THE PRESIDENT: My fellow Americans, I am speaking to you tonight from the Oval Office.
Before I begin, let me speak to important news from earlier today. After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration — by my administration, a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year.
This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be: working together as Americans.
This will be my final address to you from — the American people from the Oval Office, from this desk as president. And I’ve been thinking a lot about who we are and, maybe more importantly, who we should be.
Long ago, in New York Harbor, an ironworker installed beam after beam, day after day. He was joined by steelworkers, stone masons, engineers. They built not just a single structure but a beacon of freedom.
The very idea of America was so big, we felt the entire world needed to see — the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France after our Civil War. Like the very idea of America, it was built not by one person but by many people, from every background and from around the world.
