“Our Country Has Been Poisoned” - Donald Trump On Putin, Obama, Tariffs & Iran | PBD Podcast | Ep. 489
01:26:50 Share

He said he never called. They wouldn't listen to him. Do you think he will listen to you? When did you talk to him? Two hours ago. He called me, I didn't call him. And our country has been poisoned, okay? They're all threats to our nation. She would have no idea what we're talking about.

Do you think 2024 could be one of those years that we look back and say, they lost the African-American vote? The real threat isn't global warming. The real threat is nuclear warming. That's not the question I'm asking. If I may, let's go in the middle of the ocean and talk. You have to set your form. If I were president, that war would have never happened.

Who were really the power players? Who were the manipulators? Who were the ones that would threaten them behind closed doors? I don't want to put you in trouble. More beautiful than any word I know, Carol. If I buy this in U.S. and it's made in U.S., it's $2,400. Well, let me... And you send me that chart. Look at that. I spent some time with Bill. He loved having you that night. You're like a psychiatrist for a lot of people. Because this stuff is very good. Let's end the show right here.

So before you watch this interview, I want to share a couple thoughts with you. For a guy like me, I used to come up in business. I never liked politics, never paid attention to it. I could care less. My parents got a divorce. I don't want to deal with it. I hate politics. Then I realized,

It matters to pay attention to politics. I'm starting to pay a lot of money and I'm like, wait a minute, what is this all about? If you consider yourself the leader of your household, never has there been a more important time than today to pay attention to politics. By the way, if you love Trump and you're already committed to voting for him, you're going to love this interview because there's a lot of things he's never talked about before. If you hate Trump and nothing...

Nothing can change your mind. You're also going to love this interview. But if you're part of the independent, undecided voter that's sitting there saying, I really want to make up my mind of who I'm voting for, I address three issues. Personal life. I asked him a question at the end about personal that played a clip for him. You'll get to decide if he got emotional or not. You'll see body language for yourself and say,

I'd never seen this side before of him, right? I asked him questions about business. I asked him a question about when he became president, you went into the White House first. Who were the power players? Who was the most, was it director of CIA? Was it big pharma? Was it military? Who was it? I never thought the answer he was going to give me and what name he gave to some of the people. I've never heard him say that before. He reacted to a few videos about Barack Obama. I showed him a couple charts he had never seen before. But all I will tell you is,

you're going to see things that's never been discussed with them before for the first time ever in this interview. So with that being said, again, if you consider yourself

the leader of your household, where your voice matters, your vote matters, I would pay attention to every single minute of this interview with the one and only President Donald J. Trump. Did you ever think you would make it? I feel I'm supposed to take sweet victory. I know this life meant for me.

So we have a special guest in the house today for the podcast. We've been waiting to do this for a long time. However, whether you love him or hate him, there's one thing you have to know. In my opinion, he is the only trifecta we've ever had in the history of America. Let me tell you why I call him a trifecta.

We've only had one person who's won in business and became the king of New York, became a billionaire. That's one. Two, he won in media, number one show, apprentice 15 years in a row. Three, he becomes a president. So you got he won in business, he won in media, he won in politics. Again, there's never been a person who's done that. Like I said, whether you love him or hate him,

You have to respect them. Mr. President, it's great to have you. That was a nice introduction. Thank you very much. You are a one of one. Yeah, let's end the show right now. Okay, so I want to get right into it. I got a lot of questions I want to ask you. Some of it's personal, some of it's business, some of it's politics.

But something happened last week. Barack Obama, he's at this event, he's speaking. And he's given this message about your economy, how great the economy was. And then at the end of it, he says, you know, you didn't build that economy, I built this. I kind of want to get your reaction on this talk that he's given. Rob, if you can put that up. And the reason some people think, well, I don't know, I remember that economy when he first came in being pretty good. Yeah, it was pretty good, because it was my economy. Yeah.

We had had 75 straight months of job growth that I handed over to him. It wasn't something he did. I spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans had left me the last time. So just in case everybody has a hazy memory, he didn't do nothing except those big tax cuts.

So how do you feel about this when you see him saying this last week? I think he's angry. He pretends not to be, but I think he's an angry guy. He's a nasty guy. He's got a little bit of an edge, and he's angry about a lot of things. You look at what happened with Biden, and you look at what he did with Biden. He really hurt Biden because I'm not sure he wouldn't have imploded anyway. We had the debate, and he was down quite a bit, and they walked out, and they just took it away from him.

I mean, if you think about it, they stole the election from a sitting president. That's, you know, I always say coup, but the word coup, I don't think it's accurate enough. They just walked in and took it away from him. That is a legendary thing. He didn't want to give up. He's angry now. They're all angry, the Democrats, if you think. She's angry. They're both angry. But no, I watched that last week, and I think he spoke down to black men. I thought it was terrible the way he spoke to them.

But, you know. You think it's effective? You think he still carries the same stick as he did, you know, maybe eight years ago or 12 years ago? No, I don't think he does. No, I don't think he does. I think people have gotten smart. And, no, I don't believe he does at all. I hadn't seen him. He's changed a lot. Visually, he's changed. I like to say visually as opposed to from the look standpoint because, of course, looks don't matter anymore in politics, you know.

You say looks don't matter. It doesn't make any difference because we want to be politically correct, but they do matter. But he's changed. His look has changed actually quite a bit. I haven't seen him in a long time. And by the way, Rob, I think that's even four years ago. I think it's even more than it is today. Well, no, but the statement he just made was a couple of days ago. Yeah, it was a couple of days ago. And it's similar to the statement he made back in 2012 when he told business owners, you didn't build that. Remember when he said that? I don't know if you remember that whole comment. I think this is the speech, Rob, if you want to play this.

If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. So this becomes a pattern, a pattern of... Communism. You see a pattern of communism there? Well, no, I mean, that's basically the view.

You know, we didn't do anything. Right. Government did it. Somebody did it, but anybody but us. Do you think this works with the undecided voter? Do you think the undecided voter that sit in our audience, they're entrepreneurs, they're small business owners, they're family, they have kids, they want to win, they got dreams, they want to do something. Do you think a message like that from him lands there?

on the business owner, on the undecided voter, on the person that says, you know what? I think he's right. I'm going to go vote for him. Do you think it works? I think you don't have that many undecided voters. I think by now you have very strong Trump voters. I don't think you have strong, you have strong Democrat voters, but I don't think you have strong Kamala voters. What's to vote for?

I mean, take a look. She can't do an interview. She hasn't. Has she been in here to do an interview? No, not yet. I don't think you'll see her. You know, I have a. She's claiming she's going to go on Rogan. Well, that'll be interesting. So am I. I heard. But I think I am. I don't know. I think so. But it'll be interesting. It'll be interesting to see what happens today with Brett Baer. You know, Brett's two people. He can be very nice or he can be himself.

He was tough on you. If he's tough on her, the way he was tough on you, he was very tough on you. No, he was always nasty to me. Right. I don't think he'll be tough on her. I don't think he'll be. Foxes are very disappointing. During the days, Foxes are just terrible, terrible people.

- I want to show something with this. When you look at this whole Barack Obama thing, I think the one thing they don't show, you were talking yesterday, I think it was the Bloomberg event, which by the way, I loved. I loved the way you handled the whole terrorist conversation. It was a great event. - I got hoodwinked to go on that. I was supposed to make a speech in front of the Chicago Economic Club, which is a big deal, which is a very prestigious place, beautiful, everything was beautiful. And all of a sudden I understand I'm being interviewed by this gentleman.

And he's got a reputation for being about, oh, I'd love to see him do Kamala. He should do Kamala. That would be beautiful. But he's a tough cookie. And he's the chairman of Bloomberg. He's a big guy. So all of a sudden I'm being interviewed. And I wasn't happy about it because I found out that he is, you know, his reputation precedes him. But I decided to do it. You know, you have a choice. Walk out and don't do it and have a scandal.

Or go in and do it and hopefully win. Or you go and do it and you get killed, which is probably the worst. But...

It was a great interview, actually. And he was nasty, but he wasn't overly nasty to me. I mean, other people thought he was. I thought nastier was David Muir when he kept interrupting me during the debate and saying false things. Like when I said, crime is way up. And he said, no, no, crime is down. I said, you're wrong about that. Crime is up. And then two days later it came out that crime is up. I mean, to me, that was much nastier than that.

This gentleman, but it was really a study of business. It was a detailed study of business. You're talking about with the Bloomberg one? With the Bloomberg, and people loved it. I agree. The tariff one. And the one thing I wanted to show is the following. So you know how-

You talked about Jerome Powell, what an easy job. You come once a month and he said, we're going to increase the rates. Greatest job there is. I think this is the one thing they don't talk about. So Barack Obama got elected November 4th. Okay. Quantitative easing started November 26th. Right. And it stayed for eight years until you got elected. Right. So if you look at that low, pretty much 0% interest rate. Right. And then you get elected, right? If you go to January, 2016, Rob, for the audience to see that.

And then from there, one by one by one, rates are going up, going up, going up, going up, going up. And then Biden comes in, goes back down to zero to try to save the economy. And then, you know, the rest is obviously history. But do you think the average person knows like the impact of going to 0%?

How much does that positively help the impact when Fed lowers the rates to half a point? Yeah, it has a huge impact. The power of the Fed is, I think, pretty strong. Some people disagree with it. They think it's overridden by the interest rate climate. But I think the power of the Fed is very strong. It's an interesting graph, actually. Yeah, this just shows that the rates didn't help you. Well, they didn't use them to help me. And Powell, I gave him a hard time because he was raising them.

And I was never a big fan of his. He was late and he was early. He was too early and too late, you know, but but I had the greatest economy in history. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country, despite that. You know, this is another thing I can say, despite the fact that they weren't very high, but they were, you know, reasonably high.

And despite the rates not being at zero, I had a pretty good, I had a great, we had a great run. Following up on the Barack Obama question, when I think about the 2024 election, I saw some numbers that came out, which I thought it was fascinating. Rob, if you can pull this up from CNN. So this is CNN reporting on this just two days ago. Okay, Barack Obama, when it comes down to black men ages 18 to 44, he was up 81 points in November of 2012.

Clinton, Hillary was up 63 when she went against you. Biden was up 53. Kamala.

who is apparently black. She's up 41. What do you mean by apparently? I mean, that's what they're telling us. We're supposed to believe she's black. It's much better that, no, no. See, I would never say anything like that. But you said, don't explain to what you mean. No, I don't want to put you in trouble. Yeah, apparently. I was going to throw it onto your shoulders, apparently. Well, no, you know, you could explain it because I understand what you're saying. I was very comfortable explaining it because overnight, you know, she's doing a show. She's supposed to be Indian.

And then all of a sudden now it's black, but it's not landing with the average American. So if you look at- And do you think black men, that's why she's not doing well? Well, watch this. Some people say that. In 2016, you had 13% of male black voters 18 to 44. In 2020, you had 18%. In 2024, you're at 26%. It's doubled in eight years. The question I'm asking you is the following. Back in 1960- Right.

64% of African Americans would vote Democrat. The other was pretty much conservative. African Americans have historically been very conservative. Barry Goldwater, the issue happens, 1964. It goes from 64% Democrat to 92%. And it's been between 85% to 92% since 1964, right? Right.

You've come in and you've shaken things up. Do you think 2024 is going to be one of those moments where African-American men, they're like, listen, I'm sick and tired of Democrats feeling like they own me. I think I'm going to go to the other side. Do you think 2024 could be one of those years that we look back and say they lost the African-American vote? They really lost it for a while, the Republicans. I mean, it started, I guess, with Barry Goldwater, if you look at the charts.

But I did criminal justice reform. That's a big thing. They've been trying to get it. You know, I saw a guy named Van Jones. He's not any, I don't think anybody knows who he is. He's a commentator for CNN. And he came to see me in the White House and he was crying. I remember that. He was crying because he, I just, I have, I bring these things up because it's a lack of

I don't know. There's something about loyalty. You help somebody with something. He came in with a fairly large group of people, mostly black people. And he was devastated because criminal justice reform wasn't going to happen. Obama didn't do it and didn't even come close. Bush didn't try. Nobody, nobody was going to do it. And I'm the only one that could have done it. And, and,

He was with a group of people that was, they were begging to do it. They were five votes short and they were, had to be conservative votes because there was nobody else left. Right. And I guess you needed the 61 or 60 something, maybe 66, but 61 is a hard vote. And he made a plea to me, Van Jones, total sleazebag. He made a plea to me to help him and help this group of people and,

And they explained how for years they've been trying to get it and they've been unable to get it. And I said, well, let's take a look at it. And I studied it for a little while and spoke to them. And I say, you know what? I'm going to help you. It's going to help the black people in particular. And I'm going to get it for you guys. And I called up five very conservative senators.

And I'll never forget one of the senators who was in charge of it. He was literally leading the charge against it. And I mean, his whole career was this. He was going to stop criminal justice reform. Not because he was, you know, anti-black, just he didn't like it. He didn't want it. And he was in the papers every day. He's fighting and fighting it, winning very easily. And I helped him get elected. Without me, he wouldn't have gotten elected. I'll never forget it. I called him up.

Now he's in the heat of passion. He is fighting this all the way. Not something he would ever give up. You couldn't, you know, there's some things you can't. I call him up. He gets on the phone. I didn't say a word. I said, hello. And he goes, I'm giving it to you. I said, what are you giving me? I'm giving you criminal justice reform. That's why you're calling, right? I said, it is why I'm calling. He said, you got me elected.

I disagree with you, but I'm giving it to you just like that. I said, that's one of the coolest things I've ever heard because I also have the opposite where I got a lot of people elected. You know, when I endorse somebody in history, and I don't want to brag, but in history, you can get another chart on that one. I mean, I'm like 289 and almost nothing for endorsements. And he said,

You got me elected. I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you. And I did, but I got a lot of people elected and some of them forget. And I said, that's the coolest thing. I said, thank you. I said, do you mind if I call a couple of the, Nope, you do whatever you want. Now this is a guy who was the leader of the fight. I didn't even ask. He knew what I was calling for because he knew that I was going to help Van Jones, this Van Jones guy. I was going to help him.

And you'll understand why I'm being nasty to him now, because what happened later is disgraceful. So I said, thank you very much, Senator. I'm so happy that I did help you. I think I think loyalty is a great thing. And that was it. So I had his vote. I then called four other guys, all of whom were against it. And I said, I'd love to have. And, you know, they don't do it for a lot of presidents, but they do it for me.

And I got them five votes that they needed and criminal justice reform passed. Right. Then, and I was happy for them. I was happy for everybody. Everybody was happy. They couldn't believe they got it done. And it was something that really the black population wanted far more than anybody else. I've never even heard it mentioned with other people. It was mostly the black population.

And they've been fighting it for like, what would you say? 40, 50 years, right? 64. So we got 40, 50 years. Yeah. Yeah. So I got it done. I got something done. You get a lot of things done that nobody else could have gotten done. So what happens is, um, Van Jones and all they have, they call for a news conference that night. The vote was taken. They got it done. And I said to my wife, come on over here. This is beautiful. It's a beautiful thing to watch. Watch this, uh, this, uh, gentleman, uh,

was in my office a number of weeks ago and he needed votes and I got it done. It'll be nice to watch somebody really say something nice about your husband. I said that to Melania and I said, watch this. And they got up and they spoke, but Van Jones got up and it was a little, I get, I don't get too embarrassed. You know, he got up, he thanked this one, he thanked that one, he thanked this one, this one, that one, that one.

The only one he didn't thank was Donald Trump. And I look at that sleazebag now and I say, he's got bad way, bad way. I looked at him. Then I saw him last night and he was on CNN, which is dying, by the way, in the ratings, because they have people like him on. And I watched him last night say how he hopes I'll be defeated and we should defeat him. We have to fight him. He shouldn't be allowed to be. And I said, you know...

Normally I'd say I wish I had that vote back, but I did the right thing. Why do I think he praised you? Why do I think he got emotional crying, giving you credit about what you did? I don't know. I don't know. All I can tell you is he was crying in my office. That's probably what you heard. Before he got it, he was crying. He was literally, they went over to him with handkerchiefs. He was crying. Tears were pouring down his eyes.

Before, but after he wasn't crying, not that I know. But so he didn't mention me the night of the news conference. He was leading the news conference and I don't need it. I get mentioned plenty of times, et cetera, et cetera. But I watched last night. It's a good place to say this, actually. It's better than writing out a truth, whatever. But I watched last night and I watched him

Talk about how I must be defeated. You know, I'm a bad guy or something. And Van Jones is saying this. Yeah. Yeah. He said it last night. I saw him last night. I, I don't watch CNN. Honestly, I don't watch it, but I happen to be, you know, I'm passing it and I see him on and I watched him talking about essentially negative about me. You know, what difference does it make? Nobody cares what they do. They have, uh, they've been fighting me for years and, you know, I became president. I did much better the second time than I did the first. And now I'm doing it the third time. And, uh,

If the election's not rigged, we're going to win. If it is rigged, I guess that's a different story, but we'll find out pretty soon. But I watched this guy last night against me, even if he was a little against me, but he wasn't. He was like, you know, we have to defeat Trump. We have to defeat him. And I've watched him a little bit over the years. And every time I watch him, I say, what a sleazebag he is, you know, what a bad guy.

But I did it for black people. I did it for, it was purely, the only people that told me about criminal justice reform were African Americans, that's all. And I did it for them. I also did historically black colleges and universities. And I got them financing. I would see the heads of colleges come down after two years. They would come to Washington, like 45, 50 people, a group. They'd always come in a big group.

And I got to know him a little bit because they had to come through my office to get funding. And after the second time, I said to him, why do you keep coming down here for funding? Don't they give you said, no, they make they make us feel like beggars. That was the term. And a couple of them I got really front. Some of them I still see a little bit. And I said, what does that mean? He said, every year we come down for funding for the black colleges and universities.

And they play a great role, a very important role, in my opinion. So I said, so you mean every year you come down? We do. We come down together and we go and see senators and congressmen and we try seeing a president. But I got to know them and I said, you know, this is no way to live where you come down. And I ended up getting them more money than they even wanted. And I got it done and I got it long term. And I said...

fellas, I just got this done for you. And I want to tell you a little secret. I'm unhappy about it. They said, why? I said, because I'll probably never see you again. You'll never come down to Washington to see me. And I meant it actually in a friendly way because I got used to seeing them. They were always coming down looking for money. I took care of their needs long term, more money than they wanted. I said, you're going to need more money than that. And I got it for them.

And I think that's why black men really like me. And I think black women do too, but they have a woman who is black. Although you would say she's Indian, but she is black, but she really, a lot of people didn't know, which is true. But,

I learned about it just a couple months ago. That she's black or that she's Indian? The fact that she's black. I thought she was Indian until a couple months ago. Things change. A lot of people. Because if you follow baseball, Sammy Sosa kind of, you know, you sometimes have to respect people.

They changed. Right. So I thought maybe she was doing a Sammy Sosa the other way around. Yeah, Sammy's changed. Right. People change. If you remember Sammy Sosa. Oh, he could hit the ball. He could hit the ball. 66 home runs. Seriously, he was. But I want to show you this. And by the way, the only reason I'm going to show you this is because I think Van Jones is scared of giving you credit. This is what Van Jones said after what you did.

And it was the most uncomfortable moment on CNN because he had to thank you. If you can play this clip, Rob, I think this is the clip. Go for it. Do you think this is, by the way, one of your partners in working on this? This is when Rob. This is how many years ago? This is the date on this five years ago, December 18th, 2018. So you just got that. That's pretty. Yeah. So this is six years ago. If you can play this clip. Father went to prison and who fought on this as hard as this is history. This

This is history. Right now you're witnessing history on the floor of the U.S. Senate. It is a Christmas miracle underway where for the first time in a generation, Republicans and Democrats are arm in arm tonight saying we are sending too many people to prison. They're coming out bitter and not better. We want to make a tremendous difference. I want to say Hakeem Jeffries.

on the left, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump on the right have brought together a coalition like I've never seen. He gave you credit. Literally, the National Association of Manufacturers, Fox News. I never saw that. I'm glad you're seeing it because to me, you see, when I think about him, obviously, you know, his history, he was close to Obama, communist, all that stuff. You have to kind of drop. But at the same time, they don't want him saying something like this. I want to give Jeffries, Jared and you to give that credit.

This is the part where even Dems are sitting there saying, how the hell do we argue against the fact that a Republican president that we're not supposed to like did this? Cut him off. Just give him 30 seconds, 40 seconds. Let's go to the next topic to bash him again. But it was kind of great to see Van Jones saying this about you. It was. But again, right after that, it was over. He has to go back. He has to go back and say things about you. And a real man would not have done that. And I'm glad I saw that. But-

It really doesn't mean anything because he said it, and then after that he took it back. I want to show you something, and this kind of goes maybe to the next point. So yesterday a new Gallup poll came out. Okay, if you look at this Gallup poll, this is literally from yesterday.

Americans trust in mass media from 72 to 2024. It officially hit the lowest in the history. We're talking ever. Not one of the lowest. This is the lowest ever in the history of America. Americans don't trust mass media anymore.

And even recently, I don't know if you saw the numbers that came out two weeks ago. I'm sure you follow some of this stuff. Every one of the guys at CNN, MSNBC, they're all getting a lower salary when they're renewing their contract. They're not getting paid the kind of money they were making. And by the way, you may not like me saying this to you, but I think I kind of want to see your reaction to this. I know a lot of people will say, well, you know, he has...

uh, uh, you know, X, Y, Z amount of felonies charged. 91 53 were dismissed. 32 is this. And 12 are the ones that are remaining. I think the only one that Letitia James, uh, Jack Smith, and maybe even Fannie, if they wanted to, you know, claim that you, you did commit a crime is you kind of,

You kind of did kill mainstream media, if you think about it. I did. And that could be a crime for those guys. I'm very proud of it. And I want to show you this clip because this is the first time ever the phrase fake news was ever used. And from this moment on is when the decline started. Rob, if you can go in and play this clip.

Don't be rude. Don't be rude.

I'm not going to give you a question. Can you stay categorically? You are fake news. Sir, can you stay categorically that nobody? No, Mr. President-elect, that's not appropriate. So if you can. But isn't that disgusting? Think of it. And that would never happen to a Democrat. But isn't that disgusting? He's a he's a low life, the guy. And as you know, but and he has his own show, gets no ratings at all. Nobody on CNN gets ratings.

But isn't that a discussion? You know, I'm just watching that. And isn't it a shame that people can behave that way against the president? You know, and yeah, I think I got I think I'm responsible for those numbers up there where they went down. And frankly, I'm proud of it because I also am responsible for the term fake news.

And that's a great term, but it's not strong enough. I think it's corrupt news is a better term, but it doesn't play as well. But they're corrupt people and disgusting people. But he is, well, he wasn't as bad as some. I mean, in a certain way, he was louder, but he wasn't as smart as some. I mean, some are much smarter. He's not as smart. Did you think you were going to say fake news or was it just kind of came out and then it stuck? You're like, this is going to stick. Was it intentional? I don't know if that's the first time I've used it.

But I do get credit for having, you know, having been an originator of the term. I mean, you know, a lot of times I come up with, I have a very fertile mind. I come up with very good names for people. Very creative. Pocahontas. Yes. Lots of good names. But, you know, I don't know if that's the first time, but I thought of that term often. And more so as I was running. You know, I actually used to get great press.

when I was an entrepreneur, I would get very glamorous press, very beautiful press. I went the exact opposite. And I was amazed. And I really learned how corrupt it was. I didn't think of it as that corrupt because, you know, I'd do something and they'd give me credit. But no, I had a very different life, actually, when you think about it. But then I run for president. So 92% of the people that...

Run for president. Presidents, 92% were politicians and 8% were generals.

So I wasn't a politician. I wasn't a general. So I was the only one that wasn't in that group. No, there were no admirals. They were all either politicians or they were sort of an interesting point. Most people don't know that. Some people said, that's interesting. Other people say that's... That makes sense because even Reagan would be a politician because he was a two-term governor. Well, he was a politician. Right, he was a politician. He was a governor. There were some that were businessmen, but they then ran for the Senate or they were in Congress and they went from there to the presidency. But...

Nobody ever went right to the presidency. I never ran for office. All of a sudden, I'm president. And I really learned about the press early in the hard way because I went from one extreme to the other. I got great press. And then all of a sudden, I was treated like by a moron like that. And I really, I fought them very hard. They're very dishonest. They're very corrupt. Not all of them, but a big percentage of them, I would say,

In the 80s, that's a lot. That's a lot. Big percentage. They're very corrupt. Very corrupt. Have they always been? Has it always been the case? You've been around, you know, media, TV, your entire life. I don't think it's ever been like this. Yeah, I've been around it for a long time. I don't think it's ever been like this. When do you think it's like this? You know, when I started off, Patrick, I used to have a story written about me. And without fail, somebody would call after the story was written but not published, and they would call fact-checkers.

Hello, sir. We're calling about a story that we wrote about you. Is it true that you own this? And is it true that you did this and that you spent X dollars? Could we check that number? And it would go on for a while to a point where you'd get somebody else to just do it. But they without fail, I'd have if there were any details of the story, not always, but if there were any details, always. And they would call fact checkers. Hello, sir. My name's Jim Smith. I'm a fact checker for The New York Times.

And they checked the facts of a story. And I think they at least were trying to be real.

I haven't had a fact checker call me in 30 years. They don't call anymore. Do you think that's because of the Fairness Doctrine Act of 1987? Because prior to that, media platforms had to actually give both sides of the story. And then once that was dropped, they lost accountability. They could say whatever they want to say. And it was kind of free-for-all. Let me go after them. But for you, when you became a president, if someone's running for office, you have to sit there and think about...

Here's what I'm running on. Wall, border, economy, X, Y, Z. Great. Obama, I'm going to go after health care. Jimmy Carter, I'm going to go human rights. You pick and choose what you're running for.

But there's also an element of who are going to be my allies, who are going to be my enemies. Did you sit there and say the enemy of the people is media? I'm going to go after them. Or did you say, no, this happened accidentally? Was this intentional or was it accidental? I think it's just long-term happened. It morphed into it. I don't think they said. I'm talking specifically for you though. For me, look, I'm the worst case because there's nobody been abused like I am. And I don't think, although I,

I guess probably some, but for a shorter period of time. There's nobody for over such a long time. Who would you put? You haven't thought about it. Who do you think?

For sure. I'd have to think short-term people have been abused over one deal and they're gone or something. I got it. But I've been, you know, I've been doing this for a long time and I've abused them also. So, you know, I do that. Did you say, did you target them and say, I'm going to go attack media and I'm going to go after them? Is that part of strategy that you had or no, that was just, no, if you come after me, I'm going to come out. I think it's a natural instinct with me, you know, like it would be for you and other people that know how to win a little bit. Sure. No, but, but,

I really saw it in politics. I would tell them something and they would write the opposite. I said, what's that all about? I called up, the Washington Post was treating me very bad. New York Times is probably the worst, but the two of them are really bad. And I know how to deal with the press. I'm a professional, I'm a smart guy. And I know. So I said, watch, I'm going to call the press in, Washington Post. I called

during my first or second year. And I said, I'm going to call the Washington Post. I'm not going to joke. I'm not going to be cute. I'm not going to be a wise guy. I'm going to just call them in and I want to talk and I'm going to explain what a great job I've done on different things like the economy. I had a great economy. And I called them in.

I was very nice. I didn't say, like, I didn't say, hey, how's it going? Everything was really professional. The numbers were fantastic. Everything was perfect. And I treated them with great respect, shook their hand, and it was over. And the next day they wrote a horrible story, you know. It was, and I said, there's no way around it. And usually it's the liberal side, and I don't understand it really. Why wouldn't they want to have a strong border?

I don't understand them because, you know, usually like in business, you'll understand why somebody wants something. Why wouldn't they want to have a strong border? Why do they want to have men playing in women's sports? I watched the Olympics and two people transitioned into womanhood. Two people. They went from man to woman and they were into boxing and they beat the hell out of everyone. They won the gold medal. Weightlifting records that held for 18 years.

A quarter of an ounce on each side. You've seen me do it probably because it's so cool. I mean, weightlifting is so easy to, you know, so descriptive, right? How can you be better than that? Like golf is a little bit harder because you have to sink putts. That's different. Women can putt, but they can't lift, you know, 450 pounds over their head. And the weightlifting record that stood for 18, 19 years gets broken by 100 pounds. You know, I mean,

They'd put like a little, they'd take this top of this pen. See that pen? That thing weighs like an eighth of an ounce. And they'd put one over here and one over. They couldn't do it for 18 years. And the guy comes along. It's crazy. I mean, the border could make sense, though. If you were to say, like, why would they want the border to be open? Why do they want an open border? There can be an argument to be made there. Well, why do they want an open border with no check-in? In other words, there's nobody vetted, nobody checked. Right.

And as you heard two weeks ago, the border patrol put out the numbers. They weren't supposed to, but they did because they had to, because they had to inherently, you know, they endorsed me. I saw that. They endorsed me a hundred percent unanimous, like a massive, a full, they said he's the greatest in the history of, I had the best border in the history of the country. I had the best economy in the history of the country. But you take a look at some of these stats. So yesterday, a young woman's playing volleyball. You saw that shot and he got hit by a,

a hard shot by a man, a man who transitioned. There's been many of those. If there was a new one yesterday. She got hit in the head. She didn't know where she was. She said, I've never seen a ball travel at that speed before. But here's why. Why do they want that? I don't understand that. Usually you understand like somebody wants something. You try and figure it out. And you could go through a lot of things. Why do they want transgender? Why do they want to take somebody's child, a boy, and...

Make the boy into a girl and not tell the parents.

I mean, they do this. And at first I said, no, no, but that's just an exaggeration. No, it's not. It's really not. Why do they want to? Yeah. Well, look at California, Gavin Newsom, who's one of the worst governors, but he's got a good line of stuff and he'll tell everyone how well he's done. But it's the first time they've ever lost more people than they gained. You know, look, they have such an advantage. The beautiful ocean, the beautiful weather, everything is beautiful there.

And they run it so badly with all of the problems. They run it so... He's a crummy governor. But why is it so... Yesterday, and who would sign the bill to even present it to him? He signed a bill that you're not even allowed to ask for voter ID. In other words, it's not like you can't have voter ID. That's terrible. Because everybody should have voter ID. You have ID for everything. The Democrats had big ID. You know, when they had their convention, a friend of mine couldn't get in. He said he doesn't have the proper credentials to...

They want voter ID. They had a strong ID. They had an ID that you had to wear like a prisoner wears, you know, the number. It was like a big card with a picture and everything over their tie. So they have it for the Democrat National Convention, right? But they don't want to have it for the vote. But Gavin Newsom signed a thing that was incredible. He signed a bill that if you ask somebody for identification, right,

having to do with voting, I think you've committed a crime, okay?

Now, there's only one reason that that happens, because they want to cheat. There's no other reason. There's no conceivable other. Are you surprised? I mean, part of me is not surprised with that. I'm not sitting there thinking I'm surprised with what some of these states are doing. California, I mean, you know, there's a reason why he lost a— two states lost a trillion dollars of money under management from 2020. New York and California. They got destroyed, and the first time they had net negative migration—

In California since 1851, it hasn't happened. Then they got it back to back to back. And he just announced two days ago that he's raising gas taxes by 47 cents in the state of California. No wonder people are leaving. But I want to go to the tariffs conversation with you. Because he doesn't want gas vehicles. He wants to use all electric vehicles. It's not going to work for him, though. It's not going to work for him. People don't want that. They're going to get destroyed. I mean, he's already lost Musk. How do you lose Tesla? How do you lose Musk out of your state? I asked Elon.

He takes this massive company and he left California. I just asked him this question yesterday. I said, when you left, because he's got a good thing in Texas. I said, when you left, did Newsom, Newscombe, I call him Newscombe because I think it's a more accurate name. But did Gavin Newsom call and say, can we talk?

I want to take you out to dinner. I want you to keep your company. What did he say? He said he never called. Your biggest entrepreneur in your state leaves, you don't call? Number one, biggest guy. Number two, big company, very big company. But a big oil company left also, taking thousands of jobs. Wow. But my question wasn't that, you know, that he left for whatever. I mean, did anybody ever call? He said no. I said, did Newscombe call you at all? Did he, like, call and say, like...

Can we have dinner? I'd love you to stay here and we'll work out some tax benefits or something, you know, some incentive to stay. He said, never called. I was amazed at that. And you're talking about thousands of workers and prestige and having Elon is. That is wild that you lose and you don't make the phone call. You know, Elon endorsed me very strongly a while ago and there's no stronger endorsement. He said that if Trump doesn't get elected, this country is going down the tubes. It might not ever survive.

He says the most important election. I was honored, but I was amazed because I asked him two days ago. I said, did anybody make a play to keep you? Now think of it. You would. If you were governor, you heard of big companies leaving. I would. First phone call. At least you're calling. Is there anything we can do to keep you, right? You know what I like about, and I do want to go to the tips, and I think this is a great transition. Tim Cook, they asked him, they said, why would you have a meeting with President Trump? Because he's the only president that called me.

Oh, okay. Let's talk about something else. Of course he's going to have a meeting with if the guys call. Why wouldn't you call the CEO of your, you know, $3 trillion company? I just spoke to Tim Cook. Tim, I think he's a quality CEO. Go for it. So if I'm going to say something. When did you talk to him? Two hours ago. Okay. He called me. I didn't call him.

And let me give you just a little... The nice part about this long format, you can talk. Yes. It's very nice. As opposed to bing, bing, bing, bing. That's why long format is working. Yes. But I just talked to him. But I believe that if Tim Cook...

didn't run Apple if Steve Jobs did, it wouldn't, maybe it would be, but it wouldn't be nearly as successful. Wow. What a statement. I think so. Because I think Tim Cook has done, I think Tim Cook's done an amazing job and I'm not knocking Steve Jobs. I just think that it wouldn't have been. So tell you a couple of stories. So about second term of second year, I get a call and they say, Tim Cook's on the phone. He calls. He said, could I see you, sir? He's the head of Apple.

And I was born in Queens and I said, oh, the head of Apple wants to see me. Let's go, I guess, even though I'm president, you know, still I was born in Queens and the head of Apple's calling. And by that time it was the largest company in the world. You know, it's sure. Yeah. In terms of value at that time, I don't know what it is now, but it was. So he comes in to see me and it was about tariffs. He said, you know, you're charging us 25% because I was going to charge them because we're out of China. And the problem is we can't compete with China.

Samsung, because they didn't have to pay tariffs because they weren't in China and they were in South Korea. And he said, it's not really possible for me. And I did waivers, you know, standard waivers. It's not possible for me to compete with them if I have to pay a tax and they don't to get our product into the United States. I said, I agree with you. It didn't take long. I mean, I'm, you know, I got, I sort of got it right. And, and,

I said, I'm going to give you a waiver. And I gave him a waiver. But I said, I'm going to give you a one-year waiver, but I want you to start building your plants in the United States. And he said, all right. And he actually did. He built one in Texas. He would have built a lot more, but we had a thing called, you know, a change in the administration, which is so horrible what happened because of

Russia would have never happened with Ukraine. October 7th would have never happened. Inflation would have never happened. Afghanistan, we would have gotten out sooner, actually, than him. But Afghanistan would have never happened, as we know it. All of these things would have never... Think of the difference in this country. No inflation, no...

We would have been so rich because we would go in for the oil. We would have had four to five times the production that they have right now. You know, they lost the production and then they got it back because the whole thing was cratering because oil went up to $7, $8 a gallon. So anyway, so Tim Cook called. And then he, about a year later, he called again or something else. He said, could I see you? Now, most companies send in lobbyists that get paid millions and millions of dollars to talk for them.

And they probably say, we know Trump, we can talk, but they don't, you know, for the most part, they don't. And Tim Cook called me up directly and he did it himself. Didn't have to pay 10 cents. And I gave him a hundred percent of what he wanted because he was right. I mean, you can't compete with Samsung and one's paying a tax, but I said, you got to gradually move your, your company here. But then two hours ago, three hours ago, he called me. He said, I'd like to talk to you about something. What he said, the European union, uh,

has just fined us $15 billion. That's a lot. I know the feeling because I get fined too in fake cases. But I don't know if his case is fake yet, but it's a lot. Then on top of that, they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion. So he's a $17 to $18 billion fine. I even said about Apple, can you pay that? I mean, do you have that kind? That's a lot of money. And he said something that was interesting. He said they're using that to run...

Their enterprise, meaning Europe, is their enterprise. And I said, that's a lot. He said, but Tim, I got to get elected first. But I'm not going to let them take advantage of our companies. That won't be happening. I talked about yesterday, I talked about something that was very important. I don't know if it got. China was building massive plants in Mexico. Hafizan. Massive. The biggest plants in the world. And my friend was actually building it. It's the one right there.

Oh, that's it. It's massive. Guess what? They're not building it anymore. You know that, right? Right, I heard. Do you know why? Because of me. And if they built that, there would be no more Detroit. Now, Detroit's been decimated over the years, but there would be no more Detroit. So they're building massive plants...

In Mexico. China's building them. And they're going to make cars, sell them across the border, and destroy every automobile manufacturer, even in South Carolina and other places, Tennessee. They're going to destroy. You wouldn't have one automaking company. And what did I do? I said two months ago, if they do that, I will put a 100% or 200% or 2,000% tariff on these cars, and they will never enter America again.

And that was it. And I said that four or five times during four or five speeches. And I met the man that's building the plants two days ago when I was in Detroit at the Economic Club of Detroit making a speech talking about how

We're going to bring our car industry back, which is easy to do. All you have to do is the proper incentives. And I mean, keeping Elon would have been easy to do, frankly, but nobody ever went to see. I want to push back on this. I'm curious to know what you say with this. So we thought about you. Everybody said, Pat, let's make sure we get one autographed hat of Future Looks Bright with the president's signature on it and allow people to compete for it. So here's what we're doing. Anybody that places an order of Future Looks Bright, $100, the first hundred of you,

one of you will be the lucky winner of this signed hat by Donald J. Trump. So go to vtmerch.com, minimum order $100. One of you will send this hat to you. So going back to this, so when I think about, by the way, Tim Cook, Steve Jobs dies.

Apple's worth $100 billion. Today's worth $3 trillion. He 30X. So kind of credibility on what he did. He's a very good operator. I just don't think Steve Jobs would have been as good. It's an interesting point you're making. It's a good point to debate. But I want to go to China, Mexico. So for the first time in a long time, actual labor is cheaper in Mexico than it is in China. Mexico is now $3.90 an hour all in. China's $4.50, right? Right.

And when I think about this phone that Tim Cook, Steve Jobs, they built, this phone, if I buy it made in China, costs $1,100. Okay. If I buy it, they try to do a quarter in India, backfired. They don't have the infrastructure yet. So he kind of wanted to find out what to do next. If I buy this in US and it's made in US, it's $2,400. Right. So there's a part of it with Nixon where

where I think Nixon got it right. And years ago, you and Nixon had a relationship. He even said, whenever you run, you're going to be a president. He said this many, many years ago. He did say it. Nixon was for... His wife said it. When Pat, you're saying... She said, I watched somebody in the Phil Downey show. She said, I watched a man on television, a young man on television. I have the letter. It's the most beautiful letter. He said, my wife just told me you'll be president because I knew him a little bit.

And I said, hmm, that's interesting. I'll have to think about that. But it was very nice, actually. But no, she said it. But go ahead, please. So that's when you think about the first time we sold a Toyota in the States was 58. In 72, under Nixon, Toyota sold a million cars here.

And that kind of forced American to be like, hey, you know, we got to find a way to lower the price point. So we need a little bit of competition when it comes down to the tariff side, right? We do too much, price may go up. Because if we do make this in America and cash flow income is not going up, middle Americans may be like, I can't afford to do this. Yes, we'd love to have it made in America, but...

you know, a regular person making $55,000, you can afford this. So how do you balance and manage tariffs? So the average person is not affected by please. But before I do that, so let me just say already tariffs. Cause I, to me, I think it's the most beautiful word in the dictionary, more beautiful than love, more beautiful than any word I know. Tariff. It will make our country extremely wealthy again. Cause right now we're poor, we're broke, but,

It'll make our country wealthy again. And it's the most powerful word there is. Okay, so just by the mere mention of the fact that I am going to put 100% to 200% tariffs on every car coming out of that factory that you just put, that car plant that's being built, actually started and stopped. The fact that I mentioned it, I said to the man the other day, because I told him, you know, this started, I want to see a great car plant. He's the best in the world at building them, the biggest. Right.

And he said, I'll have to take you to Mexico. I said, you got to be kidding. I want to see in the United States. He said, we don't build them in the United States. We build them in Mexico and China and all over, but not that's because we're stupid. Okay. We have, and yet we sell them. They, all that product would be sold in the United States. So I said, are you building it now? Yes. We're just starting. This was a year ago, let's say.

And it's the biggest in the world. I think he said two of them, actually, but the biggest in the world. Anyway, I hadn't seen him. He's a great guy. All he does is plants. If you said build an apartment, he wouldn't know how to build it. I mean, all he does, he does, you know, tremendous new big plants. I saw him the other day when I made a speech at the Detroit really economic summit. It was great on cars. And I see him in the audience and I see him afterwards. And I say, could I ask you, how's the big plants coming? Oh, they stopped construction.

I said, really? They did. Why? Tell me why. Because they think you're going to be elected. And if you get elected, you're going to put 100 percent tariff or 200. You even said 200. They said if Trump gets elected, we're not going to spend billions of dollars building plants in Mexico. I saved Detroit. What's left of it. Don't forget, Detroit can make a great renaissance with me.

With her, she doesn't even know what you and I are talking about stuff right now. She would have no idea what we're talking about. You get it really good. You get it better than almost anybody. Even when I spoke at Bloomberg the other day, he wasn't a tariff guy. I said, well, you got to be a tariff guy because...

If tariffs don't work, our country's broke. 100% you need to use it. But just think of it. The fact that I said I'm going to put tariffs on all of those cars that are coming out of that plant, that's a big plant. This is maybe one of the biggest in the world, right?

Now, those cars were going to come all into the United States. If they come into the United States, that means there's not going to be any room. That makes more than Detroit makes, okay, than everybody. So that would mean that our car industry is wiped out. I hope that the union workers, the auto workers, understand that I saved their jobs because in a year and a half, when that thing opened, you wouldn't have one car being made in the Midwest or anyplace else in this country anymore.

So because of Donald Trump, and he said that, he said, because of you, construction has totally stopped. They're absolutely, they gave up on the job. Now, if I didn't get elected,

They're going to start it. They're going to build it. They will. The only thing for me is that I would be curious to know how the administration is going to take it. You have to impose tariffs on a country that's bullying. For example, I love what you did with Iran when you put the sanctions. I'm in Monaco, June 26th of 2019. It's my 10-year anniversary. We're there with my wife. We're laying by Carlton Hotel. I think it's in Kansas and having the award-winning lobster roll, whatever they claim there.

And I meet this guy, Middle Eastern guy. He comes in. He says, hey, Patrick, how are you? We start talking. I said, what do you do? He says, well, I'm a pretty powerful guy. I said, really? Yeah. He says, here, Google me. So I go on. I'm like, oh, interesting. I said, I'm curious. So you manage what? He says, 21 countries in the Middle East.

I'm the one that says who gets to do business banking with Iran and not, I said, what did Trump sanctions on Iran do? He says, let's go in the middle of the ocean and talk. And you have to set your phone aside. I'll never forget this. So we go ahead of the ocean, standing out there having a conversation. Wives are talking. We're over there. He says, I'm,

Everybody, if you can pull up, that's the one. Is that what it is? Here's the economic growth in Iran. If you look at that, 15, 16 nuclear deal implemented, sanctions lifted. Then it's you, 18, 19, Derby and decimated. I mean, these guys are getting destroyed. They wanted to make a deal. They wanted to make a deal. They had to come in.

And then you, you know, Biden comes and obviously things change right afterwards. So for this time around with Iran, with everything that's going on with sanctions, there is a method to the madness. Can you send me that chart? Look at that. This? They wanted to make a deal. I'm not looking to hurt Iran. They wanted to make a deal because I told China, if you buy one barrel of oil, one barrel,

You're not ever doing business in the United States again. They said, we'll pass to Iran. They passed. Nobody was buying from Iran. Are you going to bring this back, the strategy back? Different strategies. It all depends. Very fertile mind, different strategies. But they're very close to having a nuclear weapon. You have to understand, I didn't want much. All I wanted is you can never have a nuclear weapon. I didn't want much. I wanted Iran to be very successful. I just don't want them to have a nuclear weapon. Right.

Because that's the real threat. The real threat isn't global warming. The real threat is threat is nuclear warming. Okay. That's the real warming because, you know, I'm the one that rebuilt our military, rebuilt the whole military. And part of what I rebuilt is the nuclear. And I hated to do it, but we had to because China has it, Russia has it, you know, et cetera. But I know more about nuclear than anybody because, and I can just only tell you this, the power of,

is obliteration, okay? It's not, I always say it's not two army tanks running around each other. - What's gonna happen to Iran with you by the end of your administration?

I'm not asking taxes. I would like to see Iran be very successful. The only thing is they can't have a nuclear weapon. Are you okay with the same administration and way of governing states? Or would you like to see it go back to the 70s when Shaz was running it and Iran was one of the top three countries in tourism? Yeah, we can't get totally involved in all that. You know, I mean, we can't run ourselves. Let's face it. Patrick, we can't run ourselves. You put sanctions. That's going to... They don't have... The people are going to turn and flip on them. It's not going to be a...

What should, I think if you would have handed it over, I told them right now, make a deal with Iran. They'll do anything. They want to make a deal with me. They wanted, had that election.

not been rigged and stolen, I will tell you right now, we would have no problems anywhere in the world. You know, Victor Orban, you know, he's a very tough guy and a very smart guy. And he's, you know, some of the European countries don't like him because he's, you know, smart. Sure, makes sense. And they do things that aren't so smart. But he said...

they said, what's happening? The whole world is blowing up now. The Middle East, Russia, Ukraine. I mean, now all of a sudden, you know, I mean, it's getting really bad over there. I'll tell you, the Russia, Ukraine getting really bad. You could have World War III and we have two people, her and him, and she's not as smart as Biden. Biden, believe it or not, and this is a very small group of people fit into this category. He's smarter than she is. Okay. You have a problem.

And even the three or four months left, that's a lot of months. That's a lot of time left. You could have World War III before I would take office, even if I were. So let me ask you this. This country is in, the world is in grave danger. But you know what Victor Orban said? He said, if Trump comes back in, everything's solved. He said when he ran it, we had no wars. We had no problems.

Now, he used the term they were afraid of Trump. I don't want to use that term because it's like, but they were. They were afraid of me. They didn't know what the hell I was going to do. And that included Russia. Don't forget, they always said, oh, I'm so close to Putin. I had a good relationship with Putin. I had a good relationship with President Xi. But what did I do to Putin? I ended the pipeline going to Germany and all over Europe. The biggest job they've ever had is the pipeline going all over Europe. I terminated it. Think of it. Do you think that's a good relationship? No.

Putin said, you know, I'd hate to see you if you were angry at us. You understand. But what did I do first? Earlier. And then you go, well, Trump was in the pocket of Russia. Trump was in the pocket. I ended the biggest job they've ever done. A job that made more money. Biden comes in and what does he do?

He approves it. He lets it go forward. It was dead. It was never going to happen. He led. And what else did he do? He took the Keystone pipeline, which was our pipeline, which should have been approved by

And he terminated it just before construction was done. They've lost credibility at this point. But with Iran. So here's one thing. If the reason I'm asking this, I lived in Iran almost 11 years and I was, you know, I'm a. Are you Iranian? I was Armenian. Mother's side, a Syrian father's side. You gave a shout out to Syrians the other day in Arizona. It was great seeing the Syrians for Trump. But I'm asking, you know why they were there. They were so nice. I met this. They said the Assyrians.

They said, could you give us a shout out? I said, who are you? I didn't know. They said, we're serious. I said, what does that mean? But they were really nice people. And I said, I think I mispronounced it a little. But I said. You did. You got to write this down. But going back to Iran. So last topic on this, I just want to clear this up. Ghassan Soleimani, you take him out. That's their hero. That's their general patent. When you take him out, they want to seek vengeance. So now.

hey, they're targeting you. They're coming after you. Assassination attempts, all this stuff. They create these videos that they're going to come. We haven't forgotten that you took our hero out. Great. So Carter Reagan, when Reagan got elected, remember they released, was it 59 prisoners who had been held hostage for 444 days? If I'm getting the numbers right, can you see 59, 444 days? What's the number? 52 Americans, 444 days. Boom, the minute-

In inauguration, they release them. Khomeini, right? It's like, oh, this guy is going to do something about it. This is my question for you. Say you win November 5th. Say it's a landslide. Say it's done, okay? From November 5th to your going back to putting your hand in inauguration on the stage, during that time, that season,

What do you think is going to happen during that season? Is during that season, Russia, Ukraine going to be done during that? So you think it's going to be that quickly? I think it's going to be after. I think the world's going to behave. And I think I will settle Russia, Ukraine while I'm president elect. While you're president. While I'm president elect. Wow. You need that credibility. While I'm president elect, I will settle it. You know, I met with Zelensky the other day. I have good relationship with Putin and with Zelensky. You didn't look too happy standing next to you, though.

Well, look, this is a war that should have never happened. You have millions of people that are dead, much more than you're reading about. You know, when you see these, I was amazed at how big, I'm in the real estate business to put it mildly. Sure. So I know buildings. Those buildings were massive. You know, they were long rather than tall. They were 12 to 15 stories. But they weren't like for blocks. They were massive buildings.

Rockets were hitting the buildings. They were collapsing. A lot of people were killed. You hear two people were injured. No, no. Many people were killed. That war is much more deadly than they're telling you. It has to be settled. But here's the problem.

It should have never happened. If I were president, that war would have never happened. Putin would have never done it. The war would have never happened. Without even a settlement. Without even a settlement. But you're saying after November 5th, pre as a president elect, you're saying things are going to get done during that time? I'd like to be able to do it. How about Iran and Israel? What about that one? Well, that depends. A lot's happening right now. I know it is. We'll have to see what happens. Okay. That one is a very interesting one.

And it's become more interesting because Israel didn't listen to Biden and her and did what they wanted to do. And they put themselves in a pretty strong position. I mean, let's face it. Who would have thought this was going to happen? Everybody was very afraid of Iran. They're less afraid of Iran now. What they did to Hezbollah and Iran.

Hamas, if you take a look at what's going on. They took everybody out. I mean, the pagers there. No, the whole thing with the pagers. Right. It was from the pagers because those were your leaders. I mean, those were the leaders. It was like 2,000 or 3,000 people. And the guy that replaced him, they took him out as well. I mean, that was that because nobody wants that job. And I was like, hey, would you like this job? I'll pass. I don't want the job. Right. So it's a different, you know, it's a different story. But only because Bibi did not listen to Hamas.

Biden. Biden wanted everything to just sort of foment. They wouldn't listen to him. Do you think Bibi will listen to you? Which tells you, do I what? Do you think Bibi will listen to you? Yeah. Oh, he'll listen to me 100%. 100%. 100%. Don't forget, I got them more than, and not because this isn't the reason, but I got them Golan Heights. They've been trying to get it for as long as they were around.

I got him Golan Heights. They wanted, planes would fly in every year to try and figure it out. I got him Golan Heights. But more importantly than that, I ended the Iran nuclear deal, which was fought like hell to have it. Remember that? Fought like hell. Came in to see Obama, fought. And I also got him, very important, I helped them with their military, everything else, but I got him Jerusalem, capital.

I got him Jerusalem. Not only did I get it for him, I built the embassy. I didn't just say that. I got it built.

And I built it for peanuts too. I didn't spend $2 billion. I built it for. I love what you said the other day when you were doing the, uh, the new air force one from 5.3 billion to 3.7 billion. Hey, who would have paid? They would have paid for that. It's great to have a negotiator. Does that mean you made 1.7 billion, which is insane. You're sitting there and like, yeah, Obama, they just cut the check. And I'm like, what are you talking about? An operator would never do that. I have a few minutes. I want to hit a few questions with you. So you get in, when you work for a new company, you get a job, you go to HR.

And then when you work for the company, that's a big company. Let's just say they got a hundred thousand employees. Let's say you're working for an IBM. Let's say you're working for Boeing hundreds of thousands of employees. You're going to kind of find out who the manipulators are. You're going to find out who the power players are. You're going to find out who the EF Hutton is. You're going to find out who the guy that get the job done, the guy that even though you replace him, he left. People are still talking to the guy because maybe they want you to fail. So there's still, you know, all this stuff that happens, right? When you went in day one, you're a president, right?

How did you decipher between knowing who were really the power players, who were the manipulators, who were the ones that would threaten them behind closed doors? How did you go through that process when you first got in? So my problem was I was never I mean, I was in Washington. They say the fake news said this. So but let's assume it's true for a change.

17 times. I was there 17 times. I never stayed over. So I was not a Washington person. I didn't know people in Washington. When you became president? When I became, yeah. When I became president. In other words, I ran for president. I was only in Washington 17 times. And most of it was, I was building a hotel, a beautiful hotel that I sold. It's now the Waldorf Astoria. And I built, I did a great job, sold it, made some money.

And it was great. But that was most of the time. I was only there. Think of it. Beautiful. I was only there. That's it, right? That's a beautiful job in a great location. Oh, maybe I shouldn't have sold it. You are funny. No, I'm looking at it. That is a beautiful property. No, I did a great job with it. My whole family did. Ivanka and Don and everybody. And Eric did a fantastic job. But anyway, I built that. 17 days? Yeah.

I didn't know that. 17 days total. Never stayed over. Okay, but that's what they say, but it's about right. In other words, I wasn't a Washington person. So all of a sudden, I'm president. I land on Air Force One. You never saw so many motorcycles and cars and everything. Military marching. Everybody's marching. I'm saying, I said to my wife, oh, and we're going down Pennsylvania Avenue.

and we're in the back of the Beast, you know, the world's longest army tank, right? And we're in the back of the Beast, and I look to the left, and there's the building. And we're going the opposite direction of the roads. You know, the roads are closed. On that day, you could have gone any way you want. So we're going, and I say, look, there's the hotel, and there's the White House building.

A couple of blocks further is the White House. Here's that. I say, did you ever see anything so incredible? This is surreal. I have the brand new hotel and I have the White House and I'm president. But here's the bad part. I didn't know anybody in Washington other than some politicians. And I knew them because I was a contributor, not because I was a politician.

Because I had only done this a few months, you know. I ran. But you're in the business of reading bullshit. I am. You're in the business of reading, like, manipulators. Yeah, but there's a lot of people. So what happens is I had to rely on people for advice. And largely I got it right. You know, don't forget, you only hear about, like, stupid people like a Bolton or... I don't want to mention even Barr because he endorsed me the other day. You saw that. Endorsed me strongly. I was impressed by that. But...

I put people in there who I made mistakes, but I got it mostly right. Great trade people. I had great trade. That's not the question I'm asking. If I may, here's what I'm asking. What I'm asking, I'm not even asking about, hey, why would you hire these guys to swamp? And that question has already been addressed. I'm not interested in that question. The question I'm asking is,

You're in, you're in a new space. Who were really the powerful people? Was it the director of CIA? Was it FBI? Was it the big pharma? Was it military industrial complex guys that are general dynamics? Who were the people like, Oh, I got you. You have, I never thought you had power. Who actually has the most powerful person by far? The president power over everybody. Power. The power is enormous. People don't believe that it's, it is.

But there is a sort of a deep state. And a lot of that's people that have been there. And then there's some bad guys. There's some bad people. Then there's a radical left, which I think are more dangerous in many ways than the other countries. I really do. You know, guys like Shifty Adam Schiff and other people. They're bad people. They're sort of sick people. Not stupid people either, by the way. Smart people. But they're vicious people.

But they're very bad for our country. Is Adam Schiff powerful? Can you imagine? Well, he made up the Russia hoax. He and Hillary. No, what I'm saying is who is their boss? Who calls them and say you better or else? I think it's an amorphous group. It's a group. It's not one person. It's an amorphous group of lunatics. And...

When they come together, they're pretty bad. But let me just say this. The president has the absolute—if the president—now, Biden doesn't know he's alive, so I don't think he—I really believe they used him as a vessel, like a vessel in the night.

And I really believe that. She's a little bit more dangerous because she's basically a Marxist, like her father. Her father's a Marxist. You know what I don't understand? Why has the father not been interviewed? I mean, nobody talks about that. If that were a Republican situation, the father would be all over the place. I haven't seen one article where they're looking for the father. So the father is a Marxist professor.

Of economics, which is an interesting thing. Marxist and economics don't go together. You know what's the one thing? Everybody says, what's your favorite four years of Trump or four years of Obama? All these guys that you look at moments, right? My favorite moment of you being a president is this moment here.

This is what I love the most. It was a first time where a president is running a vlog style administration where Rob, if he can play this clip, this is you're talking about building the wall, shutting down the government and you put the camera on their face. I think you did this once also with Kissinger, which I don't know if that was a power play intentional or not. I thought it was. Play this clip, Rob.

None of us have said it. You want to know something? You've said it. Okay, you want to put that on my... You've said it. I'll take it. Okay, good. You know what I'll say? Yes. If we don't get what we want, one way or the other, whether it's through you, through a military, through anything you want to call, I will shut down the government. Okay, fair enough. And I am proud. We disagree. And I'll tell you what. We disagree. I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck, because the people of this country don't want criminals and people that have lots of problems...

and drugs pouring into our country. So I will take the mantle. You can pass that. I will be the one. You know what did this to me? By the way, how right was I? And now, and I had the strongest border we ever had, and I used soldiers from Mexico and every other thing you got to do for nothing, zero cost. I had the strongest border. But look at that guy. Look.

They're all threats to our nation. He and his group, after I was gone, opened up the border and our country has been poisoned. OK, poisoned. We have killers, murderers. We have the drug lords. We have we have everything. We have terrorists at numbers. Do you know, in 2019,

a report was done that not one terrorist was allowed in. Now, I think it's fairly wrong because it's, you know, I want to take credit for it. It was my year. Have you seen the terrorist stats? Thousands. Rob, pull up the clip with not this one, the other one, Rob, because you like good charts. I think you're going to love this chart. So this is the chart. I don't know if you've seen this or not. So this is the terrorist attacks, deaths and injuries report.

based on different presidents being there. If you go to 2008 to 2016, that's the Barack Obama era. Look what he did. He produced more terrorist attacks during his era. 16, you get elected. Look what happens.

Disappearance. I had nothing. I had none. I understand. But the reason why I show this clip is if you're— I like these charts, I must say. I like my chart the best. Yeah, that's the chart. I have a chart that I like better than any chart I've ever seen, better than any person I've ever seen. I'm glad you were looking at the chart. I think a lot of people are happy you were looking at the chart. No, no, I love these charts that you have. No, I'm talking about the chart you looked at when you got shot and you were looking at the other directions.

I would not be here. We would not be having this. Let's talk a little bit of family. Let's talk a little bit of family with the last few minutes that we have. So, um, Baron Trump, I spent some time with Baron. He invited me. I came to Mar-a-Lago sat down. I watched your son for an hour and a half, two hours, how he was. I think his, is he March 20th? His birthday's in March. I remember it's March. He had just turned 18 and I'm watching how he's talking to Kobe, all these other guys sitting at the table. And I'm like,

Very interesting. And I know your Melania, I think, called him Little Donald. I think, if I'm not mistaken, she gave that nickname to him. He's not so little because he's a pretty tall guy. But you used the word. You said something when you were being interviewed like five years ago. You said, he's strong, he's vicious, he's tough. You kind of are like, he's got that part about him. What can you tell us about Barron from your point of view? Well, he's very strong.

Very smart. He's a good student and all that. Goes to a great school and does really well. And he's a very nice guy. You see that. He's a very, he doesn't mind being alone, but he's somebody that gets along with people. He loved having you that night. I saw you. I was at a different table. I said, look at Baron. He's really having a good time. But you're like a psychiatrist for a lot of people. I mean, this interview is now twice as long as it's supposed to be.

And we talked about some really amazing things. We talked about Baron, of course. He is such a, he said, Dad, you got to do me one favor. What? You have to say hello to Patrick for me. I mean, it's cute, you know. He's 18 years old, but he's like amazing. He's not an average 18-year-old.

No, no. He's very smart. Is he good with the ladies in school? Is he there yet? I'm not sure he's there yet. No, I'm not sure. I don't think he's had a girlfriend yet. Really? Yeah, I don't think so. Every once in a while. He's a good-looking guy. He's a good-looking guy. He's a good-looking guy, yeah. He's got the swagger. He's a good troller. He's funny. He's witty. Yeah, yeah.

Last question. And I have good kids. I mean, my kids are good. Well, I mean, that's the one thing that your old best friend, Hillary Clinton, gave you credit of. If you remember that one time when she said, what's the credit? You said she's not, you know, she doesn't give up. And she said, you've raised great kids. Last question for you. I'm curious to know what you say about this. So I'm in Northridge, California. It's probably 18 years ago. I'm at a restaurant called Claim Jumpers. And I'm meeting this pastor, Pastor Dudley Rutherford. Great guy.

And I'm like, hey, you know, relationship with father and son. Okay. What would you say about a relationship with father and son? What tips could you give me? And he says, you know, a son and a father go through three phases. Phase number one, you idolize them. Okay. Phase two, you demonize them. Phase three, you humanize them. Okay. Very interesting. I'm like, very interesting. Like that you go through that or you go from.

You know, idolize, oh my God, I want to be like my dad when I grow up. You know what? You don't ever believe in me. What can I do to make you proud? Like, man, I didn't know what he was going through, that kind of stuff. I should have never said this and that. I'm totally messed up, right? For you, there is one of the talks you're given

Which, you know, I understand, you know, earlier mentor my team and never show hurt, never show pain, always being defensive, killer instinct attack, you know. So it's like, yeah, you know, I'm a competitor. I'm a fierce guy. I'm going to get into business and insurance. They didn't like me because I was building an agency, 60,000 insurance agents nationwide. We sold it. I got a fat check, 88% owner. You know, I realized there's a part of you got to stay tough. But then there's some parts you're like, wait a minute. I can't be tough with everybody. Right.

You know, you're in, I want to say, is this Glendale Rob? I don't know where it's at. This is last year, September. If you can play this clip, Rob, this is the first time where I watched you and I said, wow. Okay. This is South. So this is Rapid City, South Dakota. You're speaking.

And all of a sudden you have this moment. If you can play this clip, I want to get a reaction to this. Go for it, Rob. And help build America into the greatest nation in the history of the world. 45 seconds, you're holding yourself back? Well, let me explain. So I think I'm the only politician that ever said,

spoke to music before. And I do that sometimes at the end of some of the rallies. That was a big rally. We had a lot of people. We have a lot of people at all the rallies. Had 100,000 people in Butler, more than 100 the other day, a couple of weeks ago. And we had in California just this last week, we had 107,000 people. So we get big crowds. And sometimes I do my final remarks with music. Now, I always get...

I don't know if emotional or angry. I'm more angry than emotional because I don't, you know, and I'm not sure I want to admit emotional, but no, I tend to wait when the music goes on. I tend to wait maybe 30 seconds, maybe 20 seconds. So, I mean, I don't want to spoil your thing, but I want to be honest. No, it wasn't emotion.

It is sort of anger, which is, of course, an emotion. But my closings for the rallies, sometimes I play that music and I talk about how bad we're doing, how badly. We're doing terribly as a country. We're a third world nation. Look, we are a nation in decline. I mean, we are in serious decline. And now on top of it, they're allowing all these people to come in and it's not sustainable, et cetera, et cetera. And I go into that during this. It's a different rally. It's a different rally speech.

I used to go right from my regular speech and then the music would come on and I didn't like it. Now the music comes on and I wait 20 or 30. So I don't want to ruin your thing, but that's actually what I'm asking. You know why I'm asking a question? I would like to say I was crying like I said, but I didn't. Here's why I'm asking a question. I'm asking a question because

I think your life with Americans has been that. Yeah. I think you were idolized for decades, decades. Then you were demonized. And I don't know when I watch, you know, Nixon at his wife's funeral, you see him, you know, this guy's got feelings. Yeah. When you see Reagan, when you see Putin, when as one of his friends, when you see some of the most, Michael Jordan was a killer instinct when his father died.

When I think about, we don't have to play this, when I think about you, a lot of the folks I talked to, I'm like, man, is this guy, does this guy have feelings? Is he like that cold all the time? Is he that competitive that it's always never show hurt, never show emotion? Is it like that even at this phase? Like, can I get an ounce of feeling from the guy that I can sit there and say, man, I want to humanize this guy. This guy's like me. Why am I expecting this guy to walk on water? I don't know, you know,

I think there's an opportunity for the American people to go through that with you to experience that. And by the way, if you say... And there's nothing wrong with it. Right. I don't personally think that...

the American people want to see, especially at this point, our country is doing badly. I don't personally think they want to see a president that cries. I'm not saying cry. I'm not at all talking about crying. This is not at all about crying. This isn't one of those moments like, Hey, let's, the goal is to get him cry. It's not that it's to see a side where somebody says, ah, you know what? I'm going to vote for this guy. I'm going to support this guy. Yeah, no, I understand it. And certainly, uh,

There could be that time. Look, I'm very sad by what's happened to this country. We're not respected anymore. We will be respected very soon. It won't take that long. But we have to fix our country. Our country is broken. This has been the worst president and vice president in history. And now she's, you know, running for president. And if for some reason she won.

And I believe the only reason they can win, I really believe that. I don't think people would vote for her. I just don't believe it can happen. But I think, you know, Elon Musk says it better than anybody. He says our country's finished, essentially. He said it would be finished. Very smart guy. A lot of people say that. A lot of people say this will be our last election. You know, you've heard that, too.

I listen for, for, for some. It's so bad what they're doing to our country on the borders. It's so bad what they're doing with the money, the billions and billions of dollars. I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I've ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him a hundred billion dollars. Who else got that kind of money in history? There's never been. And that doesn't mean I don't want to help him because I feel very badly for those people, but he should never have let that war start.

That war is a loser. Ukraine, remember, is not Ukraine anymore. Every city almost is knocked down to the ground. All those beautiful golden domes are laying on their side, smashed to smithereens. There's no city. You go into the city and every building is demolished. It looks like a demolition crew went through. They've been hit by missiles.

This should have been settled before it started. It could have, it would have been so easy. If we had a president with half a brain, it would have been easy to settle. And I'm not, you know, everyone would say, Oh, this is terrible. He's blaming Biden. Well, I do largely blame by me. If you watch his words, his words were the exact opposite of what he should have been saying. He instigated that war and he got Putin. There's no angel on Putin's no angel.

But everything Biden said was wrong. That should have never happened. I'm telling you, Patrick, that war, if I were president, zero, even Democrats admit it. And you know what? It didn't happen for four years and it was never going to happen. And yet I will tell you, I spoke to Putin often about it. I said, don't ever do it. But Ukraine was the apple of his eye. And when he saw how incompetently Ukraine

Our country, our president, our stupid generals like Milley, who's a stupid person, when he saw how incompetent we were in Afghanistan, the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, I believe, when he looked at that, he said...

Trump is gone. These people are idiots. I'm going to go in to take the apple of my eye. Would have never happened if I was there. And this has been very interesting being with you. Likewise. My son's right about you. Very, very good. I've really enjoyed it, Mr. President. Thank you for making the time to be here with us. Thank you very much. Yes. It's a great honor. We'll do it again. Likewise. Looking forward to it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate you.

So we thought about you. Everybody said, Pat, let's make sure we get one autographed hat of Future Looks Bright with the president's signature on it and allow people to compete for it. So here's what we're doing. Anybody that places an order of Future Looks Bright, $100, the first hundred of you, one of you will be the lucky winner of this signed hat by Donald J. Trump. So go to vtmerch.com, minimum order $100. One of you will send this hat to you.