Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell spoke on the third night of the Republican National Convention on Aug. 26, 2020.
Transcript
During the presidential primary debates four years ago, one outsiders stood alone, and said in public what most Americans thought in private. It was fourteen years after the start of the war in Afghanistan, and twelve years after the invasion of Iraq. Where thousands of American troops had died and trillions in taxpayer dollars have been spent. And yet no candidate could bring themselves to admit that something had gone badly wrong with American foreign policy. That the American voter, the American soldier, and the American taxpayer had all been let down. Except for one, Donald Trump. He called America’s endless wars what they were, a disaster. The media was shocked because Donald Trump was running as a Republican. And yet he said out loud what we all knew, that American foreign policy was failing to make Americans safer.
After the end of the Cold War, Democrats and Republicans in Washington bought into the illusion that the whole world would start to resemble America. And so they started to pursue unlimited globalization. They welcome China into the World Trade Organization. They engaged in nation building in Afghanistan, and tried to export democracy to Iraq. They signed a nuclear deal with Iran, and a global climate agreement in Paris. But they didn’t ground any of it in the interest of the average American. So for decades while Washington politicians built a global system, American wages stagnated. Our great cities and industries were hollowed out. Entire communities were devastated. And our manufacturing plants were shipped off to China. That’s what happened when Washington stopped being the capital of the United States, and started being the capital of the world.
As U.S. Ambassador to Germany I had a front row seat to Donald Trump’s America first foreign policy. I wish every American could see how President Trump negotiates on their behalf. I watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany while insisting. that Germany pay its NATO obligations. I was proud to witness President Trump say to foreign leaders, I don’t blame you for wanting America to pay for your security, I actually respect you for out negotiating the presidents before me. But it stops with me. I won’t let the American taxpayer be taken advantage of. Donald Trump’s administration has always made clear that our priority is the American people’s security. That’s the job of all leaders. To put their people first. And we’ve seen how this strategy has succeeded. In four short years Donald Trump has led even some Washington Democrats to agree and the Chinese threat, on trade deals that benefit America first, on alliances that share responsibility.
In four years Donald Trump didn’t start any new wars, he brought troops home. He rebuilt the military and signed peace deals that make Americans safer. The Washington elites want you to think this kind of foreign policy is immoral, and so they call it nationalist. That tells you all you need to know. The DC crowd thinks when they called Donald Trump and Nationalists and their insulting him. As if the American president isn’t supposed to base foreign policy on America’s national interests. A return to the Biden way of thinking means America gives the radical terrorist regime in Tehran a plane load of cash in the middle of the night. Well you see, President Trump also sent an aircraft in the middle of the night to deal with Iran, but that plane was on a different mission. An air strike to take out the head of Iran’s terror machine who plotted the deaths of Americans. But we also must be clear that when those who seek freedom takes tremendous personal risk in places like Hong Kong, Tehran or Minsk, there is no doubt who President Trump’s administration supports. We will always stand with the people who fight for it there God given freedoms.
Don’t be fooled, the Washington establishment is trying to sell you on their candidate. Joe Biden was first elected to the senate in 1972, 48 years ago. Well, it’s actually the typical Washington story. Just this year 22 Democrats ran for president. They rejected all of the outsiders and nominated the ultimate Washington insider. Someone they had to pull out of retirement. Every time Joe Biden offers a new idea you should ask yourself, why didn’t he try that over the last 48 years?
Today the Democrats blame a global pandemic that started in China on President Trump, and they still blame Russia for Hillary Clinton’s loss in nineteen in 2016. As acting Director of National Intelligence, I saw the Democrats entire case for Russian collusion. And what I saw made me sick to my stomach. The Obama-Biden Administration secretly launched a surveillance operation on the Trump campaign and silence the many brave intelligence officials who spoke up against it. They presented bogus information as facts. They lied to judges. Then they classified anything that undermined their case. And after Donald Trump won the election, when they should have continued the American tradition of helping the president elect’s transition into the White House, they tried instead to undercut him even more. Former Vice President Joseph Biden asked intelligence officials to uncover the hidden information on President Trump’s incoming National Security Advisor three weeks before the inauguration. That’s the Democrats. Between surveillance, classifications, leaks and puppet candidates, they never want the American people to know whose actually calling the shots. But with Donald Trump, you always know exactly who is in charge, because the answer is you. You’re in charge. Not lobbyists, not special interests, not war mongers, or China sympathizers, or globalization fanatics, with Donald Trump and Mike Pence in the White House the boss is the American people. President Trump rightly calls his foreign policy America First. America first does not advance the interests of one group of Americans at the expense of another. It has no bias about red or blue, educated or not educated, urban or rural. America First is simply in the belief that politicians should focus on the equality and dignity of every American, and that this duty is fulfilled by promoting the safety and wealth of the American people above all else. That’s America First. That’s the Trump doctrine, and that my friends is four more years.
