Trump takes a victory lap with young conservatives

In his first rally-style speech since winning the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump raved about his election victory for nearly 10 minutes before transitioning to confidence that he would deliver on his administration’s promises, as well as touting his Cabinet selections.

Trump spoke at AmericaFest, a political festival for conservatives put on by Turning Point, the conservative organization run by Charlie Kirk that was instrumental in helping Trump garner support among younger voters through its get out the vote initiatives in battleground states.

Trump’s speech was essentially many of the proposals he has already released on his Truth Social social media platform, including his threats on tariffs and taking back the Panama Canal, as well as bragging about the amount of people that have reached out to him since his victory.

He said his remarks were “just a small preview of the common sense revolution.”

“Because that’s what I call it, a common sense revolution that’s coming soon to America, to a theater near you, right? But it’s coming to you through your president, Donald J. Trump,” he said.

Throughout his 75-minute remarks, Trump made no mention of the recently passed government funding bill, which did not include his last-minute demand to raise the debt ceiling or eliminate it. After vocally opposing the original bill, Trump has yet to make any comments on the legislation that passed early Saturday.

However, speakers ahead of Trump had something to say on the issue. Trump’s allies called for Speaker Mike Johnson to lose his speakership role over working with Democrats, called for the Republican lawmakers who voted against the package to be primaried, along with threats to Republican senators who were on the fence about confirming some of Trump’s Cabinet picks.

“Johnson’s not up to the task. He’s got to go, right? He’s got to go. Should Johnson be speaker of the House?” Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser who served time in jail for contempt of Congress, asked the crowd, which responded with a resounding “No.”

“We don’t need partisanship now. We need hyperpartisanship now. The conversation is over. We have nothing else to discuss. It’s only about the execution of President Trump’s plan,” he added.

However, when Trump took the stage, he spent most of his time touting his transition efforts.

“We have accomplished so much in just 47 days since the election. But that’s only the beginning of what we will achieve together as the 47th president of the United States of America,” Trump said.

Trump said his second administration would “turn the page” on what he called four failed years under the Biden administration.

“I campaigned on an agenda of delivering profound change to Washington, and last month, the American people voted for change like they’ve never voted before, and in overwhelming numbers, numbers that nobody saw coming. I saw them coming because I think we all saw coming,” Trump said.

Debunking an Elon Musk ‘hoax’

As tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has become more vocal about the future of the country, including a series of tweets criticizing the government funding bill, many lawmakers and pundits have started quipping that Musk is actually running the country. Trump laughed about the idea on Sunday, calling it the new “hoax” from the media and saying he likes to have smart people around him.

“And no, he’s not taking the presidency. I love having smart people…No, no, that’s that happening. But Elon’s done an amazing job. Isn’t it nice to have smart people that we could rely on?” Trump quipped, celebrating Musk’s role with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

Trump applauded Musk for his campaign contributions in Pennsylvania, helping North Carolinians during hurricane relief by providing Starlink, and his endeavors with SpaceX.

“No he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you,” Trump repeated. “I’m safe. You know why? He wasn’t born in this country. Ha, Ha.”

Trump touts his Cabinet picks

Trump spent time praising several of his embattled Cabinet picks, including his defense secretary selection Pete Hegseth, saying he thinks he will do “great” in the role.

“Over the past few weeks, I’ve nominated an all star Cabinet of some of the most determined and brilliant individuals ever to step forward for public office, and we’re getting great reviews I have to say, they’re all doing well, but we’re getting fantastic reviews on the people that we chose,” Trump said.

He again shared misinformation about vaccines being linked to a rise in autism and said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, would be in charge of investigating it.

“Think of this, 25 years ago, autism, one in 10,000 children today is one in 36 children. Is something wrong? I think so,” he said. “And Robert and I and all, we’re going to figure it out…”

Trump provided a one-sentence remark on Tulsi Gabbard, his choice for director of national intelligence, mentioning her nomination without any additional commentary. He added that he thinks Kash Patel, his selection to lead the FBI, “may be the greatest director of them all.”

Meeting with Putin

While Trump was going through his Day 1 priorities, he highlighted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments in which he said he is ready to speak with the president-elect.

“President Putin said that he wants to meet with me as soon as possible. So we have to wait for this. But we have to end that war. That war is a horrible…” Trump said, appearing to allude to public comments Putin made on Thursday.

Threats on tariffs, the Panama Canal and transgender people

Trump also reiterated his tariff threat against Canada, Mexico, and China if they don’t “step up and stop the illegal aliens and illegal drugs from pouring into our country.”

“They can’t treat us that way. They’re not going to be treating us that way for long that, I can tell you, because we’re not going to let them turn the United States into a dumping ground.”

Trump also doubled down on his threat to take back the Panama Canal, complaining about the fees being charged to the U.S. Navy and American businesses: “This complete ripoff of our country will immediately stop. It’s going to stop,” he said.

As Trump spent the last couple months of his campaign emphasizing anti-transgender rhetoric, he said he will sign executive orders on Day 1 to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender people out of the military, and keep “men out of women’s sports.”

“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female. Later, Trump railed against the “woke,” calling wokeness “bull—-.”

Tough talk on immigration

While emphasizing his tariff threat, Trump also once again talked about migrants by labeling them as violent criminals, going on to assert that he would designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, which he attempted to implement during his first term but halted after Mexico’s president at the time urged him not to.

“Every foreign gang member will be expelled, and I will immediately designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. We’re going to do it immediately. And we’ll unleash the full power of federal law enforcement.”

Trump also vowed that his immigration policies would include a robust campaign on the flow of fentanyl into America and its devastating effects.

“We’re going to show what these drugs are doing to you. Nobody’s done that before, and we’re going to do it.”

One of his Day 1 priorities, he said, will be a “historic slate of executive orders to close our border to illegal aliens and stop the invasion of our country.”

“And on that same day, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than that of President Dwight Eisenhower,” he said, calling it “Operation Aurora,” after the Colorado city that he referred to often on the campaign trail where he said immigrant gangs had taken over apartment buildings.

Thanking young conservatives and Tiktok

While touting his victory, Trump also expressed gratitude to Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA executive director, who led some of the largest pro-Trump ground efforts among younger voters.

“I want to express my tremendous gratitude to Charlie Kirk. He’s really an amazing guy, amazing guy and his whole staff for their relentless efforts to achieve this very historic victory… It’s not my victory, it’s your victory. It’s a great honor.”

Trump continued his victory lap, going on to praise the demographic shifts that happened towards Republicans while promising to unite the country. He also went on a tangent about the reach he was able to have through TikTok.

“Tiktok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views,” he said. “They brought me a they brought me a chart, and it was a record, and it was so beautiful to see. And as I looked at it, I said, ‘Maybe we got to keep this sucker around a little while.'”