Read the full transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech at Nassau County Police Academy, New York, August 14, 2026.  

EDITOR’S NOTE: On August 14, 2026, in Garden City, New York, President Donald Trump delivered remarks celebrating major reductions in violent crime, strengthened support for law enforcement, and restored border security under his administration. He highlighted partnerships with local leaders such as Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, criticized sanctuary policies and no-cash bail practices, and outlined economic and national security achievements while pledging to continue making America safer and stronger. 

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you very much. Wow. There’s a lot of people outside trying to get in. A lot of people outside, but I just want to say a very special hello to New York and a very, very special hello, Long Island.

I love you all. I’m thrilled to be back in the state I love, and I do love it. I’m so proud of it, but it’s going in a bad direction. We’re going to change it around. We’ll get Bruce in there.

We’re going to change it around. You watch. He’s going to do well, but to be with the hardworking patriots of Nassau County, appreciate it. And we’re especially grateful to be joined by the incredible men and women of the Nassau County Police Department and a lot of other law enforcement.

I’ve known them a long time. There’s never any problems. I’ll tell you, they’re winners. They’re just winners, pure and simple. And thanks as well to your brothers and sisters in New York’s finest, the New York PD.

We love our New York PD. And we’re here today to celebrate the historic progress our administration is making together with law enforcement partners nationwide to restore law and order in America. Very simple. A very simple phrase, isn’t it? And with these professionals, it’s a very easy thing to do.

You have to give them — you have to let them do their job. That’s all there is. You won’t have any problem. That includes right here on Long Island, where under the leadership of your county executive — a great person, a friend of mine for a long time, a great political leader, a great politician, but I don’t want to say that negatively — he’s a great politician.

He wins all the time. He won in a big surprise like eight or nine years ago. Remember I said, that’s tough for you to win in that location. And then he’s won in landslides ever since, and he’s a winner, Bruce Blakeman. And I said it.

I said, when Bruce’s name got up, said, you know, if they give that guy just a little bit of a chance, just a little bit of fair treatment from the fake news and everyone else, he’s going to win. No. He’s going to win. I mean it. But under Bruce, think of this, Nassau County has been rated the number one safest county in the United States of America.

That’s not bad. That’s not bad. Think of that. The number one safest county in the United States of America. There’s, I think, 700 counties.

So it’s not bad, Bruce. Just keep it up. Do a little bit better next time. How do you top that? U.S. News and World Report gives you a perfect score in terms of crime, 100 out of 100.

And under the Trump administration, we’re working every day with leaders like Bruce and local police like we have here. We have some of the greatest police officers in the world in this room, and a lot of them, unfortunately, they’re standing outside trying to get in. Should we let them in? I don’t know. We don’t have any room, but let’s let them in anyway.

Who the hell cares? Let’s let them in anyway. But dangerous offenders off our streets, they’ve taken them. They brought them off our streets, put savage criminals behind bars. And you know what they’re doing?

They’re making America safe again. They’ve done a fantastic job. And in the past four years before I took office, our country was overrun by violent criminals. I mean, you remember just a couple of years ago how bad it was. Right?

It was really bad. Foreign gangs, savage thugs, with Biden — Sleepy Joe. What a horrible four years. That was four years in hell.

We lived in hell with Biden and the radical left Democrats. We call them Democrats now because their policies are so dumb. Fighting to defund the police. Does that play well in this room? Is there anybody that’s in favor of defunding the police in this particular — you’d be afraid to say it if you were.

And wide open borders with millions and millions of people pouring in from all over the world, including prisons and jails and mental institutions and insane asylums. You know what that is? That’s a mental institution on steroids. You know that? They come from both, including 11,888 murderers, many of whom have killed more than one person.

More than fifty percent killed more than one person. And we took them in with open arms. How stupid could we be? But we’re getting them the hell out. They’re moving out fast.

We’re getting them out. We need to help them. And the biggest problem we have, the biggest impediment we have, are sanctuary cities, you know, where they protect criminals. It’s called a sanctuary for criminals. We ought to change the name, a sanctuary for criminals.

But the day I took the oath of office as your forty-seventh president, we ended the border invasion. By the way, we have the best border now in the history of our country. We ended the war on police, and we declared a very strong war on crime.