Pool report #23: Speech excerpts
Sent: Wednesday, July 1, 2026 1:53 PM MDT
To: DL WHO Wranglers
Subject: Pool report #23: Speech excerpts
POTUS still speaking. Sharing a few highlights:
Says we are winning Iran war “very easily”
Talks about Panama Canal, says “we gave it away”
Says Canal was “a little bit like Venezuela,” partly in that it was profitable
Says we did very well in Venezuela
America the greatest country in the world and “we’re not gonna let communists get in our way”
It is 80 degrees and sunny. Many in the crowd are fanning themselves.
Some more excerpts on background from the White House:
On Background
Speech Excerpts:
Today, we come to the heartland of America to pay tribute to a man who embodied the HEART, SOUL, FIGHT, and SPIRIT of our country as much as anyone who ever lived—President Theodore Roosevelt.
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As a young boy, he saw Lincoln’s casket pass through a nation torn apart by Civil War—and by the end of his sixty years, T.R. had transformed this country by the reach of his vision and the force of his will into a great power and empire, ready to take its rightful place as the strongest, most respected nation in the world.
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The life of Theodore Roosevelt reminds us that Americans never give up. He never stopped, never quit, and never surrendered in pursuit of his dreams, or his pursuit of America’s Destiny—and neither will we.
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Our ancestors were the people who raised up New York City from the marshes of Manhattan, and then ventured into the Dakotas to carve a life in the place they called “Hell with the Fires Burned Out.”
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Theodore Roosevelt reminds us all that to be a great nation, and to be a free nation, we must have Courage. As T.R. once put it, “Freedom is not a gift that lasts long in the hands of cowards.”
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As we enter our 250th Year, Americans must never forget we are a historic and heroic people, with a heroic spirit, and a heroic purpose in this world.
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Theodore Roosevelt believed in an America that worked. He refused to accept failure, mediocrity, corruption, decay, or decline—and neither should we.
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T.R. was also a staunch and ferocious opponent of Communism. He said, “The doctrines of Communistic Socialism, if consistently followed, mean the ultimate annihilation of civilization.”
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Theodore Roosevelt understood that grand and righteous ambition is not a vice, it is an American virtue—it won us our country, and it has been among the greatest forces for progress the world has ever known.
A nation, like an individual, either RISES or FALLS, BUILDS or DECAYS, LIVES or DIES.
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He boldly fought for what he called a “New Nationalism”— putting the needs of the whole nation and all the people above partisanship, lobbyists, identity politics, and special interests. He knew that true patriotism demanded caring for the Worker, the Environment, and the Health, Culture, and Integrity of the nation itself.
If our Declaration of Independence means anything at 250 years, it is surely that the duty of our government is to serve the American People, and ONLY the American People. It is to put America First.
Caitlin Babcock | Staff Writer
The Christian Science Monitor