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Trump Participates in the Make America Wealthy Again Event, Apr. 2, 2025

April 2, 2025 · The White House · 1:02:55

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump addressed the Make America Wealthy Again event at the White House on Apr. 2, 2025, carried on the White House channel, with Vice President JD Vance, nearly the entire Cabinet, Speaker Mike Johnson, and members of the House and Senate in attendance, as the President noted from the podium. “My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day, been waiting for a long time,” he said. “April 2nd, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.”

The President said the country had been “looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far” for decades, that taxpayers had been “ripped off for more than 50 years,” and that he would sign “a historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. Reciprocal, that means they do it to us and we do it to them.” He called the order the country’s “declaration of economic independence,” said jobs and factories would come roaring back, and urged Congress to pass the budget bill with permanent tax cuts, spending cuts, the debt extension, and investments in defense and the border. At the close, staff presented two documents for signature, as described on camera: one closing the de minimis loophole for imports from the People’s Republic of China, and the Reciprocal Tariff Executive Order itself, which the President then signed.

Why it matters

This is the Liberation Day event itself - the signing that launched the reciprocal-tariff program the administration treated as its economic centerpiece, together with the China de minimis order signed the same afternoon.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: two signings on camera - the Reciprocal Tariff Executive Order and the order closing the de minimis loophole for imports from China. Flagged for the scoreboard; the entry itself stays review-gated.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Participates in the Make America Wealthy Again Event” (YouTube, Apr. 2, 2025) - official description and broadcast transcript as aired.