Trump's freewheeling Pennsylvania rally, in quotes
President Trump has been known for making colorful and shocking remarks — arguably, it helped elect him. But on Saturday night, he stumped for Republican candidate Rick Saccone ahead of Tuesday's special election in a raucous speech that seemed to go off script.
Mr. Trump, in his speech that lasted longer than an hour and jumped from subject to subject and insult to insult, managed to to touch on issues ranging from denuclearizing North Korea to how much he dislikes NBC's "sleepy" host Chuck Todd and "low IQ" Rep. Maxine Waters. Mr. Trump appeared to speak about whatever he liked, and however he wanted to approach it. He even made fun of the criticism that he should act more presidential, mimicking what the thinks "presidential" sounds like.
In his element, and among his fiercest supporters, the president let loose. Here are some of the most eye-catching things Mr. Trump said.
Trump takes full credit for Olympics
Mr. Trump claimed that South Korea's president Moon Jae-in told him that the Pyeongchang Olympics would have fallen apart without Mr. Trump.
"Well, I'll tell you we did a great job with the Olympics," Mr. Trump said. "President Moon said without Donald Trump the Olympics would have been a total failure. It's true."
"Well, it's a little hard to sell tickets when you think you're going to be nuked. But when North Korea called and they said we'd like to be in the Olympics everybody said let's buy tickets, let's go. I would have gone and it became a very, very successful Olympics. Honestly South Korea did a great job and it was great to see North Korea going and participating and there was nice unity. It was really a nice thing."
Trump assures people North Korea is "not sending missiles up"
"They're not going to send missiles up. Think of it. They're not sending missiles up and I believe that. I believe that. I really do. I think they want to something. I think they want to make peace. I think it's time and I think we've shown great strength."
That comment came after Mr. Trump shocked Washington and the world Thursday night by saying he has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May.
Trump uses expletive to describe Chuck Todd
Mr. Trump, in a string of comments criticizing specific media outlets and personalities, was particularly tough on NBC's Chuck Todd.
"Chuck Todd," Mr. Trump said. "He's a sleeping son of a bitch. I'll tell you and they showed it this morning -- 1999 and I'm talking about North Korea you got to take them out now and then they have Clinton saying 'we are pleased to announce that we have made a deal with North Korea.' Well you know how that deal turned out right. We gave billions and billions of dollars and lots of other things and we got nothing, but they show me. Young, handsome."
Trump calls Maxine Waters a "low-IQ individual"
Mr. Trump dismissed the intelligence of African American U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, who has said Congress should move towards impeaching him.
"She's a low-IQ individual," Mr. Trump said, a claim he repeated several times.
Trump says he knows Oprah's "weakness"
Oprah Winfrey has shot down the suggestion that she should run for office, but Mr. Trump hasn't give up on it.
"I'd love Oprah to win. I'd love to beat Oprah. I know her weakness," Mr. Trump said. "No, no I know her weakness. You know I know her very well. I was on her last show or one of the last — I guess the last week. She had Donald Trump and Donald Trump's family. My, my, my we've come down a long way haven't we? I'm now president and probably you know - but, but think of it, I know her weakness. Wouldn't we love to run against Oprah? I would love it. I would love it. That would be a painful experience for her."
Trump floats death penalty for drug dealers
Saturday was not the first time Mr. Trump has marveled at countries that execute drug dealers, including a comment last week at a summit on the opioid crisis. But he brought up the suggestion again Saturday night, saying countries with that policy "don't have a problem."
"If somebody goes and shoots somebody, or kills somebody, they go away for life and they can even get the death penalty, right? ... A drug dealer will kill 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 people during the course of his or her life. Thousands of people are killed or their lives are destroyed, their families are destroyed. So you can kill thousands of people and go to jail for 30 days."
"They're killing our kids," Mr. Trump said. "They're killing our families."
"I think it's a discussion we have to start thinking about," Mr. Trump continued.
Trump says ICE agents grabbed MS-13 members "by the neck and they threw them in the paddy"
Mr. Trump has long made a key tenet of his presidency clearing out gangs like MS-13, and he linked their crime to "sanctuary cities" — localities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities — on Saturday.
"So the Democrats are the party of sanctuary cities," the president said. "Explain that one, right? They like to protect criminals. They like to protect MS-13 ... How about that. How about that? How about ICE? (Immigration and Customs Enforcement.) These ICE guys are tough as hell. They go in and they are not playing games. You know, the only thing I hate to say, not so politically correct, but the only thing these gang members understand is toughness. I hate to say it. They're not interested in genius. They're not interested - they're interested in somebody who is tougher than them that's what and we have the toughest people you've ever seen and they went out in Long Island and they grabbed them by the neck and they threw them in the paddy. We're cleaning out. We're doing it."
Trump imitates what it would be like to be "presidential"
The president mocked the criticism that he should act more "presidential." He then attempted to make himself seem as even and dull as possible with his hand motions, tone, body language and words.
"Remember how easy it is to be presidential? But you'd all be out of here right now. You'd be so bored," Mr. Trump said, going into his impression of what that would look like.
Bo Erickson and Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.
