Full speech from Kash Patel, FBI director nominee, makes promises after Donald Trump inauguration

[Music] My oh my, how do you follow Elon Musk when he tells you he's going to take you to Mars? I'll tell you how. He and I share something deeply; we love the American dream. And we have been given a gift by God today to usher in a new Dynasty because we just inaugurated Donald J. Trump as our 47th president. And we just inaugurated JD Vance as our vice president of the United States.

We did that because the American dream is alive and well, because you chose that our dream can be the dream for our children and the dream for our world. We are at a crossroads here in America, but our future is bright because you had the courage to stand for your convictions.

So I'm humbled here to talk to you about why I love the American dream. My story is pretty simple; it's unique, and some of you share in it. My parents were born and raised in East Africa. My father, in the 1970s, fled a genocidal dictatorship in Uganda. There, he saw 300,000 of his countrymen murdered, where he saw what lawlessness would do if it was allowed to break through the system of constitutional justice. He fled like so many others. He married my mother; they moved here. They waited in line; they stood in line because the American dream was worth standing in line for.

That dream is woven into the fabric of this nation, and our immigration policy is the greatest policy in the world. Now, that we have Donald J. Trump and JD Vance, it will be the greatest policy in the world again. But dreams and hopes aren't enough, my friends. We've got to get to work, and we got to accept the realities that too many of you know from your communities. President Trump launched in his first term priorities of national security, law enforcement, the economy, and global diplomacy.

But now we have to reach or tread some of that, and I'd just like to go over a few of the things that our community has been living under these last few years. In the last calendar year alone, we had 100,000 drug overdoses. In the last calendar year alone, we had over 100,000 rapes. In the last calendar year alone, we had 177,000 homicides. That is unacceptable in 2025 in the United States of America.

That is why we need constitutional law and order. When I read the statistic that for the age group of 18 to 45, the number one cause of death is CCP fentanyl, we are not prioritized to go after the threats that face this country and, most of all, that face our future generations. But thank God we will be starting right now. President Trump and JD Vance's leadership and administration will usher in the priorities that I cherish during my 16 years in government service.

We will always, always honor the men and women who wear the cloth of our nation and stand on that wall and tell you nothing's getting by them tonight. And so to them, thank you. To our teachers and our frontline workers and our first responders, y'all choose to show up every single day for our children, for our communities, and we will now show up for you. Thank you for keeping us safe.

To the men and women in law enforcement, and maybe I'm biased on this one, our police officers, our sheriffs, our federal agents are some of the greatest warriors that God has ever created. And we will put them first because they have our backs, and now we will have your backs.

I am standing here because of the American dream. I am not standing here because of the color of my skin. I'm standing here because I earned my right on this stage, and you earned your right to be here with me. I promise you this, with every fiber of my being, that our law enforcement, that our teachers, that our first responders, that our veterans, that our men and women in uniform who dare to serve this country and put themselves below the rest of our needs will be reprioritized to the top of the heap.

Because they are standing on that wall, and we will not let that light go dark on them. Whether I was a national security prosecutor, a public defender, President Trump's deputy director of national intelligence, his chief of staff at the Department of Defense, or so many other roles that I was humbled and privileged to serve, when I swore to uphold that Constitution— which I hope to do so again one day soon— you have my word that you have ushered in a dynasty of change.

You have ushered in a dynasty that will allow our children to live this American dream. My American dream! I am living the world's American dream. I am the son of lawful immigrants. We worked our tails off just like you all do. And I'm going to make you a deal: I promise you, I will never quit on your children. I will never quit on their children because this American dream does not belong to me. It does not belong to them.

This American dream belongs to the world. So in closing, I just want to tell you this: it's pretty cool to be speaking in Capital One Arena right before the boss. You've inspired me beyond words. Your love, your devotion, your commitment to our country, everywhere I go shows us that we are not only the beacon of hope, but we are the land of constitutional justice.

We are the land under Donald J. Trump and JD Vance where we are going to end the two-tier system of justice. We are going to remove the weaponization of the intelligence community for political purposes, and we are going to put the men and women of America first.

So listen, there's just one thing left to do. We all got work to do. We've got the greatest president, the greatest vice president in the history of the world, and so I just need you all to do a little bit more. Every time you see a law enforcement officer, every time you see a veteran, every time you see a teacher, shake their hand, give them a little bit of your time because they're giving us all of our time.

And don't forget to enjoy the ride. Ladies and gentlemen, God bless America! God bless these United States of America! God bless every one of you! I'm living the American dream. My name is Cash Patel, and I ain't going anywhere. Let's go to work.