Read Donald Trump’s Entire Explanation of Viral Ramp Video From West Point Graduation

Donald Trump’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally is grabbing all kinds of headlines for his latest remarks, as always. However, it seems that Trump, himself, was more focused on a previous incident that stirred up social media at the time. On June 13, the POTUS spoke at West Point’s commencement and confused onlookers when he had difficultly leaving the stage. Specifically, Trump seemed to have trouble walking down a ramp.

Some used this footage to question Trump’s health, and that seemed to set him off. After previously lashing out at the focus on the moment, Trump once again talked about the viral clip during his Saturday evening rally. In a 14-minute stream of consciousness (complete with re-enactments), Trump, who is currently running for re-election, explained the trouble he had walking down the slope. Scroll through for the full transcript, which was first transcribed by News.com.au.

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“You know, it was interesting. To show you how fake they are. You might have seen it,” he said.” So last week they called me, and they say, ‘Sir, West Point. West Point. We’re ready.’ I said, ‘Oh that’s right, I have to make a commencement speech at West Point.’ You know they delayed it for six weeks because of COVID. So they delayed it.

“And I went there, 1,106 cadets were graduating, and beautiful. Beautiful cadets. So, just to show you how bad the fake news is. So, they say to me, ‘Sir! We’re ready to go.’ I say, ‘Let’s go!’ This is after saying hello to a lot of cadets, inspecting little areas of a building. That was very exciting, actually, it’s beautiful, very old. Studied a lot of our great generals, some of our presidents that went there. West Point is beautiful. Right on the Hudson River.

“But after an hour – the general that runs it is a fantastic guy – after an hour, we land, we do some more inspections, and they say, ‘Sir, are you ready?’ ‘Yes, I am.’ So we walk like, the equivalent of about three blocks, which was fine. We go on stage, which is fine. They make some speeches; then I make a speech. It lasted a long time; I don’t know, maybe 45 minutes, maybe longer, I don’t know, but a long time.”

“The sun is pouring down on me. OK? But they said to me before the speech, ‘Sir! Would you like to salute each cadet, each single cadet? Or maybe they’ll be in groups of two. Would you like to salute? Like this, yes,” he said, as he saluted.

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“Almost six hundred times. Do you know what that is? Six hundred times. Thank God they were in twos. Cause let me tell you, you do that six hundred times, you go home, and you say – it’s like doing a workout without a weight, right? Six hundred times.

“So I did that. Then the incredible helicopters, brand new, gorgeous helicopters, the Apaches and the other new ones that we just bought, so they fly over. And the kids throw the hats in the air, it’s beautiful, it really is, and it was a beautiful day. And we’re all finished. I was on the stage for hours. Hours! Sun – I came home, I had a nice tan. Meaning, I had a nice sunburn. The sun’s going right, like that,” he said, making a hand motion.

He continues, “But I make the speech. Right? I salute for, probably an hour-and-a-half. Maybe more, but around that. Watch, if I’m off by two minutes, they’ll say, ‘He exaggerated! It was only an hour and 25 minutes. He exaggerated, he lied. He lied, he’s a liar.’ These people are sick, the fake news.

“So then, I finish saluting my final salute, I said, ‘Thank goodness, thank you very much.’ But think of it. So, essentially, almost six hundred times. Now, the general says, ‘Sir, are you ready?’ I said, ‘I’m ready general. Where are we going now?’ You have to understand, I left early in the morning to get there. Now it’s sort of late in the afternoon.

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“A lot of these fakers were with us, so they know,’ Trump said, pointing to reporters in attendance. “He said, ‘Sir! We can now leave the stage.’ I said, ‘That’s great general, let’s go, I’ll follow you.’ And he goes like this, ‘Right here, sir.’ And I walk off.”

At this point, Trump then walked away from the podium to demonstrate his walk. He also showed the crowd the bottom of his shoe, telling them off-mic that they were made of leather. He then returned to the podium to continue his story.

“It was probably 10 yards long,” Trump said. “I say, ‘General!’ Now you’ve got to understand, I’ve got the whole corps of cadets looking at me. And I want them to love their President; I did this big thing. I love them, I love them, they’re incredible, and they do.

“I said, ‘General! I’ve got myself a problem, general. Because I’m wearing leather-bottomed shoes.’ Which is good if you’re walking on flat surfaces. It’s not good for ramps. And if I fall down – look at all those press back there, look at that.

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“And this was a steel ramp. You all saw it because everybody saw it. This was a steel ramp; it had no handrail. It was like an ice-skating rink. And I said, ‘General, I have a problem.’ And he didn’t understand that at first.

“I said, ‘There’s no way!’ You understand, I just saluted almost six hundred times, I just made a big speech. I sat for other speeches. I’m being baked. I’m being baked like a cake! I said, ‘General, there’s no way I can make it down that ramp without falling on my ass, general. I have no railing.’ True. It’s true!

“So I said, ‘Is there like something else around?’ ‘Sir, the ramp is ready to go! Grab me, sir! Grab me.’ I didn’t really want to grab him. You know why? Because I said, ‘That’ll be a story too.’ So now I have a choice, I can stay up there for another couple of hours and wait till I’m rescued, or I can go down this really steep, really, really really – it’s an ice-skating rink, it’s brutal.

“So I said, ‘General, get ready, because I may grab you so fast.’ Because I can’t fall with the fake news watching. If I fall – I remember when President Ford fell out of the plane. You remember? I remember when another president, nice man, threw up in Japan. And they did slow-motion replays. True! Right? It’s true. ‘I don’t want that, General.’

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“Now he’s standing, big strong guy, and he’s got these shoes. But they’re loaded with rubber on the bottom. ‘Cause I looked. The first thing I did, I looked at his shoes. Then I looked at mine. Very, very slippery.

“So I end up saying, ‘OK General, let’s go, I will only grab you if I need you.’ That’s not a good story; falling would be a disaster. It turned out to be worse than anything. I would have been better off if I fell and slid down the damn ramp. Right?”

“So what happens, is I start the journey! Inch by inch, right?” Trump said, starting to reenact the walk and bending over. “And I was really bent over too, you know, I didn’t like that. I didn’t like this picture. This picture I’m sure will be an ad by the fakers. So I was bent over, right?

“And then we finally reached almost the end! And the fake news, the most dishonest human beings, they cut it off. You know why? Because when I was 10 feet short, I said, ‘General, I’m sorry, I’m — and then I ran down the rest, right? I looked very handsome. That was the only good part.

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“I wouldn’t want to run down the whole thing, because a fall there would definitely be bad. So I took these little steps, I ran down the last 10. And by the way, their tape – take a look. In almost every instance, it ends just before I run. And they said, it was the No. 1 trending story.

“I call my wife. I said, ‘How good was that speech? I thought it was a — hey look, I’ll tell you when I make good ones and bad ones. Like, so far, tonight I’m average. But we’re having fun. We’re having fun. So far tonight.

“But I call my wife and I said, ‘How good was it, darling?’ She said, ‘You’re trending No. 1.’ I said to our great First Lady, I said, ‘Let me ask you a question. Was it that good, the speech, that I’m trending No. 1? Because I felt it was really good.’ ‘No, no, they don’t even mention the speech. They mention the fact that you may have Parkinson’s disease. It’s true. It’s true!

“They say, ‘There’s something wrong with our President!’ I’ll let you know if there’s something wrong, OK? I’ll let you know if there’s something – I’ll tell you what, there’s something wrong with Biden. That I can tell you. So then my wife said, ‘Well, it wasn’t only the ramp. Did you have water?’

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“I said, ‘Yeah, I was speaking for a long time. I didn’t want to drink it, but I wanted to wet my lips a little bit.’ You know, you’re working hard up there with the sun, pouring down on you. I love this location; the sun’s like this,” Trump said, motioning towards his face. “This way, they save on lighting, right? That’s why they did it, probably.”

“So what happens is, I said, ‘What does it have to do with water?’ They said, ‘You couldn’t lift your hand up to your mouth with water.’ I said, ‘I just saluted six hundred times! Like this,” the POTUS said, saluting. “And this was before I saluted. So what’s the problem?’ And she said, ‘Well, I know what you did. You had on a very good red tie. That’s sort of expensive.’ It’s silk because they look better. They have a better sheen to them.

“And I don’t want to get water on the tie. And I don’t want to drink much. So I lift it up, the water. I see we have a little glass of water, where the hell did this water come from?” Trump said, pulling out a glass of water from under the podium. “Where did it come from!? And I look down at my tie, because I’ve done it. I’ve taken water, and it spills down onto your tie, it doesn’t look good for a long time. And frankly, the tie is never the same.

“So I put it up to my lip, and then I say – because I don’t want it! Just in case. And they gave me another disease. They gave me another disease,” he said, drinking the glass of water to a feverous response. 

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“Anyway that’s a long story. But here’s the story. I have lived with the ramp and the water since I left West Point. Not one media group said I made a good speech, or I made a great speech.

“But the kids loved it because they broke their barrier, which wasn’t good in terms of COVID. But they broke their barrier and they wanted to shake hands, they wanted to – and I don’t want to tell anybody, but there were a couple of kids, they put out their hand; I actually shook their hand. OK? I actually shook it. Cause they were excited. They were excited!

“They were with their President, they were excited. The most beautiful, young people. Men, women. The most beautiful young people you’ve ever seen. Think about how you feel, if you’re me.

“So I go there. ‘How did I do?’ ‘Sir, that was a great speech.’ You know, all my people. ‘Sir, that was one of your best, that was great.’ And I say, ‘That’s great, I agree, it was a good speech. I liked that speech.’

“They don’t mention the speech. But they have me going down this ramp at an inch at a time. It’s soooo unfair. It really is. Soooo unfair. They are among the most dishonest people anywhere on Earth. They’re bad people. Bad people. OK, that’s enough of that. I wanted to tell that story.”