continue stealing our jobs, ripping us off, and robbing our country blind. But I kept my word to the American People. We took the toughest, boldest, strongest, and hardest hitting action against China in American History.

They said that it would be impossible to terminate and replace NAFTA – but again, they were wrong. Earlier this year, I ended the NAFTA nightmare and signed the brand new U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement into law. Now auto companies and others are building their plants and factories in America, not firing their employees and deserting us.

In perhaps no area did the Washington special interests try harder to stop us than on my policy of pro-American immigration. But I refused to back down – and today America’s borders are more secure than EVER before. We ENDED catch-and-release, stopped asylum fraud, took down human traffickers who prey on women and children, and we have deported 20,000 Gang Members and 500,000 Criminal Aliens. We have already built 300 miles of Border Wall – and we are adding 10 new miles every single week. The Wall will soon be complete, and it is working beyond our wildest expectations.

We are joined this evening by members of the Border Patrol union, representing our country’s courageous border agents. Thank you all.

When I learned that the Tennessee Valley Authority laid off hundreds of American Workers and forced them to train their lower-paid foreign replacements, I promptly removed the Chairman of the Board. And now, those talented American Workers have been RE-HIRED and are back providing power to Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. They have their old jobs back, and some are here with us this evening. Please stand.

Last month, I took on Big Pharma and signed orders that will massively lower the cost of your prescription drugs, and to give critically ill patients access to lifesaving cures, we passed the decades long-awaited RIGHT TO TRY legislation. We also passed VA Accountability and VA Choice.

By the end of my first term, we will have approved more than 300 federal judges, including two great new Supreme Court Justices. To bring prosperity to our forgotten inner cities, we worked hard to pass historic criminal justice reform, prison reform, opportunity zones, the long-term funding of historically black colleges and universities, and, before the China Virus came in, produced the best unemployment numbers for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans ever recorded. I have done more for the African-American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president. I have done more in three years for the black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years—and when I’m reelected, the best is yet to come!

When I took office, the Middle East was in total chaos. ISIS was rampaging, Iran was on the rise, and the war in Afghanistan had no end in sight. I withdrew from the terrible, one-sided Iran Nuclear Deal. Unlike many presidents before me, I kept my promise, recognized Israel’s true capital and moved our Embassy to Jerusalem. But not only did we talk about it as a future site, we got it built. Rather than spending $1 billion on a new building as planned, we took an already owned existing building in a better location, and opened it at a cost of less than $500,000. We also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and this month we achieved the first Middle East peace deal in 25 years. In addition, we obliterated 100 percent of the ISIS Caliphate, and killed its founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Then, in a separate operation, we eliminated the world’s number one terrorist, Qasem Soleimani.

Unlike previous administrations, I have kept America OUT of new wars – and our troops are coming home. We have spent nearly $2.5 trillion on completely rebuilding our military, which was very badly depleted when I took office. This includes three separate pay raises for our great warriors. We also launched the Space Force, the first new branch of the United States military since the Air Force was created almost 75 years ago.

We have spent the last four years reversing the damage Joe Biden inflicted over the last 47 years.

Biden’s record is a shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime. He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history. Biden voted for the NAFTA disaster, the single worst trade deal ever enacted; he supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, one of the greatest economic disasters of all time. After those Biden calamities, the United States lost 1 in 4 manufacturing jobs. The laid off workers in Michigan, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and many other states didn’t want Joe Biden’s hollow words of empathy, they wanted their jobs back!

As Vice President, he supported the Trans Pacific Partnership which would have been a death sentence for the U.S. Auto Industry; he backed the horrendous South Korea trade deal, which took many jobs from our country. He repeatedly supported mass amnesty for illegal immigrants. He voted FOR the Iraq War; he opposed the mission to take out Osama bin Laden; he opposed killing Soleimani; he oversaw the rise of ISIS, and cheered the rise of China as “a positive development” for America and the world. That’s why China supports Joe Biden and desperately wants him to win.

China would own our country if Joe Biden got elected. Unlike Biden, I will hold them fully accountable for the tragedy they caused.

In recent months, our nation, and the rest of the world, has been hit with a once-in-a-century pandemic that China allowed to spread around the globe. We are grateful to be joined tonight by several of our incredible nurses and first responders – please stand and accept our profound thanks. Many Americans have sadly lost friends and cherished loved ones to this horrible disease. As one nation, we mourn, we grieve, and we hold in our hearts forever the memories of all of those lives so tragically taken. In their honor, we will unite. In their memory, we will overcome.

When the China Virus hit, we launched the largest national mobilization since World War II. Invoking the Defense Production Act, we produced the world’s largest supply of ventilators. Not a single American who has needed a ventilator has been denied a ventilator. We shipped hundreds of millions of masks, gloves and gowns to our front line healthcare workers. To protect our nation’s seniors, we rushed supplies, testing kits, and personnel to nursing homes and long term care facilities. The Army Corps of Engineers built field hospitals, and the Navy deployed our great hospital ships.

We developed, from scratch, the largest and most advanced testing system in the world. America has tested more than every country in Europe put together, and more than every nation in the Western Hemisphere COMBINED. We have conducted 40 million more tests than the next closest nation.

We developed a wide array of effective treatments, including a powerful anti-body treatment known as Convalescent Plasma that will save thousands of lives. Thanks to advances we have pioneered, the fatality rate has been reduced by 80 percent since April.

The United States has among the lowest case fatality rates of any major country in the world. The European Union’s case fatality rate is nearly three times higher than ours. Altogether, the nations of Europe have experienced a 30 percent greater increase in excess mortality than the United States.

We enacted the largest package of financial relief in American history. Thanks to our Paycheck Protection Program, we have saved or supported more than 50 million American jobs. As a result, we have seen the smallest economic contraction of any major western nation, and we are recovering much faster. Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, a new record.

Unfortunately, from the beginning, our opponents have shown themselves capable of nothing but a partisan ability to criticize. When I took bold action to issue a travel ban on China, Joe Biden called it hysterical and xenophobic. If we had listened to Joe, hundreds of thousands more Americans would have died.

Instead of following the science, Joe Biden wants to inflict a painful shutdown on the entire country. His shutdown would inflict unthinkable and lasting harm on our nation’s children, families, and citizens of all backgrounds.

The cost of the Biden shutdown would be measured in increased drug overdoses, depression, alcohol addiction, suicides, heart attacks, economic devastation and more. Joe Biden’s plan is not a solution to the virus, but rather a surrender.

My Administration has a different approach. To save as many lives as possible, we are focusing on the science, the facts and the data. We are aggressively sheltering those at highest risk – especially the elderly – while allowing lower-risk Americans to safely return to work and school.

Most importantly, we are marshalling America’s scientific genius to produce a vaccine in RECORD TIME. Under Operation Warp Speed, we have three different vaccines in the final stage of trials right now, years ahead of what has been achieved before. We are producing them in advance, so that hundreds of millions of doses will be quickly available.

We will have a safe and effective vaccine this year, and together we will crush the virus.

At the Democrat convention, you barely heard a word about their agenda. But that’s not because they don’t have one. It’s because their agenda is the most extreme set of proposals ever put forward by a major party nominee. Joe Biden may claim he is an “ally of the Light,” but when it comes to his agenda, Biden wants to keep you completely in the dark.

He has pledged a $4 trillion tax hike on almost all American families, which will totally collapse our rapidly improving economy and once again record stock markets. On the other hand, just as I did in my first term, I will cut taxes even further for hardworking moms and dads, not raise them. We will also provide tax credits to bring jobs out of China BACK to America – and we will impose tariffs on any company that leaves America to produce jobs overseas. We’ll make sure our companies and jobs stay in our country, as I’ve already been doing. Joe Biden’s agenda is Made in China. My agenda is MADE IN THE USA.

Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale, and natural gas – laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico. Millions of jobs will be lost, and energy prices will soar. These same policies led to crippling power outages in California just last week. How can Joe Biden claim to be an “ally of the Light” when his own party can’t even keep the lights on?

Joe Biden’s campaign has even published a 110-page policy platform co-authored with Far-Left Senator Bernie Sanders. The Biden-Bernie Manifesto calls for suspending ALL removals of illegal aliens, implementing nationwide Catch-and-Release; and providing illegal aliens with free taxpayer-funded lawyers. Joe Biden recently raised his hand on the debate stage and promised to give away YOUR healthcare dollars to illegal immigrants. He also supports deadly Sanctuary Cities that protect criminal aliens. He promised to end national security travel bans from Jihadist nations, and he pledged to increase refugee admissions by 700 percent. The Biden Plan would eliminate America’s borders in the middle of a global pandemic.

Biden also vowed to oppose School Choice and close down Charter Schools, ripping away the ladder of opportunity for Black and Hispanic children.

In a second term, I will EXPAND charter schools and provide SCHOOL CHOICE to every family in America. And we will always treat our teachers with the tremendous respect they deserve.

Joe Biden claims he has empathy for the vulnerable – yet the party he leads supports the extreme late-term abortion of defenseless babies right up to the moment of BIRTH. Democrat leaders talk about moral decency, but they have no problem with stopping a baby’s beating heart in the 9th month of pregnancy.

Democrat politicians refuse to protect innocent life, and then they lecture us about morality and saving America’s soul? Tonight, we proudly declare that all children, born and unborn, have a GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO LIFE.

During the Democrat Convention, the words “Under God” were removed from the Pledge of Allegiance – not once, but twice. The fact is, this is where they are coming from.

If the left gains power, they will demolish the suburbs, confiscate your guns, and appoint justices who will wipe away your Second Amendment and other Constitutional freedoms.

Biden is a Trojan horse for socialism. If Joe Biden doesn’t have the strength to stand up to wild-eyed Marxists like Bernie Sanders and his fellow radicals, then how is he ever going to stand up FOR you?

The most dangerous aspect of the Biden Platform is the attack on public safety. The Biden-Bernie Manifesto calls for Abolishing cash bail, immediately releasing 400,000 criminals onto your streets and into your neighborhoods.

When asked if he supports cutting police funding, Joe Biden replied, “Yes, absolutely.” When Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called the Minneapolis police department a cancer that is “rotten to the root,” Biden wouldn’t disavow her support and reject her endorsement – he proudly displayed it on his website.

Make no mistake, if you give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will Defund Police Departments all across America. They will pass federal legislation to reduce law enforcement nationwide. They will make every city look like Democrat-run Portland, Oregon. No one will be safe in Biden’s America.

My administration will always stand with the men and women of law enforcement. Every day, police officers risk their lives to keep us safe, and every year, many sacrifice their lives in the line of duty.

One of these incredible Americans was Detective Miosotis Familia. She was part of a team of American Heroes called the NYPD or New York’s Finest. Three years ago on Fourth of July weekend, Detective Familia was on duty in her vehicle when she was ambushed just after midnight and murdered by a monster who hated her purely for wearing the badge.

Detective Familia was a single mom – she’d recently asked for the night shift so she could spend more time with her kids. Two years ago, I stood in front of the U.S. Capitol alongside those children, and held their Grandmother’s hand as they mourned their terrible loss and we honored Detective Familia’s extraordinary life.

Detective Familia’s three children are with us this evening. Genesis, Peter, and Delilah, we are so grateful to have you here tonight. I promise you that we will treasure your mom in our memories forever.

We must remember that the overwhelming majority of police officers in this country are noble, courageous and honorable. We have to give law enforcement, our police, back their power. They are afraid to act. They are afraid to lose their pension. They are afraid to lose their jobs, and by being afraid they are not able to do their jobs. And those who suffer most are the great people who they want so desperately to protect.

When there is police misconduct, the justice system must hold wrongdoers fully and completely accountable, and it will. But what we can never have in America – and must never allow – is MOB RULE. In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and New York.

There is violence and danger in the streets of many Democrat-run cities throughout America. This problem could easily be fixed if they wanted to. We must always have law and order. All federal crimes are being investigated, prosecuted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

When the anarchists started ripping down our statues and monuments, I signed an order, ten years in prison, and it all stopped.

During their convention, Joe Biden and his supporters remained completely silent about the rioters and criminals spreading mayhem in Democrat-Run Cities. In the face of left-wing anarchy and mayhem in Minneapolis, Chicago, and other cities, Joe Biden’s campaign did not condemn it – they DONATED to it. At least 13 members of Joe Biden’s campaign staff donated to a fund to bail out vandals, arsonists, looters, and rioters from jail.

Here tonight is the grieving family of retired police Captain David Dorn, a 38-year veteran of the St. Louis Police Department. In June, Captain Dorn was shot and killed as he tried to protect a store from rioters and looters. We are honored to be joined tonight by his wife Ann and beloved family members: Brian and Kielen. To each of you: we will never forget the heroic legacy of Captain David Dorn.

As long as I am President, I will defend the absolute right of every American citizen to live in security, dignity, and peace.

If the Democrat Party wants to stand with anarchists, agitators, rioters, looters, and flag-burners, that is up to them, but I, as your President, will not be a part of it. The Republican Party will remain the voice of the patriotic heroes who keep America Safe.

Last year, over 1,000 African-Americans were murdered as result of violent crime in just four Democrat-run cities. The top 10 most dangerous cities in the country are run by Democrats, and have been for decades. Thousands more African-Americans are victims of violent crime in these communities Joe Biden and the left ignore these American Victims. I NEVER WILL.

If the Radical Left takes power, they will apply their disastrous policies to every city, town, and suburb in America.

Just imagine if the so-called peaceful demonstrators in the streets were in charge of every lever of power in the U.S. Government.

Liberal politicians claim to be concerned about the strength of American institutions. But who, exactly, is attacking them? Who is hiring the radical professors, judges, and prosecutors? Who is trying to abolish immigration enforcement, and establish speech codes designed to muzzle dissent? In every case, the attacks on American institutions are being waged by the radical left.

Always Remember: they are coming after ME, because I am fighting for YOU.

We must reclaim our independence from the left’s repressive mandates. Americans are exhausted trying to keep up with the latest list of approved words and phrases, and the ever-more restrictive political decrees. Many things have a different name now, and the rules are constantly changing. The goal of cancel culture is to make decent Americans live in fear of being fired, expelled, shamed, humiliated, and driven from society as we know it. The far-left wants to coerce you into saying what you know to be FALSE, and scare you out of saying what you know to be TRUE.

But on November 3rd, you can send them a thundering message they will never forget!

Joe Biden is weak. He takes his marching orders from liberal hypocrites who drive their cities into the ground while fleeing far from the scene of the wreckage. These same liberals want to eliminate school choice, while they enroll their children in the finest private schools in the land. They want to open our borders while living in walled-off compounds and communities. They want to defund the police, while they have armed guards for themselves.

This November, we must turn the page FOREVER on this failed political class. The fact is, I’m here, and they’re not – and that’s because of YOU. Together, we will write the next chapter of the Great American Story.

Over the next four years, we will make America into the Manufacturing Superpower of the World. We will expand Opportunity Zones, bring home our medical supply chains, and we will end our reliance on China once and for all.

We will continue to reduce taxes and regulations at levels not seen before.

We will create 10 million jobs in the next 10 months.

We will hire MORE police, increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement, and surge federal prosecutors into high-crime communities.

We will BAN deadly Sanctuary Cities, and ensure that federal healthcare is protected for American Citizens – not illegal aliens.

We will have strong borders, strike down terrorists who threaten our people, and keep America OUT of endless and costly foreign wars.

We will appoint prosecutors, judges, and justices who believe in enforcing the LAW – not their own political agenda.

We will ensure equal justice for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed.

We will uphold your religious liberty, and defend your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

We will protect Medicare and Social Security.

We will always, and very strongly, protect patients with pre-existing conditions, and that is a pledge from the entire Republican Party.

We will END surprise medical billing, require price transparency, and further reduce the cost of prescription drugs and health insurance premiums.

We will greatly expand energy development, continuing to remain number one in the world, and keep America Energy Independent.

We will win the race to 5G, and build the world’s best cyber and missile defense.

We will fully restore patriotic education to our schools, and always protect free speech on college campuses.

We will launch a new age of American Ambition in Space. America will land the first WOMAN on the moon – and the United States will be the first nation to plant its flag on Mars.

This is the unifying national agenda that will bring our country TOGETHER.

So tonight, I say again to all Americans: This is the most important election in the history of our country. There has never been such a difference between two parties, or two individuals, in ideology, philosophy, or vision than there is right now.

Our opponents believe that America is a depraved nation.

We want our sons and daughters to know the truth: America is the greatest and most exceptional nation in the history of the world!

Our country wasn’t built by cancel culture, speech codes, and soul-crushing conformity. We are NOT a nation of timid spirits. We are a nation of fierce, proud, and independent American Patriots.

We are a nation of pilgrims, pioneers, adventurers, explorers and trailblazers who refused to be tied down, held back, or reined in. Americans have steel in their spines, grit in their souls, and fire in their hearts. There is no one like us on earth.

I want every child in America to know that you are part of the most exciting and incredible adventure in human history. No matter where your family comes from, no matter your background, in America, ANYONE CAN RISE. With hard work, devotion, and drive, you can reach any goal and achieve every ambition.

Our American Ancestors sailed across the perilous ocean to build a new life on a new continent. They braved the freezing winters, crossed the raging rivers, scaled the rocky peaks, trekked the dangerous forests, and worked from dawn till dusk. These pioneers didn’t have money, they didn’t have fame– but they had each other. They loved their families, they loved their country, and they loved their God!

When opportunity beckoned, they picked up their Bibles, packed up their belongings, climbed into covered wagons, and set out West for the next adventure. Ranchers and miners, cowboys and sheriffs, farmers and settlers – they pressed on past the Mississippi to stake a claim in the Wild Frontier.

Legends were born – Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley, Davy Crockett, and Buffalo Bill.

Americans built their beautiful homesteads on the Open Range. Soon they had churches and communities, then towns, and with time, great centers of industry and commerce. That is who they were. Americans build the future, we don’t tear down the past!

We are the nation that won a revolution, toppled tyranny and fascism, and delivered millions into freedom. We laid down the railroads, built the great ships, raised up the skyscrapers, revolutionized industry, and sparked a new age of scientific discovery. We set the trends in art and music, radio and film, sport and literature – and we did it all with style, confidence and flair. Because THAT is who we are.

Whenever our way of life was threatened, our heroes answered the call.

From Yorktown to Gettysburg, from Normandy to Iwo Jima, American Patriots raced into cannon blasts, bullets and bayonets to rescue American Liberty.

But America didn’t stop there. We looked into the sky and kept pressing onward. We built a 6 million pound rocket, and launched it thousands of miles into space. We did it so that two brave patriots could stand tall and salute our wondrous American flag planted on the face of the Moon.

For America, nothing is impossible.

Over the next four years, we will prove worthy of this magnificent legacy. We will reach stunning new heights. And we will show the world that, for America, no dream is beyond our reach.

Together, we are unstoppable. Together, we are unbeatable. Because together, we are the proud CITIZENS of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. And on November 3rd, we will make America safer, we will make America stronger, we will make America prouder, and we will make America GREATER than ever before! Thank you, God Bless You. God Bless America — GOODNIGHT

FPI, Free Press International