A look at the days latest news and headlines. Own. Trial of Paul Manafort started today. And it could weigh heavy on the future and the direction of that probe and americas confidence in whether or not the socalled collusion really exists. More on all that in a moment. But first, straight away to Phil Keating Live At Trump Rally in tampa. Is he there and what is tonight all about . Good evening. Tonight is all about those two things you mention. Number one, traditional make America Great again rally and also the president is going to reiterate his very strong endorsement on republican congressman of florida ron desantis, who is in a primary battle with the agricultural secretary to become floridas next governor. By the sounds of things, it has been rock n roll pumped loudly here all day, i think steven tyler and aerosmith are going to be the last people on the p. A. Before the president is introduced because he got here about 15 minutes ago to the state fairgrounds. This has been multiple hours
archives and blows the dust off a decade old case that was never prosecuted against manafort for lack of evidence, and who was presiding back in those days . A guy by the name of rod rosenstein. They chose not to go after manafort. Now all of a sudden rosenstein is presiding over mueller in the special counsel case. He is bringing action against manafort. Rick gates has turned against him, right . Former business partner. And it appeared that the difference for men a fort was going right after rick gates. They are saying that man a fort didnt intend to break the law. If he did violate tax laws he did it without knowledge or understanding, but he trusted guys like rick gates and rick gates, the defense will say, is lying to you, the jurors because he has everything to gain to avoid prison. Bill charlie . Barack obama in 2010 lost 63 house seats in his mid term. Right now youve got an advantage about two dozen, about 23 seats. This is a part of it. A pretty good raced on there but tampa it looks like the democrat has a pretty firm lead. Looks like you can win his district. One of these direct districts that could be switched yet again, but ron desantis coming out today really from the tweets a couple weeks ago seems to have taken an edge over adam putnam in this race for florida. As he was saying earlier, it is Donald Trumps party at this point. There are all vestiges tugging him in the wrong direction at this times. But the bottom line is, not only did he run on these issues, but hes actually delivered on a startling number of them he
can swing a primary, what is your sense about a General Election . Its a little bit tougher but i think the trump Dilution Derangement Syndrome has people thinking this guy can get beaten and that is simply not true. There are independents are still giving this guy a chance. This is a big crowd here. He can turn out people in a way that i dont think weve ever really seen in modern politics. Weeps even a big crowd at i dont want to get into territory we dont president had some trouble with the inaugural crowd. But other politicians have done it. My point to you here is that when you look at this, ron desantis is there. Good question, where is rick scott running for governor. When it comes to General Election, he is running statewide against bill nelson, the incumbent senator from florida, he has to figure out how trump place. Rick scott was at the event prior, he is doing a fundraiser
we drop in now live. Here we go. President trump i am thrilled to be in this great state where we, by the way, had a great victory. With thousands of Hardworking American patriots who love our country and respect our Great American flag. We are honored to be joined tonight by some tremendous people. Congressman gus. Where is gus . Wears gus . Ted yoho. And matt gates, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, fellas. I also want to recognize state representative jose olivo and the former cochairman of my florida campaign, representative joe girders. Thank you. Thank you. And finally, i love you too. I would like to introduce a true leader, a proud veteran, my great friend, a tough, brilliant cookie. True. Hes tough, hes smart and he loves florida and he loves our country and hes going to be your next governor, ron desantis. [cheers and applause] welcome to florida, mr. President. For someone who grew up just across the bay, starting out working six bucks an hour, its a true honor to be standing here endorsed by the president of the United States. I appreciate your support, mr. President , but i appreciate more the leadership you are showing to our great country. [cheers and applause] we have the strongest economy weve had in years. We are standing behind our ally, the state of israel. We have strong constitutionalists being put on our court, including the Supreme Court. We have ended the disastrous iran deal. [cheers and applause] and under the president s leadership, we are standing against socialist dictatorships in latin america like cuba and venezuela and nicaragua [cheers and applause] florida is going in the right direction and we need to continue our success and build upon it. We cant go back to the days of
charlie chris where The Good Old Boys run the show. We can make our state without peer for Economic Opportunity if we continue with strong conservative policies. We can fight illegal immigratio immigration. [cheers and applause] always got to do is enact everify and stop sanctuary cities. We can end judicial activism in florida by appointing solid constitutionalists to our state
courts, just like the president has done to the federal court. And we can improve our Education System by stopping common core. [cheers and applause] by giving every child, regardless of circumstance, the ability to attend a good school and by getting the constitution back in our classrooms in a very big way. So, mr. President , thank you for your support, thank you for what you are doing for the state of florida, i asked for your vote on the august primary, thank you guys, and god bless america, thank you [cheers and applause]
[crowd chanting usa] President Trump thank you, ron. And Everybody Needs to support ron desantis in our August August 20th primary and in the november General Election, dont forget you have somebody, one of the group is going to be running on open borders, antiice, antiLaw Enforcement. [boos]
President Trump thats too bad. Thats too bad. [cheers and applause] President Trump thats too bad one person, one person and tomorrow the headlines will be massive protest. [laughter] too bad. Sorry about that, ron. Earlier today i also spent time with your current governor, one of our nations truly great leaders, rick scott. As you know, rick is running to replace liberal democratic schumercontrolled
nancy pelosicontrolled and new start of the democrat party, maxine waters. [boos] name is bill nelson and you know i live a lot of time in florida. The only time i see bill nelson is five months before every election. And after a while you forget whos the senator . But around five months you see him at parties and you see him around and we have to be careful because we have to make sure that rick scott wins and wins big. [cheers and applause] bill nelson voted for obamacare, which has been a totally disastrous situation. And we got rid of the individual mandate, the most unpopular
aspect and most of obamacare will be gone very soon. In fact, it was gone until one gentleman decided at 2 00 in the morning, remember . And give very much, we appreciated. And he voted against tax cuts and he wants to go in there and raise your taxes. Tell me, is that good politics . I dont think so. Bill nelson voted in favor of sanctuary cities. He opposed cates law. Bill nelson puts criminal aliens before american citizens, which is why its time to vote bill nelson out of office. Thats whats going to happen. [cheers and applause] and we have two unbelievable people, ron desantis, rick scott fighting for florida, they always will and fighting to
make America Great again. Thats what theyre doing. [cheers and applause] so im sure we all say this about our children, but i have great children, and a couple of them plus here tonight. I have eric trump, who has been fantastic. He loves his political stuff. Erics wife, who is so great, i think she is singlehandedly won state of North Carolina for trump. Thank you, larra. Didnt hurt in pennsylvania either, thank you very much. And we have somebody that nobody ever heard of, ivanka. [cheers and applause]
we started off, it was a small group, they said it couldnt be done. It was actually done quite easily. We won quite handily. We were never off center stage, you know what that means, right . The debates. We never left center stage and i said i always want odd numbers because i wanted to be in the center, i wanted to be tied for the center but we never, we never left center stage and i will tell you, cory, david, ivanka, lara, eric, don, jr. , all of them, they were fantastic. [cheers and applause] they were fantastic. And i have to say our first lady is home watching. Look at all those cameras right there. Shes home watching. And Everybody Loves melania. The love melania. She is a fantastic job. Just last week it was announced that the u. S. Economy grew at 4. 1 last quarter. It was a number that everybody said was not reachable and i would never want to say it during the Campaign Even though i believed it. I believed it, because they would not have given us the break. Fake news. Fake news. They are fake. Do you believe look at this, every night its the same thing. Wouldnt you think they would get tired of the speeches . Wouldnt you think . And heres one thing i will tell you. If they dont get ratings, those
speeches dont go on, doesnt matter. Look how many they have back there. They just cant get enough. They cant get enough. They cannot get enough and by the way, outside, if you want to go, we set up for the first time a tremendous movie screen because we have thousands and thousands of people outside that couldnt get in. So we have a big screen and big loudspeakers and i hope you are all happy out there. This is a great place to be. If youre going to be outside, be outside in the great state of florida, right . So we are setting records like never before. Since the election we have added 3. 7 million new jobs. They would not have believed it. We are in the longest positive
job growth streak in history. Think of that. Remember i said what do you have to lose . Right . Okay . What do you have to lose . And people said i dont know, is that a nice thing . No, its not nice or unnice. What do you have to lose . The africanamerican Unemployment Rate has reached the lowest level in History History thank you. You guys are great, thank you. Blacks for trump. They say blacks for trump. [cheers and applause] you knew a long time ago, didnt you . You knew a long time ago, thank you. Thank you. The hispanic Unemployment Rate is at the lowest level in history, hispanic. [cheers and applause] the asian Unemployment Rate has reached the lowest level in history. Sorry about this, women, but the Unemployment Rate has reached the lowest level in only 65 years. It will be history. It will be. [cheers and applause] it will be history soon. Give us about two more weeks. [crowd chanting usa] President Trump the veterans Unemployment Rate, oh
do we love our veterans, right . [cheers and applause] has reached the lowest level in 18 years. More than 3. 5 million americans have been lifted off food stamps since the election. American Oil Production is at an alltime high. We have never produced this much, and the United States is now a net natural gas exporter for the first time in more than 60 years. [cheers and applause] we will very shortly be the largest in the world, the largest in the world. And most importantly america is being respected again. We are respected again. [cheers and applause] and i told the story the other day, i get to meet all these world leaders. Virtually everyone comes into the oval office or wherever we are meeting and they dont know me. I meeting them in many cases for the first time. Im not sure they like me like in the case of nato, i said you have to pay your bills, youve got to pay up, but they like me, they like me. But everyone says hello mr. President , congratulations on what youve done for the
economy, its the talk of the world. The talk of the world. [cheers and applause] now that we have the best economy in the history of our country, this is the time to straighten out the worst trade deals ever made by any country on earth, they are the worst. For decades, the United States was the piggy bank that everybody was robbing. All of these other countries, our friends, our enemies, our allies. The foe. We rebuilt china, paying hundreds of billions of dollars a year with nobody there to protect your money, but we are there now. We are protecting your money. [cheers and applause] and i want to thank our farmers. Our farmers are true patriots. Because china and others have targeted china and others, remember this, have targeted our farmers. Not good. Not nice, and you know what our farmers are saying . Its okay, we can take it. These are incredible people. We can take it. You know why . They target our farmers because they know its one of our great strengths its us, its not me, its us altogether. They know its one of our great strengths. We want every farm state you have to see the middle not even the middle, it was about everything but a Little Corner of each side, but you have to see that is all red, republican red, beautiful republican red. [cheers and applause] President Trump and remember this, remember this, farms have been on a decline. Its been 15 years, ive only
been here for its pretty soon going to be close to two years, but if you look at soybeans, big crop, if you go back to election day and then moved back five years, so five years before election day, soybeans dropped 50 in price. I wasnt even here, so now we are going to open up markets, we are going to do with the way it should be and all of this stuff, you are going to make it back and its going to be made back faster than anybody would know, but we havent been treated right, we are going to make it back nice and quickly. Nice and quick. Now after years of rebuilding foreign countries, its time to finally rebuild our country, right . [cheers and applause]
President Trump in the past, politicians ran for office pledging to crack down on unfair trade. They never did anything about it. Only to get elected, and they just didnt do anything. The United States was allowed to truly get ripped off but we are not going to let that happen, im not like other politicians. Youve seen what happens, ive kept my promises. [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting] President Trump one of the
brilliant pundits that doesnt have a clue these people, how they have gotten us wrong. And you know what they were asking on election day . Where did all these people come from . Where did they come from . In tennessee, that was an early stage. They came in and they were pouring in with the early vote and the fake news was saying where are these people coming from . You know where they came from . They came from the heart. They came from people that were never happy with anybody until we came along, thats where they came from. [cheers and applause] thats where they came from. But one of the pundits said that hes made a lot of promises and you wont believe it, but hes actually capped far more promises than he made, did you ever hear that when . So. Because they will probably throwing him out of broadcasting tomorrow. Weve taken the toughest ever actions in response to chinas abuse of trade practices. And we are doing very well with china, very well and i have a lot of respect for china and i have tremendous respect for president xi of china, but this has been too many years of abuse, 500 billion a year, 500 billion. Weve helped rebuild china, we cant do that anymore. We cant do that anymore and our farmers understand it and our workers understand it and frankly our Companies Understand it. I was with one of the greatest companies in the world, the Chief Executive Officer of very short while ago and it really affects him. He said you know what, this does affect our company, but
mr. President , keep going, you are doing the right thing. I thought it was great. I thought it was great. Great company, one of the greatest. He said you were doing the right thing and i said i appreciate it. Thanks to our powerful trade policies, the Trade Deficit is falling and falling and falling and boy did it fall this quarter. [cheers and applause] the days of pondering american jobs and american wealth, those days are over, they are over. [cheers and applause] America First. America first. We are also living by two very important roles, buy american and higher american. [cheers and applause] last week i visited with hundreds of american
steelworkers who were laid off years ago because other countries were dumping steel all over our country. They are not dumping so much anymore, did you notice . And if they do, they are paying a 25 tariff or tax. [cheers and applause] President Trump so you do you know what i say to that . Dump all you want. I hope you dump a lot. Now, thanks to our tariffs, our steelworkers are back on the job, American Steel mills are back open for business. We are starting to set new records, and nobody believed it could happen as quickly [cheers and applause]
[crowd chanting usa] President Trump u. S. Steel Just Announced that they are building six new steel mills. And that number is soon going to be lifted, but im not allowed to say that, so i wont. And im very proud to report that nucor is going to build a brandnew 240 million steel mill, thats a big one, right here in florida, the head of nucor is here. Thank you. Thank you. Head of nucor. Thats a big one. Democrats want to raise your taxes. They want to destroy your jobs. They want to cross crush our industries with crippling regulations, and you know the stock market is up almost 40 since that great november day. Your 401k is are doing well. 401 k s. I tell the story i was in new york, and shake hands, i love Law Enforcement. Do we love Law Enforcement . [cheers and applause] and i was shaking hands with policeman in new york city and the first one came up to me and said mr. President , i want to thank you so much. I said what did i do . My 401 k is up 44 and my wife thinks i am for the first time, a financial genius. Shes giving him all the credit. She said darling, i love you so much and he said yes, im a
great financial wizard. But he said you are just making me look so good and all of you who has 401 k s here . I guarantee you one thing, i have your vote, i guarantee it. [cheers and applause] of course, if the fake news did a poll, they are called suppression poles. Polls are fake, just like everything else. If the fake news did a poll, it would show that im only getting 25 with the 401 k people even though they are up 44 . We are doing well, we are doing well and im happy you are doing well. They just came out with a poll, did you hear . The most popular person in the history of the Republican Party is trumped can you believe this . [cheers and applause] President Trump so i said does that include honest abe lincoln . He was pretty good, right . Remember i said we might be a little bit wild, they say hes not acting president ial and i would say its a lot easier to act president ial than to do what i do. Anybody can act president ial. [cheers and applause]
ladies and gentlemen of the state of florida, thank you very much for being here. You are tremendous people and i will leave now because i am boring you to death, thank you. [laughter] [cheers and applause] President Trump but i said i can be i used to tell them all the time, the fake news, i would say i can be more president ial than any president in history except for possibly abe lincoln with the big hat. I dont know. He looked pretty president ial, what do you think . Hes tough. Hes tough. I admit it, abe lincoln is tough but we love abe lincoln. One of these guys were not poll came out, most popular, and it was in the 90s and one of these guys is on television, cant miss a word, they see the ball, oh, my god, look at this, oh, my god,. Seven more years. Seven more. [cheers and applause] President Trump seven more. [cheers and applause] oh, my god. Oh. Weve got to find something come up with to do anything, anything to get him out, hes doing too well, this is not good. Worst of all, democrats you know that, they want to open our borders, they want to let crime, tremendous crime, into our country. [boos]
republicans want strong borders and no crime. Democrats want open borders, which equals massive crime. [boos] and on top of that, the democrats, nancy pelosi, the whole group, maxine. Maxine, she likes me a lot. She likes me. They have launched outrageous attacks on our incredible Law Enforcement officers and on ice and our border patrol, can you believe it . People that keep us safe. Their new platform, what they want to do, the democrat party, they want to abolish ice. In other words, they want to let ms13 rule our country. Thats not going to happen. Every day the brave men and women of ice are liberating communities and towns from savage gangs like ms13 that are
occupying our country like another nation would. We want maximum Border Security and respect for our heroes ice, border patrol, and Law Enforcement. [cheers and applause] President Trump and we are going to have tremendous Border Security that will include the wall, that will include the wal wall. [cheers and applause] a lot of people dont know what, but weve already started the wall. Weve got 1. 6 billion and weve started large portions of the wall, but we are going to need even the way we negotiate, we are going to need
more, to get more, and we may have to do some pretty drastic things, but we are going to get it. The democrats are not voting for what we want to do and they are not voting and allowing our values to take place in our country. We are tracking down the gang members and we are tracking down the drug dealers and the child predators and the criminal aliens and we are throwing them in jail, we are throwing them the hell out of our country. [cheers and applause] in some states democrats are even trying to give Illegal Immigrants the right to vote. They want to give them the right to vote. [boos]
and what about all of those people that are waiting in line for seven, eight, nine, ten years trying to get into our country . They dont have the right to vote. We believe that only american citizens should vote in american elections. [cheers and applause] which is why the time has come for voter i. D. , like everything else. Voter i. D. If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need i. D. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need i. D. And you need your picture. In this country the only time you dont need it in many cases is when you want to vote for a
president , when you want to vote for a senator, when you want to vote for a governor or a congressman, its crazy. Its crazy. But we are turning it around. Remember i said its awfully early to be thinking this, but i always think it. Remember the attack on Merry Christmas . They are not attacking it anymore. Everybody is happy to say Merry Christmas, right . Merry christmas. Merry christmas. That was undersea. You have these Big Department stores that say happy holidays. They say wheres the Merry Christmas. Now they are all putting up Merry Christmas again. [cheers and applause] and thats because only because of our campaign. And by the way, the evangelicals and paula white, pastor paula white, the evangelicals have been so amazing to us. They came out and they voted,
84 and double and triple the numbers that ever voted an election before. We love the evangelical christians. If you want safety, if you want borders, if you want to have a country, then you need to go out and vote republican. And very importantly, you need to go out and vote for ron desantis for governor of florida. The lobbyists and special interests fighting against my administration, many of them, they care what happens in other countries. I care whats happening in the usa. [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting usa] President Trump they are the geniuses who came up with our terrible trade deals, one after another. How about nafta, remember when they signed nafta . Remember they signed nafta and everybody just moved their countries to my companys Down To Mexico and these people are saying isnt that a wonderful thing . No, its not a wonderful thing and those companies are now moving back. [cheers and applause] these other people who lost trillions of dollars overseas and who gave us our horrible immigration laws. These laws are the worst. I am for America First in the american worker. We want to be a puppet for no
one any longer. We are not going to be a puppet any longer. My only special interest is you, the citizens of the United States. Ive had a great career, i had a lot of fun, even in florida i had a great career. Ive had a lot of fun. Ive done great. Ive done really well, beyond anything i could have ever expected and then i ran for president with no experience and i won. [cheers and applause] President Trump but you actually won. I told the story the other day, i was probably in washington in my entire life 17 times. 17 times. I dont think i ever stayed overnight. You know what im getting at, right . And we have a great cabinet now,
a couple of little changes, but we have a great cabinet, mike pompeo as secretary of state. So many great people. And we are really we have just incredible people, but i made some choices that i wouldnt have made, but im writing down Pennsylvania Avenue. Again, ive only been here about 17 times and probably seven of those times was to check out the hotel im building on Pennsylvania Avenue and then i hop on the plane and i go back. So ive been there 17 times, never stayed there at night i dont believe and then im writing down in his beautiful car, picked up at the airport by secret service, holding the hands of our great first lady. [cheers and applause]
and i look at her and i say honey, guess what . Im president of the United States. [cheers and applause] president of the United States and i didnt know anybody in washington, but now i know everybody in washington. I know the good ones, i know the bad ones. I know the wonderful people and i know this. And america now is winning again like they havent won before. We passed the biggest tax cuts and reform in american history. The biggest cuts in history more than 100 utilities have slashed rates for consumers, including right here from duke energy and tampa electric. Your rates have gone down. Over 300 billion poured back into the United States in the First Quarter and we expect to be taken back because of our new tax cut and reform plan that passed bigger than anything ever in our country, we expect to be taking back from overseas over 4 trillion. Thats a lot of money. Would never have come back before. And if our opponent had won and the democrats had won, they would have put more regulations on. They would have raised your taxes. If they would have opened your borders, gotten rid of Law Enforcement. They would not have helped your military, and you know what . Our country would be going to hell. And instead of going up, the market would be half of what it was if we are lucky because
frankly, the tax cuts were incredible to what weve done, but may be even more important are the cuts in these horrible regulations that didnt allow anybody to do anything. Job killing regulations. Weve gotten rid of more regulations than any president in the history of the United States and thats done in less than two years. [cheers and applause] President Trump i withdrew the United States from the unfair, onesided, very, very expensive job killing terrorists climate record. [cheers and applause] we repealed the core of obamacare, the individual mandate is gone. The individual mandate. Thats a beauty. Only the past administration could have come up with this. Thats where you pay a lot of money for the privilege of not paying in order to have poor health care. Other than that its a wonderful thing. So you pay all this money for the privilege of not having to pay and health care no good to start off with and we are doing great on health care. We are allowing americans to buy Better Health care for less money through association, including across state lines, you are getting tremendous competition. We passed the biggest va reform in half a century. Veterans choice. If our veterans cant get the care they need from the va, they will have the right to go see a private doctor, we will pay for the doctor and frankly we will save a lot of money and we will help a lot of vets. [cheers and applause] everybody said theyve been trying to get it for 45 years, everybody said you cant get it. Think of it. Veterans choice, they have to stand these are our great people. Whos a veteran in this audience . [cheers and applause] President Trump do you like trump . Do like the drop we are doing . Now think of it, 45 years, everybody said you will never get it passed. And i used to say before i really was wellversed on the veteran situation in health care, i used to say all the time, why dont they just let the folks go to a doctor . They wait in line for seven days, nine days, 14 days, 21 days. Some of them started off with a very modest problem. They end up being terminal because they cant see a doctor. I said why dont they just let them go see a local private doctor, pay the bill and take care of it . It will be a lot less expensive, and it has turned out to be something that the veterans. They love it. And it has passed. Its past. Theyve been trying to get it passed for 38 years. The other one is 45 and thats va accountability. If somebody treated our veterans badly, if they stole, you know this, if they were sadistic, if they were really bad to our vets, really, really bad, we couldnt do anything about it, they could steal, they could rob, they could be abusive, you couldnt say you are fired, now you can say youre fired. [cheers and applause] made a big difference. That was another one for said he will never get it done. Between Civil Service and unions, we love them both, but
between Civil Service and unions, they said you will never get it done, you will never get it approved, and by the way, we had virtually no help. Very little from democrats. Very little. Not because its not not because its not right, but they dont want to give them any victory. Look at judge kavanaugh. This is a great, highly respected man. And the good news is the republicans i believe are close to 100 which is what we need. So far, the democrats havent given us any votes and thats because they will do anything they can to not help the trump agenda, even though they know its wrong. And brett kavanaugh, highest
education, best grades, best test, best everything, they thought 15 years ago he was going to be a Supreme Court judge. Look at justice gorsuch, how good is he . [cheers and applause] so we are getting him through but its not easy because they really are. You know, the term they use is resist. Its actually resist and obstruct. Whatever they can do to resist and obstruct. And frankly, the they are lousy politicians and they have horrible policy. The one thing they are good at, they stick together and they obstruct and its unfortunate. You know we have almost 400 people trying to get into government, many of whom have left their jobs, and the democrats are holding them up with maximum delay. They are holding them up, not allowing these great people to serve their country. Its a disgrace