Trump Delivers Address at Mar-a-Lago Following Arraignment in New York

Former United States President Donald Trump said he “never thought anything like this could happen in America” in an address at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 4, after being arraigned at Manhattan Criminal Court.

Earlier in the day, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges made against him relating to falsifying statements on business records in New York to conceal other crimes. The charges stem from alleged payments to women that claim to have had extramarital relations with the former president.

“The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” Trump told a crowd gathered at Mar-a-Lago. Credit: Donald Trump via Storyful

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[LEE GREENWOOD, "GOD BLESS THE USA"] Forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land! God bless the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee. Across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston, and New York to LA. Well, there's pride this pride in every American heart. And it's time we stand and say.

I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land! God bless the USA.

And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land! God bless the USA.

[CHEERING]

- USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. And we have to save our country. God bless you all. God bless you all.

[CHEERING]

And I never thought anything like this could happen in America. Never thought it could happen. The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.

From the beginning, the Democrats spied on my campaign. Remember that? They attacked me with an onslaught of fraudulent investigations. Russia, Russia, Russia. Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine. Impeachment hoax number one. Impeachment hoax number two.

The illegal and unconstitutional raid on Mar-a-Lago right here, the lying to the FISA courts, the FBI, and DOJ relentlessly pursuing Republicans the unconstitutional changes to election laws by not getting approvals from state legislators. The millions of votes illegally stuffed into ballot boxes. And all caught on government cameras.

And just recently, the FBI, and DOJ, and collusion with Twitter and Facebook in order not to say anything bad about the Hunter Biden laptop from hell, which exposes the Biden family as criminals and which according to the pollsters, would have made a 17 point difference in the election result. And we needed a lot less than that, like about 16.9.

It would have been in our favor. Not my favorite, our favor because our country is going to hell.

And we remember the 51 intelligence agents, who said Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. It didn't exist. It was Russian disinformation. Remember that?

And that was all confirmed strongly by the FBI when they all knew that it wasn't Russian disinformation. And so much more, our elections were like those of a third world country. And now, this massive election interference at a scale never seen before in our country, beginning with the radical left to George, Soros backed prosecutor.

Alvin Bragg of New York, who campaigned on the fact that he would get President Trump. I'm going to get him. I'm going to get him.

This is a guy campaigning. You want to get President Trump at any cost? And this before he knew anything about me, didn't know a thing about me. He was campaigning.

As it turns out virtually, everybody that has looked at this case, including rhinos, and even hardcore Democrats say, there is no crime, and that it should never have been brought, never happened have been brought, everybody.

Even people that aren't big fans have said. If they said, this is not the right thing to do, it's an insult to our country as the world is already laughing at us for so many other reasons like our open borders, our incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan, where we left behind American citizens. $85 billion worth of the best military equipment in the world.

Lost 13 magnificent young lives, and far too many to mention that are so badly hurt with the loss of arms, and legs, and facial obliteration. The most embarrassing time in our country's history, in my opinion. Then our give up on energy independence, and even energy dominance.

We're going to be dominant within six months, more than any other nation times two. We had this all just three years ago. Our raging crime statistics, if you look in Democrat run cities, numbers the likes of which we have never seen before.

The open threats by various countries of the use of nuclear weapons, something never mentioned or discussed by outside nations during the Trump administration, and which could very well lead under the Biden administration's leadership to an all out nuclear World War III can happen. We're not very far away from it. Believe it or not.

An economy that has been crippled by the biggest inflation we have seen in more than 60 years, and a military that I use to defeat ISIS in four weeks. They said it would take four years. Four weeks to kill Al Baghdadi and Soleimani. That is now gone woke at the top levels by trying to indoctrinate everyone down to the lowest-ranking patriot.

But now, they have really stepped up their efforts by indicting the 45th president of the United States who received 75 million votes, which is more than any sitting president in the history of our country.

[CHEERING]

And in the wings, they've got a local racist, Democrat, district attorney in Atlanta, who is doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call, even more perfect than the one I made with the president of Ukraine. Remember I kept saying that's a perfect call. This one was more perfect.

Nobody said, "Sir, you shouldn't say that. Many people on the phone." Or hung up in disgust because of something I inappropriately said. Because nothing was said wrong.

In fact, at the end of the call, we agreed to continue our conversation about election fraud. And election fraud, specifically in Georgia, at a later time, many people on the phone, including lots of lawyers, nobody found anything wrong with that perfect call until a book promotion tour many months later.

All of a sudden, they say, you know, I remember Trump making a call. Let's look at that. This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election, and it should be dropped immediately, immediately.

[APPLAUSE]

Then you have a radical left lunatic known as a bomb thrower, who is harassing hundreds of my people day after day over the boxes hoax. You know the boxes hoax as we call it? Just so everyone knows, I come under what's known as the Presidential Records Act, which was designed, and approved by Congress long ago just for this reason.

Under the act, I'm supposed to negotiate with NARA, the National Archives and Records Administration, which as of this date is a radical left trouble-making organization that red flags the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights is dangerous, and triggering. Can you imagine? This is what we have to deal with.

But there is no criminality under the Presidential Records Act. That is not what it's all about. We were negotiating in very good faith, proper way in order to return some or all of the documents that I openly, and in very plain sight brought with me to Mar-a-Lago from our beautiful White House just as virtually every other president has done in the past.

When FBI and DOJ officials with narrow way here, I told my lawyer to show them the very secure storage room in which they were locked. The FBI'S sole request in writing was, "Could you please put another lock on the door?" We immediately complied, "It's a lot different than the Biden situation, isn't it?"

The next thing I know, we were raided by many gun toting FBI agents, who took whatever they wanted, including my passports and medical records. Everybody was in shock. Nobody had ever heard of such a raid before. Who can't even believe it? Who would think that could happen today?

I immediately thought of the Fourth Amendment that protects against unreasonable search and seizure. But they did it anyway because our justice system has become lawless. They're using it now in addition to everything else to win elections.

Apparently, they're not looking at me through the view of the non-criminal Presidential Records Act. They came up with a new one. This is a new one.

And they're looking at me through the Espionage Act, thinking that how does that sound, of 1917, where the penalty is death. Even though that has absolutely nothing to do with openly taking boxes of documents, and mostly clothing, and other things to my home, which President Obama has done, the Bush's have done, Jimmy Carter has done, Ronald Reagan has done. Everybody's done.

In fact Hillary Clinton got rid of 33,000 emails. And that was OK. But nobody's done it like Joe Biden.

This lunatic special prosecutor named Jack Smith, I wonder what it was prior to a change. Who others of his ilk say? He is even worse than they are.

He's only looking at Trump. Yet Joe Biden took massive amounts more documents, even removed many boxes to Chinatown. We believe that.

Just got $10 million from China. Where did that come from? I guess they were banking on Hunter's expertise, and had other stored in unsecured offices in Pennsylvania, and strewn all over his garage floor, where his now very famous Corvette is also stored. All over the floor, including classified documents. But that's OK.

Perhaps most importantly, he has 1850 boxes in Delaware, which he is refusing to give up. But isn't that real obstruction? That's obstruction.

As president, I have the right to declassify documents. And the process is automatic. If I take them with me, it's automatic declassified.

Biden was vise president. He had absolutely no right to declassify as vise president. He doesn't come under the noncriminal Presidential Records Act. He comes under the very criminal federal Records Act unfortunately for him. But it's not going to matter because they don't follow the law, which has very severe penalties.

He had classified documents that he took while he was a senator, which is absolutely inexcusable. And other senators, including Democrats are outraged. But he's not being harassed and hounded like the people who work for me.

In fact, they seem to have forgotten about his documents entirely. So many thousands and thousands. It's OK with him.

They like to say that I'm obstructing, which I am not because I was working with NARA, very nicely until the raid on my home. But Biden is obstructing by making it impossible to get the 850 boxes, or explain why many documents were located in Chinatown. He can't explain it. Why were they in Chinatown? I don't know.

Lastly, I'm under investigation. This time a civil investigation by another racist in reverse, who also campaigned on. I will get Trump. I will get him.

This was her campaign. Never ran for office. I will get him.

Her name is Letitia James. And she proclaimed while campaigning quote, "I look forward to going into the Office of the Attorney General every single day, suing him, and then going home before she know me." She announced, "What is fueling my soul right now is Trump."

And that she had her eyes on Trump Tower. Those eyes are focused on Trump Tower. And didn't know the young lady. She even assured her supporters in an election promise that we're going to definitely sue him. We're going to be a real pain in the ass. He's going to know my name personally. Yeah.

[LAUGHING]

And then she claimed that I was an illegitimate president. Thank you. I think of that with all.

With all we did-- with all we did on energy, with all we did on the military, on taxes, because tax cuts and history, biggest regulation cuts in history, right to try, people able to get drugs now that aren't approved. Hopefully, you don't have that problem.

[APPLAUSE]

Letitia James vowed to use every area of the law to quote investigate President Trump, and his business transactions. Those transactions are going to be investigated she said. And that of her family, and his family, because we're going after his family, and we're going after them hard.

This is all before entering office, and all before knowing anything at all about me. But you're going to get me. This is why along with unrelenting crime, so many people and companies are leaving New York.

She said that, "I falsified my financial statements. But in fact, we're proving, and will prove that my financial statements were substantially more than we submitted not less." And in all cases have a strong disclaimer clause, and then which tells the institutions that may look at that if they want to, not to rely on the statement.

But they've got a problem with their case because number one, I'm very under leveraged. They can't believe it, all the stuff they read and gave, and have very little debt relative to the value of assets.

And importantly, not one bank has lost even $1. She was investigating me to save banks. They have very good lawyers.

But they didn't lose bucket with us during this period of time. In fact, the banks, we're talking about, made almost $200 million off Donald Trump. And they liked me very much.

We never missed a payment, never got a default notice, had a great relationship with all of them. I don't need banks. They have a lot of cash. I built a great business with my family, built a fantastic business.

[APPLAUSE]

I have a son here, who's done a great job. And I have another son here. He's done a great job.

[APPLAUSE]

[INAUDIBLE]

And Ivanka and Barron will be great someday. He's tall. He is and he's smart.

But I have a great family. And they've done a fantastic job. And we appreciate it very much. They've gone through a hell.

[APPLAUSE]

So she's suing me over banks that weren't defrauded when she should be focused on violent crime that's driving people out of the state. This is a persecution, not an investigation. She's put our family through hell.

It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to defend. But our heads are held very, very high. They want to settle the case, but I want no part of that.

[APPLAUSE]

So here we are now. That's where we were today, in a city that was so great just four or five years ago. But now, we're there, spend time there today as you possibly read with a local failed district attorney charging a former president of the United States for the first time in history, on a basis that every single pundit and legal analyst said, "There is no case. There's no case." They kept saying, "There's no case."

[APPLAUSE]

Virtually, everyone. But it's far worse than that because he knew there was no case. That's why last week, he delayed for a month, and then immediately took that back, and threw this ridiculous indictment together. Came out today. Everybody said, "This is not really an indictment. There's nothing here."

My lawyers came to me and they said, "There's nothing here. They're not even saying what you did." The criminal is the district attorney because he illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information for which he should be prosecuted or at a minimum, he should resign.

And Alvin Bragg's wife confirmed a report that claimed her husband has Trump nailed on felonies. She has since locked down her Twitter account. His chief prosecutor, who represented the Democrats, and crooked Hillary Clinton, and a firm run by Chuck Schumer's brother Robert.

He quit the firm in order to go to work in the DA's office in order to get Trump. Can you imagine that Hillary Clinton's lawyer, Democrat lawyer, Democrat firm? Ultimately, he quit as chief prosecutor because Bragg didn't think he had a case. Think of that same guy that brought this ridiculous thing today.

Yet during his investigation, this prosecutor named Mark Pomerantz wrote and published a book saying, all sorts of privileged things, and has been very strongly really he was reprimanded so strongly. I've never seen anything like it. I've probably the end of it.

But what he did was probably very illegal. But he was very, very strongly reprimanded. Even district attorney, Bragg was furious with him. They were having a tremendous fight in the office because of it.

But hope is never lost because various prosecutors in the DA's office also quit because they thought President Trump was being treated very unfairly. How about that? Isn't that great?

Oh, I love them. I'd like to meet them. I'd like to meet them.

[APPLAUSE]

The DA's office even had a web page. Meet the Team of Executives Who Have Done This to President Trump. That was the title. And then nice. They immediately had to take it down.

Meanwhile, overall, crime in New York was up 30% last year. Much more than that the year before with felony assaults, robberies, and burglaries all up by massive, massive numbers. Not the same place that I know. Not the same place that you know.

And this is where we are right now. I have a Trump hating judge with a Trump hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris, and now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign, and a lot of it.

We recently had another trial. And the same judge told the fine man who worked for me for many, many years, that if you admit your guilt, you will be in jail for 90 days. But if you don't, if we go through a trial, and you're found guilty, you're going away for 10 years, and maybe longer. Which for a 75-year-old man with a great family, really means life.

What the prosecutors and judge did to that man, I will never forget because it's right out of the old Soviet Union. That's where we are. They said, "You say anything about Trump, meaning that's bad, and you won't even have to serve the 90 days. You'll walk free." And they say that many of my employees.

We have this Jack Smith lunatic threatening people every single day through his representatives. They're threatening jail terms. But talk about Trump, and you'll go free. This is where we are as a nation.

Who would have thought they can't beat us at the ballot box. So they try and beat us through the law. That's the country in which we live. However, right now, the USA is a mess.

Our economy is crashing. Inflation is out of control. Russia has joined with China. Can you believe that?

Saudi Arabia has joined with Iran. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have formed together is a menacing, and destructive coalition would have never happened. If I were your president, would never have happened, nor would Russia attacking Ukraine have happened. All of those lives would be saved, all of those beautiful cities would be standing.

Our currency is crashing, and will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat frankly in 200 years. There will be no defeat like that. That will take us away from being even a great power.

If you took the five worst presidents in the history of the United States and added them up, they would not have done near the destruction to our country as Joe Biden and the Biden administration have done.

[APPLAUSE]

Incredibly, we are now a failing nation. We are a nation in decline. And now, these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement. We can't let that happen.

[APPLAUSE]

With all of this being said, and with a very dark cloud over our beloved country, I have no doubt, nevertheless, that we will make America great again.

Thank you very much. God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

[MUSIC PLAYING]