Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump has said that the administration under him would rebuild the “badly-depleted” military and take care of veterans as he vowed to defeat the ISIS terror group “quickly”.
“As part of our commitment to those who serve, we are going to rebuild our badly-depleted military and we are going to finally take care of our veterans. We are going to take care of them, believe me. Our defence policy can be summed up in three very important words: peace through strength,” Trump told thousands of his supporters at Hershey in Pennsylvania, the key battleground state that earned him his presidency.
“And we are going to get the military going, folks. And we are going to negotiate tougher deals. Do we agree?,” he asked the applauding audience which responded with a cheering yes.
“Where we get more equipment for less money. For instance, you saw the other day about an airplane. Now, I have a nice airplane, but this plane is going to cost USD 4.2 billion, Air Force One. I do not want a plane to fly around in that costs USD 4.2 billion. And I did not order it, please remember this.
“But we are going to work with Boeing, we are going to cut the price way down. And how about the F-35 fighter? It is a disaster, it is totally out of control. So we are going to get more equipment for our military and we are going to get better equipment for our military, at a smaller price. Does that make sense? OK?,” Trump said.
He said his administration is not going to spend time in building new nations.
“We are also going to stop trying to build new nations in far-off lands, many areas you have never even heard of these places. OK? We are going to stop. We are going to be so strong, we are going to be so respected, we are going to be so powerful.
“We are not respected now. And believe me, it is going to turn. And we are going to have this great, incredible, powerful military. But you know what? I do not think we are ever going to have to use it and that would be very, very nice. It is America first, be very, very nice,” Trump said.
“Instead, my administration will focus squarely on the vital national security interests of the US. And that means crushing ISIS and defeating radical Islamic terrorism. We are going to defeat it, quickly,” he said, adding that to be a strong nation, one must also be a wealthy or a rich nation.
In his speech, Trump also took a dig at globalisation.
“People talk about how we are living in a globalised world, but the relationships people value most are local, family, city, state and country – local, folks, local. There is no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency or a global flag.
“Patriotism will be celebrated in our cities and taught very, very strongly to our children. And that patriotism will be the foundation of our economic plan, bringing jobs back to America. We are bringing our jobs back, folks. They have been ripped away,” Trump said as he reiterated his plan to lower business tax.
A Trump administration will lower America’s business tax from 35 per cent to 15 per cent.
“Right now, we are one of the highest-taxed nations in the world. And we are going to be among the lowest. And we are going to have jobs come pouring back.
“We want to bring in new companies and new jobs to our shores. That is also why we are going to eliminate job-killing regulations, cancel many executive orders, believe me, we are going to be cancelling a lot and lift the restrictions on the production of American energy including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal,” Trump added.
PTI