President Trump offered his thanks to members of the military serving overseas on Thanksgiving -– holding a video call with those at posts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Bahrain, and aboard the USS Monterey.
“We totally support you, and in fact we love you, we really do, we love you, and this is a Thanksgiving you will not forget. You are in a different part of the world than you are used to but, boy, are you doing a job there,” the president said.
The president also rattled off his accomplishments as president and assured the service-members that they are fighting “for something good.”
“I know it’s hard to be away from home at this time of the year. We’re doing well at home,” the president said. “The economy is doing really great. When you come back you’re going to see with the jobs and companies coming back to our country, and the stock market just hit a record high, unemployment is the lowest it’s been in 17 years, so you’re fighting for something real, you’re fighting for something good.
“A lot of things have happened with our country over the last short period of time.”
The president then referenced his administration’s battle to pass a tax reform package before the year’s end, telling the troops that the cuts will be beneficial for the economy.
“Now we’re working on tax cuts — big, fat, beautiful tax cuts. And hopefully we’ll get that and then you’re really going to see things happen,” he said.
Following his video call with troops, President Trump made a visit to a Coast Guard station in Florida to thank the members stationed there in person and specifically made note of the strength of the Coast Guard’s “brand.”
“I think that there is no brand of any kind, I’m not just talking about a military kind, that has gone up more than the Coast Guard. Incredible people, you’ve done an incredible job,” Trump said.
“You saved a lot of people and I just want to thank you on behalf of the whole country, what a job you’ve done,” the president said, referring to the Coast Guard’s tireless efforts in the response and recovery to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in recent months.
The president again touted the strength of the U.S. economy and stock market — declaring that “we’re building up wealth” to help build a stronger military.
“We have a country really starting to turn, and we want have a strong country,” Trump said. “We want to have a country where I can buy new Coast guard cutters and not have to worry about it, and that’s what we’re doing, we’re building up wealth, so that we can take care of protection.”
The president went on to say that the U.S. makes the best military equipment in the world but that he advises the military to make the U.S. equipment “a little bit better” than what it might sell to our allies.
“I always say make ours a little bit better, keep about 10 percent in the bag, because nobody has what we have,” Trump said.
