Transcript of President Trump’s opening remarks at an Andrea Bocelli concert event. Trump praises Bocelli’s voice, recounts asking him to perform, references the FIFA awards broadcast earlier that day, lists attendees (senators, House members, cabinet), and mentions White House Christmas decorations and Melania’s role.
Chapters
One of the greatest voices ever with us tonight. In fact, I don't know how he can top it, because we're on again. Incredible. Wife and partner and everything else you can be. Veronica, thank you. He was so good today at the FIFA awards. We had the FIFA and it was award. It was an award for me, I can tell you, but it was a draw. And they say over a billion people were watching. And there's no way you can beat tonight what you did today, because that was one of the greatest openings to an event I've ever seen. And he was in rare form, so I assumed the Voice stayed with him all day long. But this was Today at about 11 o' clock in the morning, broadcast all over the world. And what you did this morning was incredible. So thank you very much. And I said, listen, we're friends. A lot of you saw that. I said, andrea, we're friends. So this is about four weeks ago, so do me a favor, could you come over and sing for me that night? And he said, yes. I said, oh, that's great news. And we have almost all of the Republican senators, and we have a lot of very distinguished House members, mostly Republicans, to the best of my knowledge, all Republicans. And we have our cabinet. And I have a lot of enemies because everybody wanted to be here tonight. Everybody. And then I said to my beautiful wife, who did a great job with the Christmas trees and everything, I said, I said, honey, we need more room. Is there a possibility we could take the trees out? She was not happy about that. So we left the trees. We left the trees. But we could have had a few more seats, but that's okay. But I do want to congratulate you. You've gotten rave reviews for the Christmas, really, decorations and ornaments and everything else, and it's never looked more beautiful. And I appreciate it, Melania, and I appreciate the two of you being with us tonight. And we're going to hear a voice, the voice of an angel. It's a voice like very few people have ever been able to hit, achieve. And I've had a lot of great friends. One of your great friends was Luciano Pavarotti. And as you know, he was a great friend of mine. And between the two of these men, I don't know, it's a flip. It's a flip. Very different. There's a sweetness about yours, there's a power about his. And when you put them all together, let's call it a tie. Let's call it a tie. But he was something very special. Great friend of both of ours. So I just want to thank everybody here for the great job that you've done. We're the hottest. I said it this morning. A year ago, we were a dead country, and now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that's said by every single leader in the world. And I said it this morning, the same thing. And we had a lot of the world's leaders there at FIFA, and nobody stood up and objected, nobody smiled, nobody rolled their eyes. We with the hottest country anywhere in the world. And I just want to thank you all for being here. And Andrea, you just go have a good time. I hated to impose, but he was here a month ago. I just said, come on, would you do it? He said yes. In a weak moment, he said yes. And here he is. And I appreciate it very much. A great honor. Thank you. Enjoy it, everybody. Thank you very much.
