Full Transcript: Trump Holds News Conference At Mar-a-Lago

We’ve agreed with NBC — fairly full agreement, subject to them — on September 10th. And we’ve agreed with ABC on September 25th. So we have those three dates.

And those networks, they’re very anxiously awaiting that date and those dates. So we have September 4th, September 10th, and September 25th. We have spoken to the heads of the network, and it’s all been confirmed, other than some fairly minor details — audience, some location, which city would we put it into. But all things that will be settled very easily, very — I think it’ll be very easy.

The other side has to agree to the terms. They may or may not agree. I don’t know if they’re going to agree. She hasn’t done an interview. She can’t do an interview. She’s barely competent, and she can’t do an interview. But I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight.

Immigration Concerns

DONALD TRUMP: Why is it that millions of people were allowed to come into our country from prisons, from jails, from mental institutions, insane asylums, even insane — that’s a — it’s a mental institution on steroids. That’s what it is. And you see the people that are coming into our — these are institutions that are being emptied out, not in South America, all over the world, including South America. All over the world. Prisons are being emptied out into our country because we have a President that’s the worst President in the history of our country.

We have a Vice President who is the least admired, least respected, and the worst Vice President in the history of our country. The most unpopular Vice President. And because of political reasons or because of being politically correct, even though she never received a vote — don’t forget, she was the first one defeated, as I remember it, because I watched it very closely. But she was the first one.

Criticism of Kamala Harris

DONALD TRUMP: She never made it to Iowa, the first state. She never made it to Iowa. She was the first one that was defeated. She was the nastiest to him. She was nasty with the — calling him a racist and the school bus and all of the different things. She was very nasty to Biden. And shockingly, he appointed her, asked her to serve as Vice President. Well, I don’t know if he’s happy about that decision right now.

This was taken away. The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden. And I’m no Biden fan, but I’ll tell you what, from a constitutional standpoint, from any standpoint you look at, they took the presidency away. And people were saying he lost after the debate. He couldn’t win. Well, I don’t know that that’s true, necessarily. But whether he could win or he couldn’t win, he had the right to run. And they took it away.

Biden’s Situation

DONALD TRUMP: They said they’re going to use the 25th Amendment. They’re going to hit you hard. Either we can do it the nice — I heard — I know exactly, because I know a lot of people on the other side, believe it or not. And they said, we’ll do it the nice way or we’ll do it the hard way. And he said, all right. So that — I mean, they’ve really taken — what they’ve done is pretty incredible. And now I’m running against somebody else. And we’re leading.

We’re leading. So I’m not complaining. I’m saying it’s a — for a country with a constitution that we cherish — we cherish this constitution — to have done it this way is pretty severe, pretty horrible. You would have thought they would have gone out to a vote. They would have had a primary system. They would have done something. But to just take it away from him like he was a child — and he’s a very angry man right now, I can tell you that. He’s not happy with Obama, and he’s not happy with Nancy Pelosi — crazy Nancy.

She is crazy, too. She’s not happy with any of the people that told him that you’ve got to leave. He’s very unhappy, very angry. And I think he also blames her. He’s trying to put up a good face. But it’s a very bad thing in terms of a country when you do that. I’m not a fan of his, as you probably have noticed. He had a rough debate.

Criticism of the Process

DONALD TRUMP: But that doesn’t mean that you just take it away like that. Or you go out to a vote. You do something. He had 14 million votes. She had no votes. She got no votes. And I think she’s crashing. I think when people find out — and I think people are starting to find out what a bad job she did — what a bad job she did on the border.

She’s trying to say she had nothing to do with the border. She had everything. She was appointed to head the border. And then they said, Border Czar — oh, she loved that name. She loved that name. But she never went there. She went to a location once along the border, but that was a location that you would love to go and have dinner with your husband or whoever. That was a location that was not part of the problem.

Border Issues and Debates

DONALD TRUMP: That was not really going to the border. So, essentially, she never went to the border. And if you listen to Tom Homan, if you listen to the great border people — Brandon Judd from Border Patrol, if you listen to Paul — I mean, so many different people. I speak to them all the time. And I did when I was President. We had the best border in the history of our country. Now we have the worst border in the history of the world. Millions of people coming in.

And our country cannot sustain it. Our country is going down because of this, because of incompetent people. So I just look forward to these debates. I think it’s very important that we have them. I hope she agrees to them. September 4th, September 10th, September 25th. And I think they’ll be very revealing. I think they’ll be very revealing.

Do you have any questions, please?

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

REPORTER: How have you recalibrated your strategy since you became President?

DONALD TRUMP: I haven’t recalibrated strategy at all. It’s the same policies — open borders, weak-on-crime. I think she’s worse than Biden because he got forced into the position. She was there long before. She destroyed San Francisco. She destroyed California as the AG. But as the DA, she destroyed San — she — San Francisco. Friend of mine, Bob Tisch — you all know the Tisch family — he was in many cities with companies. He said, the greatest city in the country is San Francisco.

San Francisco’s Decline

DONALD TRUMP: That was about 20 years ago. And he passed away a while ago, and he would be looking down and said, what happened? He thought it was the best city in the country. He had divisions there, lows. And he would be looking down in horror now when he sees, she destroyed — no cash bail, weak-on-crime. She’s terrible.

And yet they weaponized the system against me. They have me — I got so many lawyers. Now they want to delay cases. I won the big case in Florida. I won the big case. Nobody even wrote about it.

I won the big case. The judge was a brilliant judge. And all they do is they play the ref with the judges. This judge was a fair but brilliant judge. And as you probably heard, the big documents case, I won it. Now Biden lost it because he didn’t have presidential immunity, he didn’t have the Presidential Records Act. He lost it.

Criticism of Special Counsel

DONALD TRUMP: But the special — I call it prosecutor, special counsel, special prosecutor to me — he — appointed by him and appointed by Garland, he said, the man’s incompetent. He can’t stand trial, but he can run for president. But we no longer have to worry about that because we have somebody that, in my opinion, is more incompetent. She couldn’t pass her bar exam and lots of other things, and she should not be in a position.

Because if she becomes president, our country is going to be a giant fail. It’s going to fail. It’s going to be a failure the likes of which this world has never seen. Yeah, please. How about you?

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: You have to speak louder. Yeah.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

Voter Demographics

DONALD TRUMP: Well, it changes around a little bit. I’m getting other voters. Perhaps, you know, I was doing very well with black voters, and I still am. I seem to be doing very well with black males. This is according to polls, as you know. It’s possible that I won’t do as well with black women, but I do seem to be doing very well with other segments, extremely well with Hispanic, Jewish voters way up, white males way up.

White males have gone through the roof, white males way up. Now, I don’t know. All we’re doing is giving you the stats that you have. It could be that I’ll be affected somewhat with black females, where we’re doing pretty well. And I think, ultimately, they’ll like me better because I’m going to give them security, safety, and jobs. I’m going to give them a good economy. We have a very bad economy right now. We could literally be on the throes of a depression, not recession, a depression, and they can’t have that.

They can’t have that. So, I think I’m going to do well with everybody, especially when the facts are out. Yeah, please, in the back.

REPORTER: ….And about leading the female voters in their own state of New York, with that being said, don’t you think it’s not fair not to be with Josh Shapiro as a leader?

Josh Shapiro Criticism

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don’t know. I know Josh Shapiro. He’s a terrible guy, and he’s not very popular with anybody. I think that this election maybe is better than Josh Shapiro would have been. But I think other than Josh Shapiro, I think she had some good choices. But Josh Shapiro is not one of them. He’s caused a lot of damage with a lot of people. And I don’t think he would have been better.

I think he would have been maybe the equivalent, maybe not as good. But they had some people that they were looking at that were good, far superior to her. They actually had a story where they had everybody included. They had like 10 people that she was looking at, and her, and they said she was the worst of all. She was the worst out of the 10 people, and her.

REPORTER: Mr. President, how long are you going to be changing the debate? Will you only do that one debate?

Debate Plans

DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know how that’s going to work out. We’d like to do three debates. We think we should do three debates. We think Fox and ABC. We also have CBS is going to do the vice presidential debate. So CBS will do vice presidential. And I have to tell you, J.D. Vance has really stepped up. He’s doing a fantastic job.

REPORTER: Mr. President, are you worried at all about the size of the American crowd?

Crowd Size Comparison

DONALD TRUMP: Oh, give me a break. Listen, I had 107,000 people in New Jersey. You didn’t report it. I’m so glad you asked. What did she have yesterday? 2,000 people? If I ever had 2,000 people, you’d say my campaign is finished. It’s so dishonest, the press. And here’s a great example.

I had in Michigan recently 25,000 people, and 25,000 people were just – we just couldn’t get them in. We had in Harrisburg 20,000, 25,000 people, and 20,000 people couldn’t get in. We had so many – nobody ever mentions that. When she gets 1,500 people – and I saw it yesterday on ABC, which they said, oh, the crowd was so big – I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size, and they never say the crowd was big.

That’s why I’m always saying turn around the cameras. I’m so glad you asked that. I think it’s so terrible when you say, well, she has 1,500 people, 1,000 people, and they talk about, oh, the enthusiasm. Let me tell you, we have the enthusiasm.

Republican Party Enthusiasm

DONALD TRUMP: The Republican Party – and me as a candidate – but the Republican Party has the enthusiasm because people want to see crime stopped. They want to see a country that’s respected. Think of it. If I were President, you wouldn’t have Russia and Ukraine, where it never happened – zero chance. You wouldn’t have had October 7th of this year. You wouldn’t have the horrible withdrawal. And I don’t mean the withdrawal, because the withdrawal was fine. I was ready to withdraw from Afghanistan, and we were going to do it with dignity and strength.

And we were keeping our equipment. We weren’t leaving $85 billion worth of equipment behind. We wouldn’t have had 13 great soldiers. I know the families of those soldiers. Well, we wouldn’t have had these soldiers killed, and we wouldn’t have had 45 – 45 soldiers obliterated – no legs, no arms, the face. None of that would have happened. And you wouldn’t have had inflation. You wouldn’t have had any inflation, because inflation was caused by their bad energy problems.

Energy Policy Criticism

DONALD TRUMP: Now they’ve gone back to the Trump thing because they need the votes. They – you know, they – I don’t know if you know, they’re drilling now because they had to go back because gasoline was going up to $7, $8, $9 a barrel. So they said, we better do what Trump – but the day after the election, if they won, you’re going to have fuel prices go through the roof. Everybody is going to be forced to buy an electric car, which they’re not going to do because they don’t want that.

It’s got a great market. It’s got a market. It’s really a sub-market. People want gasoline-propelled cars. They want hybrids. They want to have everything. And they want electric. But they want everybody to have an electric car.

We don’t have enough electricity. We couldn’t make enough electricity for that. And you know what else? The weight of a car, the weight of a truck – they want all trucks to be electric. Little things that a lot of people don’t talk about. The weight of a truck is two and a half times – two and a half times heavier. You would have to rebuild every bridge in this country if you were going to do this ridiculous policy.

Crowd Size Comparison Continued

DONALD TRUMP: But on crowd size, in history, for any country, nobody has had crowds like I have. And you know that. And when she gets 1,000 people and everybody starts jumping, you know that if I had 1,000 people would say – people would say, that’s the end of his campaign. I have hundreds of thousands of people. In South Carolina, I had 88,000 people. In Alabama, I had 68,000 people. Nobody says it’s about crowd size with me. But she has 1,000 people or 1,500 people and they say, oh, the enthusiasm is back. No, no.

The enthusiasm is with me and the Republican Party because they want to stop crime. They want to stop people from pouring into our country from places unknown and from countries unknown. From countries that nobody ever heard of. That’s where the enthusiasm.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know. I don’t know if I can or not. I got him elected. Without me, he wouldn’t be governor. I got him elected.

Governor Relations

DONALD TRUMP: He was doing terribly. I got him elected. With that being said, I hope we can repair it. But if we don’t, the people are still the people and they’re going to vote. We’re leading in Georgia by a lot. We’re leading in Pennsylvania by a lot. But I don’t know. Now, in Pennsylvania, I have great relationships.

In Georgia, I do too, but unfortunately not with the governor. I’ve never understood it. When you get somebody elected, they’re supposed to like you. He’s not exactly – for some reason. And you’ll have to ask him about that. Yeah, I’d love to see it get repaired. I think that if we don’t win Georgia, Georgia is a big – is a big win, is a big state. So I won Alabama by a record.

Nobody’s ever gotten that many votes. I won South Carolina by a record. You don’t win Alabama and South Carolina by records and lose Georgia. It doesn’t happen. And the people of Georgia understand that. There was tremendous anxiety and problems in Georgia. A lot of people say, what happened? And we have to – all we want is honest elections.

If we have honest elections in Georgia and we have honest elections in Pennsylvania, we’re going to win them by a lot.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Well, he actually said it two ways. First, he said it incorrectly, then he corrected himself. Do you agree with that?

Biden’s Statement

DONALD TRUMP: Right? You know, if you watch him. He said it two ways. No, no, no. I mean, he said it two ways because he doesn’t really know what he said. Why didn’t he bring it up at the debate? You know, he had a chance for 90 minutes to bring it up at the debate. He could have talked about that at the debate.

And he didn’t do it. Everyone said, oh, he said this and he said that. He’s just – you know, they give him something to read off. He read it very badly because he actually said it the opposite, then he had to go back and correct himself. He said the opposite. He should have brought this up at the debate. If he had a problem, of course there’ll be a peaceful transfer. And there was last time.

And there’ll be a peaceful transfer. I just hope we’re going to have honest elections. That’s all. Okay?

REPORTER: You have not had a public campaign event for nearly a week now, probably in Montana, Vietnam, and the United States. Some of your allies have started to confirm that you’re not taking this very seriously.

Campaign Activity

DONALD TRUMP: What a stupid question to ask.

REPORTER: You’re an enthusiast on the other side. Why haven’t you been campaigning?

DONALD TRUMP: Because I’m leading by a lot and because I’m letting their convention go through. And I am campaigning a lot. I’m doing tremendous amounts of taping here.

We have commercials that are at a level I don’t think that anybody’s ever done before. Plus, in certain cases, I see many of you in the room where I’m speaking to you on phones, I’m speaking to radio, I’m speaking to television. Television’s coming over here. Excuse me, what are we doing right now?

Criticism of Opponent’s Press Conferences

DONALD TRUMP: She’s not doing any news conference. You know why she’s not doing it? Because she can’t do a news conference. She doesn’t know how to do a news conference. She’s not smart enough to do a news conference. And I’m sorry, we need smart people to lead this country, because our country’s never been in this danger before, both economically and from an outside perspective.

Russia doesn’t respect us anymore. China doesn’t respect us anymore. North Korea, Kim Jong-un liked me a lot. He doesn’t like this group. We are in great danger. We’re in great danger of being in World War III. That could happen.

Campaign Plans

DONALD TRUMP: No, after their convention, yeah. And I’m going out. Actually, I’m going out to certain places to help certain senators get elected. Not even for me. I’m trying to help when I go out to Wyoming or when I go out to Montana or I’m going to different places to help people. And I don’t have to go there because I’m leading those states, as you know, by 35, 40, 50 points. I’m leading by record numbers.

I’m going because I want to help senators and congressmen get elected, congressmen and women get elected. Yes, please.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, go ahead. The upcoming what?

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

Elon Musk Endorsement

DONALD TRUMP: Oh yeah. Yeah, the Elon Musk, so yeah, sure. So Elon called me. As you know, he endorsed me full throated. Great endorsement. I respect Elon a lot. He respects me and not easy for him to endorse. To be honest with you, you know, it takes courage to endorse people.

Many people have courage and many people don’t. He does have courage. And Elon endorsed me and he asked me whether or not I do a show on Monday and I think it’s going to be Monday night and I believe he’s the host of the show. So it’ll be very interesting. A lot of people are talking about I look forward to it. That’ll be done on Monday night.

China Relations

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Well you have a lot of misinformation spread about China and you have a lot of misinformation spread about a lot of different places. I think I’m going to get along great with China. President Xi of China and I were very good friends. We met right here, right in that except we had a beautiful sofa there as opposed to what we have right now. Right now we have you.

But President Xi and I had a very good relationship until COVID and I held him responsible for COVID. It broke up our relationship. But I think we’re going to have a great relationship and I think it’s going to be mutually beneficial. But we cannot have it with China is taking advantage of the United States and that’s what they were doing. As you very well know. Yes, please.

January 6th Discussion

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: No, I think the people that if you look at January 6th, which a lot of people aren’t talking about very much. I think those people were treated very harshly when you compare them to other things that took place in this country where a lot of people were killed. Nobody was killed on January 6th. But I think that the people of January 6th were treated very unfairly and they were there to complain, not through me. They were there to complain about an election.

And you know, it’s very interesting to. And I said peacefully and patriotically, which nobody wants to say, but I said peacefully and patriotically the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. And you’ve seen Maggie. I was in at the mall. I was at the Washington Monument. I was at the whole thing.

Crowd Size Comparisons

DONALD TRUMP: I had crowds. I don’t know who’s ever had a bigger crowd than I have, but I had it many times. The biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken before was that day. And I’ll tell you, it’s very hard to find a picture of that crowd. You see the picture of a small number of people relatively going to the Capitol, but you never see the picture of the crowd. The biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken, I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me.

If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more. And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people. But when you look at the exact same picture, and everything’s the same because it was the fountains, the whole thing all the way back to from Lincoln to Washington. When you look at it, and you look at the picture of his crowd, my crowd, we actually had more people.

They said I had 25,000, and he had a million people. And I’m okay with it because I liked Dr. Martin Luther King. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

Constitutional Concerns

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, sure. We have a constitution. It’s a very important document, and we live by it. She has no votes, and I’m very happy to run against her. I’m not complaining from that standpoint. And I hate to be defending him, but he did not want to leave. He wanted to see if he could win. They said, you’re not going to win after the debate.

They said, you’re not going to win. You can’t win. You’re out. And at first, they said it nicely, and he wasn’t leaving. And then you know it better than anybody. But anyway, so when you think about it, they said at first they were going to go out to another vote. They were going to go through a primary system, a quick primary system, which it would have to be. And then it all disappeared.

Criticism of Opponent

DONALD TRUMP: And they just picked a person that was the first out. She was the first loser, okay? So we call her the first loser. She was the first loser when, during the primary system, during the Democrat primary system. She was the first one to quit, and she quit. She had no votes, no support, and she was a bad debater, by the way, very bad debater. And that’s not the thing I’m looking forward to, but she was a bad debater. She did, obviously, a bad job.

She never made it to Iowa. And for some reason, and I know he regrets it, you do too, he picked her, and she turned on him too. She was working with the people that wanted him out. But the fact that you can be, get no votes, lose in the primary system, in other words, you had 14 or 15 people, she was the first one out, and that you can then be picked to run for president, it seems to me actually unconstitutional. Perhaps it’s not. Please.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

Comparison to Hillary Clinton

DONALD TRUMP: So I’ve run against Hillary, and I’ve run against various other people. I would say that, in terms of intelligence, Hillary was far superior. I would say that. Hillary was smart. She was her own worst enemy, in many ways. But she was smart, very smart. Okay? If you ask me to compare them. Please.

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you think you have a position on the Internet? It’s probably more popular to channel that to the world than it has been all this time, I think. It is important. Given the fact that you can’t understand it, what’s important is that you can validate it.

DONALD TRUMP: Would you repeat that? Would you repeat that question, please? Do you have to speak up?

REPORTER: Yes, sir. I did.

DONALD TRUMP: It’s a hard room, because it’s very hard. So, this is worth $18 million, though, I see.

Abortion Issue

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: So, I think the abortion issue is written very much tampered down. And I’ve answered, I think, very well in the debate. And it seems to be much less of an issue, especially for those where they have the exceptions, as you know. And I think it’s — when I looked, for 52 years, they wanted to bring abortion back to the states. They wanted to get rid of Roe v. Wade. And that’s Democrats, Republicans, and independents, and everybody — liberals, conservatives.

Everybody wanted it back in the states. And I did that. Now the states are voting. And frankly, some of the votes are much more, if you could say, liberal than you would think. Ohio turned out to be — they had a big vote, and it turned out to be a much more liberal standing than people would have thought. Kansas, the same thing. And then you have Texas, and you have other places where it may be different. But the issue has been brought back to the states now.

And like Ronald Reagan, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. I believe — you know, I believe strongly. I think that that’s a very important thing. I think when you don’t — you have to follow your heart. But when you don’t believe in the exceptions, I think it’s much tougher. It’s a much tougher issue. But about 82 percent of Republicans do believe in exceptions.

Democratic Party Criticism

DONALD TRUMP: I think the — and a lot of them are changing their mind and coming even further. I think that abortion has become much less of an issue. It’s a very — I think it’s actually going to be a very small issue. What I’ve done is I’ve done what every Democrat and every Republican wanted to have done, and we brought that issue back to the states. And now the states are voting on it.

And frankly, some of the votes are a lot different than people would have thought. But it’s the vote of the people that’s taking care of it. And, you know, when you think about the radical — the Democrats are really the radical ones in this because they’re allowed to do abortion on the eighth and ninth month, and even after birth. If you look at your new governor from Minnesota, he’s talking about — he’s like the governor previous, the former governor.

I don’t want to get him mixed up because Glenn is doing a good job, and he’s leading our — he’s leading our whole campaign in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin. But previous to Glenn, the governor, he said, the baby will be born, we will put the baby aside, and we will decide with the mother what we’re going to do. In other words, whether or not we’re going to kill the baby. The Minnesota gentleman, he — this guy agrees with that.

Political Terminology

DONALD TRUMP: He is the most liberal — look, between her and him, there’s never been anything like this. There’s never been a combination. So I’ll use the word progressive. You know, they want to go progressive. They don’t like the word liberal. I like liberal better. I think it’s more appropriate because nobody knows what progressive means. But they now like to use the word progressive.

But there’s certainly never been anybody so liberal like these two, or even close. I think the abortion issue has been taken down many notches. I don’t think it’s a big factor anymore, really. And when people hear what I said in the debate — and I think I said it very well during the debate — we brought it back to the states.

Everybody wanted it in the states. And very importantly — and you think about this — assuming you have exceptions — if you don’t have exceptions, it’s a more difficult thing. At the same time, there are people that strongly feel that way. And you have to follow your heart. And you should follow your heart. But that issue has — is very much subdued. Yeah. Thank you.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: About who?

REPORTER: The fact that some of the use of AR-15s in guns at all is your credit for talking about that?

Gun Rights

DONALD TRUMP: No, I didn’t. Look, if you take away guns — she wants to take away everyone’s gun. If you take away guns, can’t do it, because people need the guns for protection.

Now, entertainment, they wanted. Hunting, they — you know, different things. They need weapons for protection in this country. People live out in the woods, and they’re not going to have a gun. If you look at some countries — I don’t want to go — I don’t want to get them in trouble, but some countries have actually gone the opposite way. They had very strong gun laws, and now they have gone the opposite way, where they allowed people to have guns, where, in one case, they encouraged people to go out and get guns, and crime is down 29 percent.

And remember this, what is the toughest gun law in the United States? Chicago. On July 4th, 117 people were shot and 17 died. The toughest gun laws in the United States are in the city of Chicago. You know that. They had 117 people shot. Afghanistan does not have that.

Afghanistan Withdrawal Criticism

DONALD TRUMP: Afghanistan, by the way, was the lowest point in the history of our country, in my opinion. That was the worst embarrassment to the history of this country. And I say Putin would not have gone into Ukraine if that didn’t happen. When he saw the incompetence of Milley and all these guys that are incompetent, when he saw that happen, when they took out the soldiers first — they took out the soldiers first — you know, if you go back and check your records, for 18 months, I had a talk with Abdul. Abdul was the leader of the Taliban, still is. But I had a strong talk with him. For 18 months, not one American soldier was shot at or killed.

But not even shot at. 18 months. And then we had the disaster of the — of the lift, where people were falling off airplanes from three times the height of the World Trade Center. I mean, it’s terrible. But now our country has to be respected again. Please. Go ahead, please.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: I’d be against that. That Kamala is in favor of not giving Israel weapons?

Israel and Jewish Support

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. That’s what I hear. Look, she’s been very, very bad to Israel, and she’s been very bad to Jewish people. And I say it, if anybody I know is Jewish, and they would vote for Kamala over me, they should have their head examined. If you think about it, I gave them Golan Heights, I gave them the capital of Israel, Jerusalem. I built the — I even built the embassy. I gave them no Iran deal.

The problem is, they didn’t do anything with it. Iran was broke. We could have made a deal so easily. I would have had a deal done within one week after the election with Iran. Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple. We would have gotten along with Iran. I was looking forward to it.

I was fine with Iran. You know, we hit them a couple of times pretty hard. But we would have been fine with Iran. But I got them — I terminated that deal. I got them the Abraham Accords. Everyone said, that’s impossible. I got them the Abraham Accords. She’s been very, very bad to Israel, and she’s been very bad and disrespectful to Jewish people.

And any Jewish person that votes for Kamala and her friend — her new friend, who — I don’t know if she knew him before, but I don’t think he’s too good. But anybody that votes for them, if you’re Jewish or if you love Israel, you have to have your head examined. Go ahead, please.

REPORTER: Is there any more information about the shooter, Mr. Trump, about the man named FBI? Did he serve in the FBI?

DONALD TRUMP: They have. The FBI came to see me about the shooter. I think they’ve done a very good job. And I think they did a very good job with respect to this other lunatic that they have in custody. Please.

REPORTER: Mr. President, is this on discussion around Vice President Harris’s relationship with Willie Brown?

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.

REPORTER: The former mayor of San Francisco, and how that might have intersected with her career trajectory. So I’m just wondering if you follow that discussion at all, and if you follow other experts.

Willie Brown and Kamala Harris

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought, maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing. And Willie, he was a little concerned.

So I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about her. But this is what you’re telling me anyway, I guess. But he had a big part in what happened with Kamala. But he, I don’t know, maybe he’s changed his tune, but he was not a fan of hers very much at that point.

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you believe Vice President Harris is certified by your election secretary? Do you believe that?

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I do.

REPORTER: How are you planning to vote on Florida’s 14th Amendment?

DONALD TRUMP: On what?

REPORTER: How are you planning to vote on Florida’s 14th Amendment?

Florida’s 14th Amendment

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I’m going to announce that. I’m going to actually have a press conference on that at some point in the near future, so I don’t want to tell you now. But Florida does have a vote coming up on that. And I think, probably, the vote will go in a little more liberal way than people thought. So I’ll be announcing that at the appropriate time. Please.

REPORTER: Mr. President, your tax cuts in your administration come about fairly soon, and potentially in a while. I wanted to ask you, specifically, about the tax code. They want parents to be able to choose their own tax code. There are a number of tax cuts.

Tax Cuts and Economy

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Oh, we gave tremendous and tremendous for child care and all of that. No. Our tax cuts, which are the biggest in history, our tax cuts are coming due, as you know, very soon. And if the Democrats don’t renew them, or make it impossible to renew because it’s pretty close in terms of vote, if they don’t renew them, it’s the equivalent of having a four-times tax increase from what you have right now, and it’ll destroy the economy. I think they’re under tremendous pressure to do it.

I’ve never seen — you know, all my life, I grow up and I watch politics, and I used to be on the other side of politics very — then I run for office. But in all the years of studying politics, I’ve never seen people get elected by saying, We’re going to give you a tax increase. These guys get up. Think of it. We’re going to give you no security. We’re going to give you a weak military.

We’re going to give you no walls, no borders, no anything. We’re going — all these things they’re doing. I mean, the transgender — the transgender became such a big thing. But they do all of these things, but they always say, We’re going to give you a tax increase. I never heard anybody campaign on a tax increase. A politician has always said, I will cut taxes.

Social Security and Tips

DONALD TRUMP: I’ll give you one example. Social Security. They’re going to destroy Social Security. I am going to leave Social Security. I’m not raising the years. I’m not raising the age. I will be saving Social Security. And I’m going to work it out that there’s no tax on Social Security for seniors. I’m also doing no tax on tips. No tax on tips.

So waiters, waitresses, caddies, people that drive cars, people that get tips who have been harassed by this government, we’re going to have no tax on tips. That’s a big thing.

REPORTER: Do you think the President of C-Ban is politically motivated?

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Sure. Because other people have done far bigger things than C-Ban, and sure, it’s politically motivated.

Weaponization of Government

DONALD TRUMP: I think it’s a horrible thing they did. Look, they’ve weaponized government against me. Look at the Florida case. It was a totally weaponized case. Look at all of these cases. By the way, the New York cases are totally controlled out of the Department of Justice. They sent their top person to the various places.

They went to the AG’s office, got that one going. Then he went to the DA’s office, got that one going, ran through it. No, no, this is all politics, and it’s a disgrace. Never happened in this country. It’s very common that it happens, but not in our country. It happens in banana republics and third world countries. And that’s what we’re becoming. We have no borders.

Voting Regulations

DONALD TRUMP: We have bad voting regulations. Anytime you have mail-in ballots, you’re going to have problems. France learned that lesson. You know, France had all mail-in voting, and they went back to paper ballots, voter identification, voter ID. They went back to a normal system, one-day voting. They don’t want to be around, you know, voting for 64 days. And look, the election, I keep talking about November 5th, but the election really starts on September 6th. That’s when it starts, because it’s early voting.

We should have one-day voting. We should have paper ballots. We should have voter ID, and we should have proof of citizenship. Please. No, the gentleman in the back.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: For who? You’re going to have to talk louder, sir.

Elon Musk’s Support

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Elon is a very different kind of a guy. He’s a very big believer in the country, but he’s very worried about the country. He’s very worried about the country. And I don’t know if it’s good for him politically to have supported me, although I think we have a vast majority of this country does support me. But Elon, more than almost anybody I know, I mean, he loves this country.

He loves the concept of the country. But like me, he says this country is in big trouble. It’s in big — it’s in tremendous danger. Okay. Please. I like this guy. I like him. Yeah.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: The polls have suggested —

Economic Concerns and Poll Numbers

DONALD TRUMP: There are some polls that say we’re going to win in a landslide. People are voting with their stomachs, meaning they’re going to the grocery store, they’re paying 50, 60, 70 percent more for food than they did just a couple of years ago. Look at what’s happened to energy. Look at what’s happened not only to their cars, where gasoline has gone from $1.87 — $1.87 — and we had moments when it was below that, but it’s gone from $1.87 to $5, $6, and $7.

And they take the Strategic National Reserves and they take it out, even though it’s peanuts compared, it doesn’t last long. But they’re virtually empty now. We’ve never had it this low. And he’s using that to keep the gasoline prices as low as possible. He’s sucked all of the oil out, essentially the gasoline, to keep the — to keep the price down a little bit, and it’s had very little impact.

But you know what? We have no Strategic National Reserves now. He’s emptied it. It’s almost empty. It’s never been this low. And I had it at a good level, and I would have had it more if the Democrats would have approved the deal. You know, I had a deal to buy it at $22 a barrel, and now it’s getting — it’s going to be close to $100 pretty soon, in my opinion.

And the Democrats didn’t want to do that, but we bought a lot anyway. And we had it pretty good. And what they’ve done to the National Reserves, the Strategic National Reserves, is — as you know very well, because you cover it — but what they’ve done is incredible. They’ve just — for the sake of getting some votes, for the sake of having gasoline — you know, that’s meant for wars.

It’s meant for, like, tragedy. It’s not meant to keep a gasoline price down so that somebody can vote for Biden or, in this case, Kamala, who, by the way, is worse than Biden. And she’s actually not as smart. Okay? She’s actually not as smart. That’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Yeah, please.

REPORTER: I have a political question. I want to follow up on one of the important points. There are other things the federal government can do, not just advance. Would you direct your FDA to be able to revoke assets and suppress them, if you want to do that?

Federal Government Actions

DONALD TRUMP: So, you could do things that will be — would supplement, absolutely. And those things are pretty open and humane. But you have to be able to have a vote. And all I want to do is give everybody a vote. And the votes are taking place right now as we speak. Yeah. But it’s a very good — There are many things, on a humane basis, that you can do outside of that, but you also have to give a vote, and the people are going to have to decide. Okay.

Yes, please.

REPORTER: Do you think Kamala Harris is worse than President Biden?

DONALD TRUMP: On what? No, I think she’s actually not as smart as he is. I don’t think he’s very smart either, by the way. I’m not a big fan of his brain. But I think that she’s actually not as smart as he is.

REPORTER: So, what do you attribute her rising in the polls to becoming a more competitive race than…

Kamala Harris’s Poll Numbers

DONALD TRUMP: She’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people. But I will say this, when people find out about her, I think she’ll be much less — and I see it right now. I see her going way down in the polls now. Now that people are finding out that she destroyed San Francisco, she destroyed the state of California, along with Governor Gavin Newsom — he’s been a terrible governor, terrible — but they did it together. And she was early.

I mean, she was the first of the prosecutors, really. You know, now you see Philadelphia, you see Los Angeles, you see New York, you see various people that are very bad. But she was the first of the bad prosecutors. She was early.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Will you repeat that, please? No, you. Would you repeat what she said? You have to speak up. This room is very —

REPORTER: Will you repeat what she said?

REPORTER: Will the White House hold a daily press briefing?

DONALD TRUMP: Do you hear her?

REPORTER: Can you make it here to the White House, a daily press briefing?

DONALD TRUMP: Daily press briefing?

Press Briefings

DONALD TRUMP: Why would I do that? I would give you all the press briefings you want. Look what I’m doing here. But why would I do a daily — a daily press — you’d get tired of me very fast. No. But I will give you total access and you’ll have a lot of press briefings and you’ll have from me — now, are you talking about from me or from a press staff?

REPORTER: From a press secretary.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, yeah, probably they’ll do something, but if it’s not daily, it’s going to be a lot. You’ll have more than you want.

REPORTER: Mr. President —

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, please.

REPORTER: President Biden has vowed not to pardon his son, Hunter, who is now a convicted felon and dating more felon charges. His upcoming trial for alleged tax evasion. Would you consider granting clemency or pardoning?

Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton

DONALD TRUMP: I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to talk about it. I think it’s a tragic story. You want to know the truth. And I felt that with Hillary Clinton, too. You know, with Hillary Clinton, I could have done things to her that would have made your head spin. I thought it was a very bad thing. Take the wife of a President of the United States and put her in jail.

And then I see the way they treat me. That’s the way it goes. But I was very protective of her. Nobody would understand that, but I was. I think my people understand it. They used to say, lock her up, lock her up, and I’d say, just relax, please. We won the election. I think it would be very — I think it would have been horrible for our country if I — and we had her between the hammering of all of the files and — don’t forget, she got a subpoena from the United States Congress.

And then, after getting the subpoena, she destroyed everything that she was supposed to get. I couldn’t — I didn’t think — I thought it was so bad to take her and put her in jail, the wife of a President of the United States. And then, when it’s my turn, nobody thinks that way. I thought it was a very terrible thing.

And she did a lot of very bad things. I’ll tell you what, she was — she was pretty evil. But in terms of the country and in terms of unifying the country, bringing it back, to have taken her and to have put her in jail — and I think you know the things as well as I do. There were some pretty bad acts that she did.

National Unity and Foreign Policy

DONALD TRUMP: I think it would have been very bad for our country. And a lot of my people, a lot of the MAGA, as they call them, but the base — and I think the base is — I think the base is 75 percent of the country, far beyond the Republican Party. Because we’re a party of common sense, and I’m a person of common sense. I want to have low taxes, I want to have strong borders, I want to have a strong military so that China and Russia — look, they’ve allowed China and Russia to do the impossible combined.

They’re natural enemies. They always have been, because China needs more land and Russia has it. They’ve always been natural enemies. And because of Obama — it started with him, and then Biden, because he didn’t know what the hell he was doing — they’ve now become one force.

And then — now they’re adding Iran to it, and they’re adding North Korea to it. Pretty powerful force. This is something that is unthinkable that they allowed to happen.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Oh, it’s going to end. The honeymoon period is going to end.

Criticism of Kamala Harris

DONALD TRUMP: Look, she’s got a little period, she’s got a convention coming up. It’s about policy. It’s not about her. I think she’s incompetent, because I’ve watched her. She destroyed California, she destroyed San Francisco. Everything she’s touched has turned to bad things. I want to use — I’m not going to use foul language.

But everything she’s touched has turned bad. She’s incompetent. The reason she’s not doing what I do, and she’s not doing what she should be doing, she won’t even do interviews with friendly people, because she can’t do better than Biden. Now he had a reason for not doing well, and he was never, 25 years ago, the sharpest or brightest bulb in the ceiling.

That I can tell you. Okay? He wasn’t. But he could do interviews, at least. Not lately, he couldn’t, perhaps. But she’s — she should be doing interviews. She doesn’t want to do interviews. And the reason she doesn’t is, number one, her policies are so bad.

Just to answer your question, I think that it’s not going to change, because it’s really ultimately not about her as much as about her policies. She wants open borders. She wants to defund the police. She wants to defund the police. She wants to take away your guns. Anybody that thinks they’re not going to come after your guns — you know, when I was President, I totally protected the guns. And I think it’s very important.

Second Amendment and Gun Rights

DONALD TRUMP: And I know I take some heat sometimes for it, but you have to have safety. You have to have — when the bad guy walks in with a gun, you’ve got to have some way of protecting yourself. And, boy, that would be — you would see crime go up at levels that you’ve never seen. When people say on this side of the House, this House has guns, we will use the guns, they say, let’s pass, we’ll go someplace else. You have to have them.

And for four years — and, you know, as you know, the NRA endorsed me very powerfully every time I ran, every time. My sons are members, and I guess, indirectly, I’m a member too. But they gave me the strongest of endorsements. And that’s against very strong competition — people that, you know, felt the same way.

No, you have to have — you have to have that right. Our Second Amendment is a very important right, and it has to be protected. Okay. How about you? Go ahead.

REPORTER: Yeah. So, there are some of the most brilliant people on Wall Street that are saying that if President Trump doesn’t win, you’re going to have a depression.

Economic Predictions

DONALD TRUMP: I happen to agree. I think that’s true. Because I know how bad these people are. You know, they like to say that they did this and that. You saw the $7 trillion that they said was me for $7 trillion. It wasn’t me. It was them. They said that I had inflation. They took over 9 percent inflation.

No, no, I had 1 percent inflation. I had actually no inflation, because if you look at the categories, we had just about no inflation. But I had a very minor — I actually had a positive inflation. It was a perfect number, because you don’t want zero. I mean, I’m not going to give you a whole course on economics, but you don’t want zero. One percent, 1.4 percent is great. You want a little bit, because you don’t want to have deflation. Deflation is, in many ways, even worse.

I had a perfect number, right around the 1 percent number. It was perfect. And to show you, it stayed there for two years. And then he did all of the different borrowings that he did. And then he did so many things wrong. Every time he would do it, I’d say, big mistake. And don’t forget, they sell hats and they sell stories. Trump was right about everything. I have been right about a lot. Yes, Maggie.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: The economy, as always, is always controversial.

Pardons and Commissions

DONALD TRUMP: And we had commissions that — and, I think, of respected people. You know many of the people on the commission. And they would recommend to me certain pardons for certain people. Some people were treated very harshly. A fantastic woman, as you know. She served 24 years for being on her phone call having to do with drugs. You know who I’m talking about. She was great.

And she had another 24 years to go. And it was largely about marijuana, which, in many cases, is now legalized. Okay? But we had many very highly regarded people on a commission, and they’d recommend. And they’d put a reason why. Some people were — you know, served time, but they served a lot of time for something that today people wouldn’t even serve time by.

Well, for the most part, I think they did. I mean, they did. They go through — they went through. I had a commission. It was a very important commission to me. And highly respected people. And, frankly, they came up with some decisions that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with, but I did it. But I let a lot of people out that were — that had no representation. I went to people in jails, in prison, that we respected. I said, How many of these people should be let out?

We let out large groups of low-income people that were serving, like, 40 years for something that today you wouldn’t even be put in jail for. We had very few people let out because I said, I really don’t want to let people out where they had a lot of violence, where they had killing, et cetera, et cetera. And, for the most part, we didn’t do that. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: The Presser said you were speaking to him when he was not in order to say anything about issues, like being frustrated. And you didn’t —

DONALD TRUMP: On defense? For the Federal Reserve. Ah. Federal Reserve. And you didn’t have a standing to respond to him on the part of the Federal Reserve.

Federal Reserve

DONALD TRUMP: Right. Well, look, the Federal Reserve is a very interesting thing. And it’s sort of gotten it wrong a lot. And he’s tending to be a little bit late on things. He gets a little bit too early and a little bit too late. And, you know, that’s very largely a — it’s a gut feeling.

I believe it’s really a gut feeling. And I used to have it out with him. I had it out with him a couple of times very strongly. I fought him very hard. And, you know, we get along fine. We get along fine. But I feel that — I feel the President should have at least say in there, yeah, I feel that strongly. I think that, in my case, I’ve made a lot of money.

I was very successful. And I think I have a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve or the Chairman. Yeah.

REPORTER: The Presser — people going to prison for marijuana. The President reports rescheduling marijuana and also says that no one should go to prison for marijuana. Do you agree with this?

Marijuana Legalization

DONALD TRUMP: Well, as we legalize it, I start to agree a lot more. Because, you know, you’re being — it’s being legalized all over the country. Florida has something coming up. I’ll be making a statement about that fairly soon. But as we legalize it throughout the country, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it’s awfully hard to have people all over the jails that are in jail right now for something that’s legal. So, I think, obviously, there’s a lot of sentiment to doing that. Yeah, please.

REPORTER: President Trump, Kamala Harris saw his two exes and she went to the start of the Black Caucus. How did she overreact when she decided to do that?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, you’ll have to ask her that question because she’s the one that said it. I didn’t say it. So, you’ll have to ask her. And I very much appreciate that question. But you’ll have to ask her. But I’ve known her for a long time. I actually contributed to her campaign a long time ago. Because I was a developer, I contributed to lots of campaigns of Democrats, Republicans, and some were liberal and some were conservative. But you’ll have to ask her about that.

But to me, it doesn’t matter. But to her, from her standpoint, I think it’s very disrespectful to both, really. Whether it’s Indian or black, I think it’s very disrespectful to both. To me, it doesn’t matter. Please, red dress, red dress.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, pretty much recovered, yeah. I’m a fast healer. It’s a hell of a shot, but I’m a fast healer. Yeah, pretty much — pretty much recovered. No, it didn’t hit that. I got very lucky. It just hit the lobe, as they call it.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, a little bit. Not much. On top. A little bit.

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP: Well, we’re starting that, yeah.

Mass Deportation

DONALD TRUMP: We are going to start the largest mass deportation in the history of our country because we have no choice. It’s not sustainable. And we are going to start with violent criminals, and we’re going to start then with criminals. And our local police is going to work with us because they know everything about the people. They know their names. They know everything about them.

They know their middle name. They know their numbers. And as you know, the other side is trying. You know, look, for years I wondered, why are they allowing these people to come in at levels like this? It was incredible. And I said, two reasons. They’re either really stupid — and I don’t believe they’re stupid, because anybody that can cheat in elections like they cheat, it’s not stupid — or, in the alternative, they have bad motives or they hate our country. And I used to think they hate our country.

But lately, I’ve seen where they’re trying to sign these people up to vote. And they have to stop. They cannot let illegal immigrants vote in this upcoming election. One more question. Go ahead. One more. Make it a good one, please.

REPORTER: Okay. Regarding Social Security tax returns —

DONALD TRUMP: Right.

REPORTER: — experts say it’s possible to increase the deficit by $1.6 billion. So, how will it work in your view?

Social Security and Taxes

DONALD TRUMP: We have so many ways of making money in this country. We’re not going to affect our Social Security. We’re not changing it. And I proved that over four years. And we’re going to do it. It’s very unfair to people. Very. They spend their life, and they’re great citizens, and they pay in. We’re not going to charge tax to our — to Social Security, the seniors.

We’re not going to do it. We’re not going to charge. And also tax — I say the two things. We’re going to have no tax on seniors, Social Security, and we’re going to have no tax on tips. Very simple. And we are a country that has so many different ways to make money. We have — we have under our feet more liquid gold. I call it oil and gas, than any country in the world. Much more than Saudi Arabia. Much more than Russia. We have so many different ways we can make money. We’re not going to hurt our seniors with Social Security, and we’re not going to charge them tax. Okay?

REPORTER: [Question Inaudible]

DONALD TRUMP:

REPORTER: We should not have sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities is a way of protecting criminals, and we should not have sanctuary cities.

Sanctuary Cities and Crime

DONALD TRUMP: And if you go to California — and I know it well — I have property out there — great property. If you go to California, and you ask the people of California do they like the idea of sanctuary cities, they don’t like it. They’re tired of it. They’re tired of crime. They’re tired of what’s happened to our country. Our country has become a crime-ridden mess. And we’re going to stop it on November 5th.

Thank you very much, everybody.

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