President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters he knew beginning a war with Iran would cause economic problems for the U.S. but it was simply the right thing to do.
It was one of the many points in Trump's speech Friday afternoon inside The Villages High School gym. The Villages is the largest retirement community in America and a long-time Republican stronghold. This was the president's third trip there since 2019, and he again received an enthusiastic welcome from thousands of seniors.
The hour-and-a-half speech was filled with stories, asides and political insults. It focused to some extent on a range of economic issues, especially those affecting seniors, like tax breaks, retirement savings, Medicare and efforts to cut prescription drug costs.
Trump also spoke about immigration enforcement, women in men's sports and denying certain medical treatment to transgender children.
The biggest applause may have come when he defended U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from "the abuse they have to take from Democrats."
His visit to Central Florida comes as U.S. gas prices shot up another 33 cents this past week to $4.39 a gallon and core inflation climbed to 3.2% in March.
Trump appeared to lay the blame squarely on his decision to attack Iran. He said he was talking with his financial team, noting they had low gas prices and a stock market that was setting records.
Here's how he put it: "I said, 'Congratulations! Now I'm going to upset the apple cart for you, because we have to take a little journey down to a beautiful country known as Iran, and we have to make sure that they don't have a nuclear weapon.'"
Trump put the question to the crowd of thousands in the gym.
"You know we're in a war," he said, "because I think you would agree we cannot let lunatics have a nuclear weapon. Do you agree?" And his supporters roared in agreement.
"But I did something that was, I don't know, foolish, brave, but it was smart," Trump said. "I would do it again, but I thought the numbers would be much worse. I thought the stock market would go down much more. I thought the oil prices would go up much more. I said, 'But we have no choice whether it does or doesn't.'"
Trusting Trump 100%
A long line formed before the doors to the gym opened, which they did shortly after noon. The very first person in line was Villages resident Kim Peterson, who said she loves the president.
"I got here yesterday at 3 o'clock p.m.," she said, "and have been up all night, just waiting to see President Trump."
Peterson said about 15 people joined her through the night. Trump would begin speaking shortly after 4 p.m. Friday -- so she ended up waiting at least 25 hours.
Villager Stephanie Rice, like others in line, continues to "absolutely" trust the president, while acknowledging things could be "a little bit tough for a while."
"But that's to be expected," she said. "We gotta stabilize and figure out what's going on in the rest of the world. ... Sometimes you've got to feel a bit of pain before we get some relief. And I'm fine with that."
Jeff Nuce, who said he owns a small business doing drywall in The Villages, said Trump made the right command decision on Iran "and sometimes you just got to take a stand, and sometimes you're going to take a hurt."
Does he trust Trump to resolve the economic programs?
"100%," Nuce said.
"I think we're gonna probably be in a six-month slump," Nuce said, "and then I think we're gonna bounce back -- everything gets settled in Iran, I'm sure."
