I was never that kid that wanted to be in politics. What happened was, I graduated with a degree in accounting. I came back home to the family business. I saw how hard it was to make a ­dollar, and how easy it was for the government to take it. And my mom said, "Quit complaining about it. Do something about it."

Assad is not going away, but we're not going to stop beating up on him. We're not going to stop saying that the way he treats the people in Syria is wrong, that he has actually killed his own people and America will never stand for that.

When you're offered a job to serve your country, you step back and assess. And once I spoke with President Trump and told him what I thought I needed to be successful - which was to be a Cabinet member; to be on the National Security Council, where I could be a part of the policy decisions; and to be able to say what I wanted to say - how do you not do that job? He was incredibly supportive. He's continued to be. I love a good challenge, and this certainly has been that.

Having a missile test is not the way for North Korea to sit down with the president Donald Trump, because he's absolutely not going to do it. And I can tell you, Kim Jong-un can sit there and say all the conditions he wants, until he meets our conditions, we're not sitting down with him.

Almost forty-five years after my parents first became Americans, I stand before you and them tonight as the proud governor of the state of South Carolina.

There's never a good time to fire someone. That's not something that anybody is - that's never going to play out well. But at the end of the day, the president has to surround himself with a team that he can trust. Donald Trump is going to surround himself with a team that he thinks is going to represent and secure the United States properly.

I don't think we should focus on what church that person walks into .. I think we need to focus on what they do when they walk out of church.