{"id":48,"date":"2025-09-15T17:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/?p=48"},"modified":"2025-10-18T14:59:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T14:59:58","slug":"the-29-most-infamous-lines-from-donald-trumps-june-16-2015-presidential-announcement-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/?p=48","title":{"rendered":"The 29 most infamous lines from Donald Trump&#8217;s June 16, 2015 presidential announcement speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A decade of Donald.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@chriscillizza\">Chris Cillizza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jun 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ten years ago today,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/19203af5-4fc4-4394-89bc-bfac82ff48be?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">this happened:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Trump launches 2015 presidential bid atop the Trump Tower escalator\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z--HDpNMDqQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>No one \u2014 and that <em>absolutely<\/em> includes Donald Trump \u2014 could have seen what the next ten years would hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two presidential victories. Two impeachments. Two assassination attempts. One global pandemic. One riot at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not to mention a total transformation of the two major political parties. A re-imagining of the powers of the executive. A re-thinking of America\u2019s alliances and the broader global order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it all began with a speech that was widely-viewed at the time as a stunt. Trump has been talking about running for president for the better part of the previous two decades. No one thought he would do it. And even when he did do it, it was seen as a sort of circus act. The crowd at Trump Tower that day was largely gawkers and a few reporters who got the short straw in the newsroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea that what began today ten years ago today would turn into a movement that would reshape the American political system and the world order was quite literally unimaginable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To commemorate ten years of Donald Trump in our politics, I decided to go through that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/dd864c84-f803-409d-8cd3-ea8a31d7577e?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">first speech he delivered on June 16, 2015<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 line by line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>#### The 29 lines you need to see are below. This is a paywalled post. I am the only political reporter forensically examining what Trump says \u2014 and it takes time!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>#### I hope that if you aren\u2019t a paid subscriber yet, you consider becoming one today. If you can&#8217;t subscribe, please consider trying this new service to buy just the articles you choose to read (until you realize you&#8217;re spending more money on individual articles than you would on a full subscribe&#8230;.then you can subscribe!!)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To the Lines!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cWow. Whoa. That is some group of people. Thousands.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, the <em>first<\/em> thing Donald Trump <em>ever<\/em> said as a presidential candidate was a massive exaggeration about the number of people in the crowd. And away we go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>2.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cAnd it\u2019s an honor to have everybody here. This is beyond anybody\u2019s expectations. There\u2019s been no crowd like this.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was all there \u2014 right from day one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cAnd, I can tell, some of the candidates, they went in. They didn\u2019t know the air-conditioner didn\u2019t work. They sweated like dogs.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s talking \u2014 I think \u2014 about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/4d00e271-d7fb-48e1-839d-9891ba98b345?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">Jeb Bush\u2019s campaign announcement<\/a>&nbsp;the previous day in Miami. Sweated like dogs! Speaking of which,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/42091808-6c8a-4d35-b8a2-a0b0e3bf8527?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">dogs<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/42091808-6c8a-4d35-b8a2-a0b0e3bf8527?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\"><em>actually<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/42091808-6c8a-4d35-b8a2-a0b0e3bf8527?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">do sweat<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cOur country is in serious trouble. We don\u2019t have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don\u2019t have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let\u2019s say, China in a trade deal? They kill us.<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>I beat China all the time.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this month, Trump announced that a trade deal had been reached with China. Here\u2019s what the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/4aafefe8-3e5a-47f9-9e4c-9b2a05c01955?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">New York Times wrote about the actual deal<\/a>: \u201cEven if the agreement does prove durable, its big accomplishment appears to be merely returning the countries to a status quo from several months ago, before President Trump provoked tensions with China in early April by ramping up tariffs on goods it produces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cThe U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else\u2019s problems.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This line, I think, sits at the core of Trump\u2019s appeal \u2014 the notion that the U.S., despite being the biggest and baddest power in the world, had let the rest of the world take advantage of us. And it had to stop. And only Trump understood how to stop it \u2014 and was willing to take the hard steps to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cWhen Mexico sends its people, they\u2019re not sending their best. They\u2019re not sending you. They\u2019re not sending you. They\u2019re sending people that have lots of problems, and they\u2019re bringing those problems with us. They\u2019re bringing drugs. They\u2019re bringing crime. They\u2019re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the most famous\/infamous line from that first Trump speech. Remember the media coverage of how this was going to drive Trump from the race? Man were we innocent back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Get the 23 other lines from this <em>first<\/em> Trump campaign speech <em>ever<\/em>. It\u2019s $6 a month or $60 a year to become a paid subscriber!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>7.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cBut I speak to border guards and they tell us what we\u2019re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They\u2019re sending us not the right people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The use of the phrase \u201ccommon sense\u201d here is interesting. By the end of the 2024 campaign, Trump was describing his worldview not as \u201cconservative\u201d but simply as \u201ccommon sense.\u201d I honestly had forgotten he used those words in this first political speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>8.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cI said, \u2018Don\u2019t hit Iraq\u2019 because you\u2019re going to totally destabilize the Middle East. Iran is going to take over the Middle East, Iran and somebody else will get the oil, and it turned out that Iran is now taking over Iraq. Think of it. Iran is taking over Iraq, and they\u2019re taking it over big league.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump is trying to rewrite history here \u2014 the first of many times he would do so in the 2016 campaign. He did,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/e63a2208-2d81-467b-a4c9-b444cf9bcda2?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">initially, support the war in Iraq<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 although he was never particularly gung-ho about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>9.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cLast quarter, it was just announced our gross domestic product\u2014 a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Whoever heard of this? It\u2019s never below zero.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/423bdb91-4203-4b84-b307-5de2478ead9e?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">narrator voice: <em>This was not true<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cWe have a disaster called the big lie: Obamacare. Obamacare.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s funny how this was such a big issue in 2016 \u2014 and isn\u2019t even heard about these days. What happened?&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/fdce825a-5992-4809-9389-6a5830af9f5c?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">Obamacare got popular<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/b65e17b4-2faf-4644-9701-09cf1e5f6211?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ci3.googleusercontent.com\/meips\/ADKq_NYsRIS6QAQJGxCpI4GrRRqWD1iJi29vvUFmuUUpEpUMDQc2uapqk5x0T36QCpAeqXazxwrzQ8SN8b3PCe2wzDOVMsGqDmroQ00QNcdPkzUSlTcutzTXeAjd87UQTThGFh7WAdDIePF_-vNBunInKNIQvt_rC0ln37QRXlglQZsMRwjPmGTEF7OXH9k_Zagqu79TtA21w9JjnQgt3MiWmiWnYYi66X1HHOYXYHH-6Juebu2CjE5qhkcB4_bRh50QZbONLDNsNvEmimVyOnTB83y-n8GAuTYjCRtAzt_6ScFyW29PWbSu6iyI=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdbd98700-cb00-4899-bee9-fbee5a23030c_911x526.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>11.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cI have so many websites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a website. It costs me $3.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI have so many websites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>12.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cWell, you need somebody, because politicians are all talk, no action. Nothing\u2019s gonna get done. They will not bring us\u2014 believe me\u2014 to the promised land. They will not.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, this is a message that resonated with <em>lots<\/em> of people. The idea being that politicians made this mess and they weren\u2019t going to fix it. Trump won the presidency as an outsider in 2016 and, despite having spent four years as president, won as an outsider again in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>13.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cThey all want me to support them. They don\u2019t know how to bring it about. They come up to my office. I\u2019m meeting with three of them in the next week. And they don\u2019t know\u2014 \u201cAre you running? Are you not running? Could we have your support? What do we do? How do we do it?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was just waiting for him to say that the GOP candidates came to him, with tears in their eyes, and said \u201cSir, tell us how to win.\u201d But this was before the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/94b314d9-1cba-4b4a-9304-3324e948a0db?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">\u201cSir\u201d alert<\/a>&nbsp;had even been invented! The before times!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>14.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cI watch the speeches of these people, and they say the sun will rise, the moon will set, all sorts of wonderful things will happen. And people are saying, \u2018What\u2019s going on? I just want a job. Just get me a job. I don\u2019t need the rhetoric. I want a job.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wittingly or unwittingly, Trump was \u2014 in lines like these \u2014 tapping into how average people felt: That politicians in both parties had no idea about their lives and what they wanted and needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>15.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cObama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him, I actually would say. I have the best courses in the world, so I\u2019d say, you what, if he wants to\u2014 I have one right next to the White House, right on the Potomac. If he\u2019d like to play, that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/17945b3f-7caf-4c31-ac80-84b0fe4b7ef8?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">Trump spent 428 days<\/a>&nbsp;of his first term as president at Trump properties. It\u2019s not clear how often he played golf on those visits but I feel comfortable saying it was \u201ca lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>16.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cBut Obamacare kicks in in 2016. Really big league. It is going to be amazingly destructive.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[narrator voice] It was <em>not<\/em> \u201camazingly destructive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>17.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cHey, I have lobbyists. I have to tell you. I have lobbyists that can produce anything for me. They\u2019re great. But you know what? it won\u2019t happen. It won\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/28cf3f5b-49a5-4eeb-9bce-aba95ebb1799?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ci3.googleusercontent.com\/meips\/ADKq_Nb7pYGruYMqbIzIjr1mv7KphYqFGa9QDJx8iPsmoNe0suogsVpALtk4Z-yMRThORnYt9ruUvb5UcQAhSXgzlk8jKDZC_RsH7CAqAqXxtw4Av4yx8yIHTLRsErK_MIU3Mh-4OUVMmhjJCmtc9XsWSGNlf2ek1VFpZBct0Fyv_qbqWHGQOa76Jrv-O72o75oUP7fzqu6qHO0B4fZ_pnLCjYVn6QtCAoTlekSIRBmtdsMaKd7R8LaqKibnhXimoW41WbduyxwX2qPu9uZRs7ejFKzSoRR_PUr4BOtTfzs=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_480,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9fadc327-276b-4f2a-94f9-eb417bd1a4e8_480x350.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>18.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cAnd we also need a cheerleader.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>So<\/em> interesting. Back then Trump was trying to sell himself as the cheerleader-in-chief. He bashed Barack Obama for being too negative. And yet, when Trump was running \u2014 in 2016 and 2024 \u2014 he was casting America as a failed experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>19.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cYou know, all of my life, I\u2019ve heard that a truly successful person, a really, really successful person and even modestly successful cannot run for public office. Just can\u2019t happen. And yet that\u2019s the kind of mindset that you need to make this country great again.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not just a successful person. A \u201creally, really successful person.\u201d Is that kind of like being&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/4f2e6586-e068-4af9-b9ee-d4b887803f81?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/45697c84-84fc-438d-9c2b-18313129a3bd?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"728\" height=\"410\" src=\"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ADKq_NbJOgYOPPsm0QN40FYOmBH6FtRKZ6ckXJ011mzb8wdYA-b2zTzxVAoc9MzP4TrAMaskithdFNgca-vfhhunCAo_HTZxMa5Bpkx5Bqn4W0I6Xhza3wFv0PB32W_JCy5xMNyS7lBl1V_BVfY7or6-uzlqs0-d-e1-ft.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ADKq_NbJOgYOPPsm0QN40FYOmBH6FtRKZ6ckXJ011mzb8wdYA-b2zTzxVAoc9MzP4TrAMaskithdFNgca-vfhhunCAo_HTZxMa5Bpkx5Bqn4W0I6Xhza3wFv0PB32W_JCy5xMNyS7lBl1V_BVfY7or6-uzlqs0-d-e1-ft.jpg 728w, https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ADKq_NbJOgYOPPsm0QN40FYOmBH6FtRKZ6ckXJ011mzb8wdYA-b2zTzxVAoc9MzP4TrAMaskithdFNgca-vfhhunCAo_HTZxMa5Bpkx5Bqn4W0I6Xhza3wFv0PB32W_JCy5xMNyS7lBl1V_BVfY7or6-uzlqs0-d-e1-ft-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>20.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cThere\u2019s too much\u2014 it\u2019s like\u2014 it\u2019s like take the New England Patriots and Tom Brady and have them play your high school football team. That\u2019s the difference between China\u2019s leaders and our leaders.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tom Brady was a Patriot? I always thought he was a Buccaneer<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\/s\/e\/notoemoji\/16.0\/1f602\/72.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\ude02\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\/s\/e\/notoemoji\/16.0\/1f602\/72.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\ude02\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\/s\/e\/notoemoji\/16.0\/1f602\/72.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\ude02\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>21.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cI\u2019m using my own money. I\u2019m not using the lobbyists. I\u2019m not using donors. I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m really rich.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump wound up spending $66 million of his own money in 2016. Not only did he take lots of money from all sorts of people in that race,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/522b845a-8342-442d-a10b-1821641c931a?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">he also fell short of the oft-promised $100 million of his own money he publicly pledge to spend<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>22.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cSomebody said to me the other day, a reporter, a very nice reporter, \u2018But, Mr. Trump, you\u2019re not a nice person.\u2019 That\u2019s true. But actually I am. I think I am a nice person. People that know me, like me. Does my family like me? I think so, right. Look at my family. I\u2019m proud of my family.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wait so is he saying he isn\u2019t a nice person? or that he is? Or something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>23.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cI said, \u2018I think that number one, I am a nice person. I give a lot of money away to charities and other things. I think I\u2019m actually a very nice person.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>David Fahrenthold, my former colleague at the Washington Post, won a Pulitzer Prize for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/99477d98-17bb-4773-8dac-32b1ae357ae3?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">his reporting on how Trump\u2019s boasts about his charitable giving did not match the reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>24.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cBut he used to say, \u2018Donald, don\u2019t go into Manhattan. That\u2019s the big leagues. We don\u2019t know anything about that. Don\u2019t do it.\u2019 I said, \u2018I gotta go into Manhattan. I gotta build those big buildings. I gotta do it, Dad. I\u2019ve gotta do it.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is Trump recounting a conversation with his father, who was a major developer in Queens. I think it\u2019s hugely revealing about how Trump sees himself. He always felt like he wasn\u2019t in the <em>real<\/em> inner circles \u2014 that he was the kid with his face pressed against the glass on the outside. It\u2019s why he hates \u201celites.\u201d And I firmly believe it\u2019s why he ran for president in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>25.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cAnd I have assets\u2014 big accounting firm, one of the most highly respected\u2014 9 billion 240 million dollars.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only was it weird for Trump talk about his specific net worth in his announcement speech but he was also wildly exaggerating. He\u2019s never been worth $9 billion. In 2024, Forbes&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/d7d3fb53-bf27-4ac1-afd5-5b5548f2f414?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">estimated<\/a>&nbsp;his wealth at $6.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>26.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cIn fact, one of the big banks came to me and said, \u2018Donald, you don\u2019t have enough borrowings. Could we loan you $4 billion\u2019? I said, \u2018I don\u2019t need it. I don\u2019t want it. And I\u2019ve been there. I don\u2019t want it.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chances this happened are roughly 0%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>27.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cAccording to the economists\u2014 who I\u2019m not big believers in, but, nevertheless, this is what they\u2019re saying\u2014 that $24 trillion\u2014 we\u2019re very close\u2014 that\u2019s the point of no return. $24 trillion. We will be there soon. That\u2019s when we become Greece. That\u2019s when we become a country that\u2019s unsalvageable. And we\u2019re gonna be there very soon. We\u2019re gonna be there very soon.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/13676049-534c-414f-8d0b-15c5498e8b95?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">current national debt is $36 trillion<\/a>. Trump added almost&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/3b5cb423-2022-4051-bfa4-d1618d6ea1c9?j=eyJ1IjoiNWc2eTNmIn0.tLqZMLIO3sa-_q4UfylBuOD723Peb3LjUseyzdpGw0A\">$8 trillion<\/a>&nbsp;to the national debt during his first four years in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>28.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cI would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I\u2019ll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s fascinating to me is that this is the first time in the speech \u2014 and we are <em>very<\/em> close to the end \u2014 that Trump mentions building a wall to deal with immigration. Building the wall obviously became the centerpiece of Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign. But when he started, he had no idea how powerful it would be as an issue and a symbol. Which is why it\u2019s down so low in the speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>29.&nbsp;<strong>\u201cAnd I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a promise he <em>actually<\/em> kept! Yeah this feels like a good place to end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A decade of Donald. Chris Cillizza Jun 16 Ten years ago today,&nbsp;this happened: No one \u2014 and that absolutely includes Donald Trump \u2014 could have seen what the next ten years would hold. Two presidential victories. Two impeachments. Two assassination attempts. One global pandemic. One riot at the U.S. Capitol. Not to mention a total&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ledewire_sync_enabled":true,"_ledewire_price_cents":52,"_ledewire_teaser":"No one \u2014 and that absolutely includes Donald Trump \u2014 could have seen what the next ten years would hold.\r\n\r\nTwo presidential victories. Two impeachments. Two assassination attempts. One global pandemic. One riot at the U.S. Capitol.\r\n\r\nNot to mention a total transformation of the two major political parties. A re-imagining of the powers of the executive. A re-thinking of America\u2019s alliances and the broader global order.\r\n\r\nAnd it all began with a speech that was widely-viewed at the time as a stunt.","_ledewire_use_excerpt":true,"_ledewire_paywall_enabled":true,"_ledewire_content_id":"3be5392a-1041-4448-992b-e37cdb2c15e8","_ledewire_sync_status":"synced","_ledewire_last_sync":"2025-10-18 15:00:00","_ledewire_error_message":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speech-analysis"],"ledewire_meta":{"sync_enabled":"1","price_cents":"52","teaser":"No one \u2014 and that absolutely includes Donald Trump \u2014 could have seen what the next ten years would hold.\r\n\r\nTwo presidential victories. Two impeachments. Two assassination attempts. One global pandemic. One riot at the U.S. Capitol.\r\n\r\nNot to mention a total transformation of the two major political parties. A re-imagining of the powers of the executive. A re-thinking of America\u2019s alliances and the broader global order.\r\n\r\nAnd it all began with a speech that was widely-viewed at the time as a stunt.","use_excerpt":"1","paywall_enabled":"1","content_id":"3be5392a-1041-4448-992b-e37cdb2c15e8","sync_status":"synced","last_sync":"2025-10-18 15:00:00","error_message":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris-cillizza.ledewire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}