- yesterday
DHS Sec. Kristi Noem speaks at Turning Point USA's "Student Action Summit" in Tampa, Florida.
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00:00Good evening you guys all look like a bunch of great Americans thank you so
00:17much for welcoming me here tonight what an honor to be with all of you what did
00:20you say I'm your yes I am your governor and now I work for your president as
00:26your secretary of Homeland Security listen I spent the day today with a bunch
00:36of officers out arresting bad guys and getting them off the streets aren't you
00:44grateful for our law enforcement officers in fact I want to do this I'm
00:51sure my team put together a fantastic speech for me to give to you and I will
00:56use some of it but I'm gonna go a little off the rails here a little bit
01:01because that's the mood that I'm in but I want you all to stand up with me and
01:04we're gonna cover our law enforcement officers in prayer right now let's bow
01:08our heads dear Heavenly Father we just come before you tonight grateful we come
01:15before you extremely thankful for the blessings that you have given us Lord
01:19recognizing that we are privileged people living in the greatest experiment on
01:23earth Lord you have given us a country that defends our freedoms and our
01:27liberties and you have surrounded us with good men and women who care about the
01:32rule of law who every single day stand up and they defend the oath that they have
01:37taken to protect people Lord we were created to serve you the purpose you've
01:41placed inside of us as human beings is to serve other people and when we serve
01:45other people we will be happier because we are fulfilling the purpose for which you
01:51have created us Lord I just ask right now that you would put your hand and a
01:55covering over every single law enforcement officer in this country Lord
01:59that you would build a hedge of protection around them and Lord as they go
02:02out and they defend our streets from rioters from violent criminals from people
02:07who had wished to do others harm Lord that you would give them a peace that
02:11passes all understanding that you would keep your hand on them and their
02:15families protect them keep them safe and help them to know Lord that they are
02:20standing for right that they are standing for good that they are fighting
02:24evil and that they are fulfilling the purpose to which you have called them
02:28dear Lord we thank you and we praise you for each of and every single one of
02:31them Lord and I ask that everyone in this room and all of America would find
02:34ways to bless our law enforcement officers Lord bless them have their backs defend
02:39them stand for what's right and to continue to walk in the purpose for which
02:44you've called each and every one of us in your name amen amen
02:56thank you we love you too you guys are amazing thank you so much for being here
03:02thank you so much for being a part of turning point and a part of an
03:05organization that not only seeks to bring together people and have civil
03:10discussions on policies and what this country is about and world events and
03:16what's going on and what we can do as far as being engaged but an organization
03:20that seeks to have an informed public an informed public can have a better
03:25discourse about what our policies are what our future is and can continue to
03:29set America apart from other countries in the world I'm so grateful for this
03:32organization for Charlie and his vision for those who support him and for each and
03:37every one of you who come here and recognize that you are the future listen I
03:41feel like you know my job has is really weird actually if you guys want to know
03:47what my job is you know my background is as a farmer and a rancher many of you
03:52have heard me speak here before many of you have heard me speak here before as
03:58governor of South Dakota I had the chance to love these South Dakota guys and
04:04thanks for showing up I had the chance to speak here before as governor of South
04:09Dakota but my background is mostly in business I served in Congress for a
04:14period of time as governor and now when President Trump called me and asked me
04:18to be his secretary actually what he did is he called me and asked me if I would
04:22like to be involved in his administration somehow and what job would I be
04:26interested in he said Christie I know people have talked to you before about
04:30different cabinet positions maybe interior AG something like that and I
04:34said mr. president what I would most like to do for you is to be your
04:38secretary of Homeland Security
04:44and he said really why and I said sir because it is your number one priority it's
04:53your number one priority and I think that you're gonna have to have somebody
04:56who's actually strong enough to do it that it's a hard job and somebody's gonna
05:01actually have to follow through on it I also think that you need somebody who
05:04can communicate about it someone who is a wife and a mom and a grandma that can
05:09talk to families and recognize how the policies and what we're doing to make our
05:13country safer is better for all Americans and will help protect our
05:16communities for our kids and our grandkids to grow up and have the same
05:19opportunities that we have each and every day I'm just so blessed and honored that he
05:24gave me that privilege to serve in this role now the Department of Homeland
05:30Security was created after 9-11 is created in response to the terror attacks
05:35that hit the new the New York City and the World Trade Towers and it was a bunch
05:40of different agencies in the federal government all put under one umbrella
05:43whose mission is is to defend the security of the homeland and to do so with
05:49honor and integrity therefore I have 23 different components in my agency you
05:54know that I it is my job and Customs and Border Protection's job and Border
05:59Patrol's job in order to go out and secure the border President Trump has
06:03secured our border for the United States of America
06:11he's given me fantastic partners and Tom Holman and and Stephen Miller and Rodney
06:18Scott Tim Todd Lyons who's out there running ice for us we want to thank all of our
06:23light ice officers for what they do every day on interior of enforcement as well
06:28we have over 99 percent of the people that were coming through the Darien Gap over a
06:39year and a half ago do you remember the hundreds of thousands of people that were
06:42coming through they're coming into the United States of America now we have
06:45reverse migration going the opposite direction out of the United States back to
06:50their home countries a 94 percent decrease in people coming to the border and for the last
06:58two months we've had zero illegal aliens coming into this country which is absolutely remarkable
07:03but beyond that under the Department of Homeland Security I also have a responsibility for USCIS which
07:14is our citizenship visa waiver programs and how we let people come into our country and be our guests
07:20and I will be very firm in telling all of you there will never be amnesty under my watch or
07:25President Trump's watch
07:36I'll also tell you that I have responsibility for TSA you don't have to take your shoes off anymore
07:41I think it was the first day I got this job I walked into TSA and said do we really have to
07:53take our shoes off I mean does it really make us safe and more secure and that's what I think is
07:57number one my job is to question every single thing that this government does and if it doesn't make sense if
08:03it doesn't serve the people if it doesn't make us safe it doesn't defend freedom we should not be doing it
08:09we should not be doing it
08:11we also under my department are going after Harvard they refuse
08:21and any other university that refuses to turn over their background checks and criminal activity of
08:30the students that are on their campus and if they refuse to defend our Jewish students and participate
08:35and allow participation of anti-semitic activity they are not going to be allowed to have students
08:41that participate in our service program
08:42I'm also very proud of the fact that I have the supervisory authority over the US Coast Guard
08:53aren't you proud about what the US Coast Guard just did in Texas to help those individuals
09:02Texas just went through an incredibly credible tragedy with the flooding event that happened and
09:07is still looking for their loved ones and for children and have been absolutely devastated and
09:13the individuals who showed up there from the Coast Guard from Border Patrol those individuals from the
09:19BORTAC teams from FEMA that showed up immediately and supported that state in its response to its
09:25individuals I'm so proud of them because for the very first time we acted in a way that
09:30disaster response should you know the way statute lays out is that every emergency that happens in this
09:37country should be locally executed that means the people that are closest to that emergency need
09:43to be the ones making the decisions to respond to people it should be state managed which means the
09:49state makes the decisions on how they're going to universally handle this disaster and the federal
09:53government our role should be to support we should be there to support we shouldn't be making the decisions
10:03we should be sending the support that is necessary to get that
10:07state through that situation and that's exactly how we implemented it in Texas and are continuing
10:12to do so to support Texas as it gets through this and at the exact same time New Mexico was flooding
10:18North Carolina had some flooding events going on and we continue to stand on watch to make sure
10:23that we're there to support people across this country regardless if you're Republican Democrat
10:28Independent if you love freedom and if you love this country we are going to be there for you to help
10:32support you and get you through the most challenging days of your lives
10:41now I'm here tonight and I'm not going to talk much longer I guess it says I have 19 minutes I'm not
10:46going to talk that long but what I do want to talk to you about is that you guys are the future
10:53people will tell you throughout life that there are things that will determine what you're going to be
10:57they will tell you that the family that you're raised in or the city that you're in or the community
11:03is is going to impact your future I would disagree with that people will tell you many times that your
11:09education will determine who you're going to be and what you will be it'll open up doors for you and
11:14create new opportunities I would say that I disagree with that our Department of Homeland Security interacts
11:20with all of those areas it interacts with even the jobs that you're going to have the one thing I want to remind
11:26all of you here today and one of the important reasons why I think it's in that you should
11:31recognize that you are here is because what still makes the world move what still will determine your
11:37success in life is relationships is the people that you meet the people that you spend time with the
11:44people that you talk to I would encourage you to continue to stay involved to go out there and to
11:49come to conferences like this meet people go shake hands you never know when the next person that you meet
11:55may be your next mentor that will give you the greatest advice that turned your life around
11:59that changed everything for you the next person you meet may be the person that gives you a reference
12:04for your next internship or your first job position that you get or maybe the scholarship that you need
12:10to get the degree that you want maybe you will meet somebody when you show up for an opportunity
12:16when that door is open that will be your next business partner don't leave this conference
12:20without recognizing that the most valuable thing that you gained here was the relationships that
12:26you built the people that you talked to and the people that you were with
12:36i've got a team around me and staff with me that every single day help me do the job that i do
12:42and i'm so proud of them what most people don't know is that the team that i have around me
12:47they leave me encouraging notes once in a while they leave me little notes either on my desk
12:52they might leave it in the vehicle when i get in the vehicle if i check into a hotel room really late
12:57they might leave a note on the desk in there i want to tell you what note they left for me last night
13:02when i got here really late and checked into my hotel room my advance team left for me a scripture
13:08verse the scripture verse was from hebrews 13 6 and this is what it said said so we say with
13:16confidence that the lord is my helper i will not be afraid what can mere mortals do to me and i just was
13:25so overwhelmed by them the fact that they are so kind enough to be encouragers to me and to leave me
13:33notes like that and to remind me of perspective that in this life that all we need is a little bit of
13:39perspective about what life is what hard things are what challenging things are in front of us but
13:45also what blessings we have in front of us that scripture verse meant the world to me because it
13:51in my job many times we're dealing with people who can be violent with criminals i'm standing in
13:56situations where we're surrounded by people who've been impacted by criminal activity and we're taking
14:04action against very dangerous people now i don't wake up in my days being scared i don't spend any
14:10time worrying or being afraid because i just think that's a waste of energy but i will tell you that
14:14scripture verses like at that that say we can say with confidence that we will not be afraid that we
14:20will stand and that what can mere mortals do for this
14:28you see i would challenge each of you to live a life of significance
14:32you could make a decision right here today that you are deciding to live a life of significance
14:36a life that matters a life that will impact people and make a difference for the future
14:41and i'm here just to tell you that we need you that we absolutely need you for the future of this
14:47country the department of homeland security is an agency that's i think the second or third largest
14:53agency in the federal government but it has one of the smallest budgets now thanks to the president's
14:58big big beautiful bill that just passed we'll have some new resources to put into securing this
15:04country and keeping it safe
15:12we'll be able to hire more law enforcement officers more ice officers homeland security
15:17trains our federal law enforcement officers we'll be able to do that we'll be able to equip the coast
15:21guard with what they need to do search and rescue but also to go out there and help us with drug
15:25interdiction and to make sure that we're taking these illegal criminals and getting them out of
15:30our maritime borders to get any mother help the secret service get the resources that they need
15:34we'll be able to continue to do all of that thanks to president trump's vision but the one thing that i
15:41wanted to talk to you a little bit about the fact is that when you live that life of signore
15:46significance you will no longer be deprioritized like you were under the biden administration
15:52that with president trump every day you are his priority you are the reason he closed the border
15:58you're the reason he's getting the criminals off the streets you're the reason he's fixing the
16:02colleges you are the reason that he's out there fighting so hard to make sure our economy is strong
16:08that you can get the job that you want that you can get a wage where your family can go after and
16:13pursue their biggest dreams and hopes and go after them and raise your children here and continue
16:19to be blessed beyond measure beyond most of the people in the rest of this world because you're
16:23in this great country that's why president trump gets out of bed every single day and why i appreciate
16:28him so much i tell a lot of stories about my dad because my dad was a cowboy and he was tough
16:42but i also tell people that he gave us impossible things to do all the time he gave us things that
16:48were just hard to do and i think i told this story a few years ago at this conference but i recognize some
16:53of you may be new here so i'm going to tell it again i'll give you one example of one of the
16:58greatest gifts that my dad ever did for us i remember one day i was about 12 years old and it was
17:03harvest time on the farm we were combining corn we had filled a semi up with corn and he was driving
17:09it i was in the passenger seat and he pulled it out of the field out onto the road and started to drive
17:14it down the road when he realized he said oh christy i forgot i've got to take a different truck home
17:19here jump over here take the wheel make your corners wide and i'll meet you in the yard and he
17:23jumped out the door so i dove across the cab grabbed the wheel of the semi started to drive had no idea
17:31what i was doing i didn't even know how to shift stop or anything i took the widest corners i possibly
17:37could when i had to turn drove the seven miles home and i remember when i got back into the farmyard
17:43i didn't even know how to stop the semi so i just turned it off and let it drift to a stop
17:50i remember the very first thought that i had at that time was i cannot believe that i lived
17:58and the second thought that i had was that i bet i can drive anything now
18:02it wasn't until years later i realized what my dad was doing with everything that he gave
18:16to me and to my brothers and my sister when he gave us impossible things to do that we never
18:21thought we would accomplish was that he was teaching us to become problem solvers he was teaching us to
18:26figure things out and make our way through them and then when we did something we never dreamed we could
18:31accomplish it was giving us the confidence to take on the next biggest thing in front of us
18:37it was going to give us that next challenging thing the confidence to overcome it and to go out
18:42and to do it see life is all about perspective i think we're crippling our children in this country
18:49we're crippling our children by doing everything for them somehow we've taught this the people in this
18:54country that hard things are bad and that we should avoid them i would tell you hard things are good
18:59they teach us who we are they give us confidence
19:08we need a world filled with problem solvers and that's exactly who you are
19:13you see there's people every single day that go out and risk their lives so that we can stay free
19:18there's men in our military women that serve in our armed forces law enforcement officers that keep
19:24us safe keep us free we don't know what hard is we have no idea what sacrifice is compared to what
19:30some people are making for us so i would ask you to keep the days ahead the politics the debates the
19:37divisiveness that's out there keep it in perspective understand that sometimes hard things can burn off the
19:44trash and that what can come out is a shining gold clean american freedom that the entire country can
19:52embrace again and that you are the future that's going to continue to defend it and you're going to
19:57defend it because you have the confidence to do it because you've been through something hard and
20:01you've done it before you see i referenced before that what we were given as a country was the greatest
20:14experiment in human history we had a group of men and women that went to war with the greatest military
20:22machine in history in the world at the time when the revolutionary army went to war
20:28they picked up their own personal guns and muskets that they used to feed their family and went to war
20:35with the greatest military in the world and they did it for freedom and then they gave us this country
20:46they gave us this country that's never been matched before it might surprise some of you in the room to
20:52know that george washington never signed the declaration of independence you see when the declaration of
20:58independence was voted on by the continental congress and it was sent out john hancock sent it out to
21:03george washington who was out with his troops and five days later he called all of his troops together
21:10so that they could all listen to it together when they were out there and what they have just been
21:15given in this new declaration in fact i want to read to you what general washington said to his troops
21:21as he sat there on his horse with his military men and women what he said to them before the declaration of
21:27independence was read to them out loud he said the blessings and the protection of heaven are at
21:33all times necessary but they're especially so in times of public distress and danger the general hopes and
21:41trusts that every officer and every man will endeavor to live and to act as become a christian soldier
21:48defending the dearest rights and the liberties of his country you see even at that time george washington put his
21:55faith first and then he called people to fight he called them to go out there and to act as christians
22:02to go out there and to defend our rights and our freedoms but when you go forward and do that with
22:09morals and with values and understand that every person out there is worth something in god's eyes but
22:17yet we can disagree with them and still protect our freedoms and liberties that's invaluable and the general
22:23that gave us this country and became our first president understood it better than anybody else
22:36you see our founders pledged their lives their fortunes and their sacred honors for us
22:44we haven't been asked to do that yet
22:46some of you may get asked to sacrifice some of your life today on my phone i was getting videos of my
22:55grandkids riding horses at my ranch and i was getting pictures of my family spending time together and
23:03as i was looking at some of that and enjoying it from afar with them i was realizing that i'm giving up
23:09some sacrifices is it anything like some have given up no not at all not at all there's some people that
23:17have given up their fortunes they've given up their personal wealth president trump is one of them isn't
23:23any to come forward and to defend our freedoms and our liberty
23:31and then you've got some that gave up their sacred honor for our country if you look at people who like
23:38nathan hale and people whose reputations and different things that over the years and even
23:44i would say some who still fight for us today lose their reputations because of the stand that they take
23:50for right and for wrong what i would tell you you our founders pledge their lives their fortunes and
23:56sacred honor you may be asked to do the same but today you can make a decision you can make a decision
24:02to live a life of significance one that matters in this room are not people who are going to sit on the
24:12sidelines when you're here you're here because you're engaged i'm looking at the faces of our leaders
24:19the leaders wherever you are in the circle of friends that you're in when you have a conversation
24:25with people about politics bring some history into it too help people recognize what they were given
24:31in this country and why we're so special
24:39the last thing i want to leave you with is to be happy i say that quite a bit at the end of my speeches
24:45but it's amazing to me how people forget how people forget that just because you woke up here in
24:51this country in the united states of america you are more blessed than 99 of the people in this world
24:57just because you woke up here and you woke up free
25:06so with that from the bottom of my heart i just want to say thank you thank you for what you do yes my
25:13job as the secretary of homeland security is a complicated one i've got a lot of agencies that
25:19need to be fixed and bureaucracy that needs to be gone gotten rid of and people that need to be fired and
25:26money that needs to be given back to taxpayers and more bad hombres to get off the street and i'll
25:32continue to do that we're going to continue to get these criminals and these violent perpetuators of
25:37violence off of our streets but i will tell you what this country needs is not more christy gnome
25:49what this country needs is you we need you we need you out there changing the hearts and minds of
25:55americans the conversations that you have go have conversations with people ask them questions why
26:01they believe what they believe listen to them and then tell them about the great gift that this country
26:07is may god continue to bless you may god continue to bless this great country and may god continue
26:14to bless president trump as he leads us into battle and onward into freedom thank you
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