FULL TRANSCRIPT: Tucker Carlson Interviews Trump at MAGA event in Arizona

It’s history. You have to learn. Otherwise, you’re a very foolish person. But I like to look forward. I like to think of the positive. I think you have to have sort of the positive… the power of positive thinking, in a way. And I don’t know. It’s just a mission that I’m on.

The 2016 and 2020 Elections

DONALD TRUMP: We did great in the first election, 2016. We did much better in the second election. Bad things happened. Bad, bad, bad things happened. And had I not done well in the second, I would have said, all right, that’s it, because, you know, you wouldn’t have done well.

You’re right about that. No, but if I didn’t do… You know, we got millions and millions more votes in the second election, which rarely happens to a president. Usually, they get less. Almost all the time, they get less. Obama got less. Barack Hussein Obama, he got a lot less. And… Had we not… No, had we not done well, but I knew how well we did, and I said, well, let’s see how they do. And I waited, and I waited around for a year, and I looked at these people, and Biden was grossly incompetent. I saw that.

His Vice President wasn’t even a discussion, she came in last. She was the first one to get out of the Democrat primary. She was, I guess, number 22. I think there were 22 people, and she was the last… She was the last or first out, if you want to look at it that way. She never got to Iowa. But I was watching, and if they could do well, I would have been very happy. Actually, I would have been very satisfied. But they were grossly incompetent.

The Border Crisis and Its Impact

DONALD TRUMP: And when I watched what they were doing and how they were destroying this country at the border… I mean, millions and millions of people. I’m sure we have some in here tonight with us. You know, murderers and drug dealers. Prisoners. You know, they have prisons from… Prisons from all over the world are being emptied out into our country. All over the world. The Congo and Africa. Not just South America. You know this. They’re opening up their prisons, and they’re bringing them into our country.

The Afghanistan Withdrawal

DONALD TRUMP: Anyway, so I watched other things, too. I mean, Afghanistan. You take a look at Afghanistan, what happened with Afghanistan, how bad that was. I wanted to get out. We were getting out. We were going to keep Bagram, but we were getting out with dignity and strength. We were strong. And the way they got out, they took the soldiers out first. No, you take the soldiers out last. Anybody would know that. And you watch all of the things that happened.

Predictions for Upcoming Elections

DONALD TRUMP: And I said, we’re going to do this thing. We’re going to do it again. And we’re doing well. I mean, now we’re going to know in four days. But we’re doing very well. I think we’re leading by a lot. And if we can keep them… If we can keep that cheating down, because they’re a bunch of cheats. If we can keep that cheating down, we’re going to have a tremendous victory. I think it’ll be… I think it’ll go down as one of the greatest victories of all time. So we’re going to have some… We’re going to have an exciting time.

TUCKER CARLSON: So you were in New Mexico the other day. New Mexico is considered a pretty blue state. What were you doing there?

The Significance of the Border Issue

DONALD TRUMP: Well, they’re also a border state. They have people pouring in by the tens of thousands. And they’re being decimated. They’re being hurt very badly. They also have a pretty rotten economy for a lot of reasons. But what they really have is tremendous inflation. But beyond that… Because I happen to think that the border is the single biggest issue. I think the border is a bigger issue than inflation. Inflation is destroying, and it’s a country buster.

You know, inflation, it’s broken up many countries, including Germany from many years ago. Lots of… You look at where there was big… This was the biggest inflation and the worst inflation we’ve ever had. They say in 48 years. They don’t include a lot of things. It was the worst inflation we’ve ever had. Inflation is a country buster. So I’m not trying to minimize that. But I think the biggest problem and the worst thing that’s happened to this country is allowing millions of people in here that are criminal people.

Look, when you empty out your prisons and you put them into the United States, a lot of bad things happen. And they’re coming in totally unvetted, totally unchecked. They’re pouring in. Venezuela has allowed thousands and thousands of the roughest prisoners in the world to come in. You know, their crime rate is way down. I think like 70%, 72%. They’ve taken from Caracas and the cities in Venezuela where they have the problem. They’ve taken the street gangs and they’ve delivered them into the United States. Thank you very much.

They’ve taken their criminals. They’ve taken their drug dealers and drug lords. They’ve taken them out of Caracas and they brought them into the United States. And it is a disgrace and we are going to have to do a very large deportation because you can’t live like that. You can’t. It cannot be sustained, Tucker. It cannot be sustained. I think you know that better than anybody.

TUCKER CARLSON: I do know. I think it’s the gravest crime ever committed against the United States ever by any country. Our leaders committed it against us. But it does raise the question of motive. It hasn’t helped the labor market any. It hasn’t helped Americans at all. You’ve heard a Democratic senator stood up and said the United States military should take these people. We should give them guns. New York City has given them guns and the police department. You wonder what is going on here.

Trying to Understand the Other Side’s Motives

DONALD TRUMP: It’s the hardest thing. In business, and you like to go where you started from, you sort of like to understand where the other side is coming from. Here you’re looking at something. Why do they want men in women’s sports? I’ve been doing this now. I used to say I was very proud to say I wasn’t a politician, but I guess after a while you’re sort of a politician.

TUCKER CARLSON: I think you qualify.

DONALD TRUMP: I hate to say it, but you like to know where the other side’s coming from. I’ll say, why do they want to have men, and they’re so emphatic about it, men playing in women’s sports. You see what’s happening in volleyball, what’s happening in swimming, what’s happening in weightlifting. How about weightlifting where records that stood for 18 years are being broken by hundreds of pounds. The whole thing is crazy.

Then you say, why do they want to have transition, I call them transition operations, by the thousands. If you just say, well, I’m thinking about it, they throw you onto an operating table. You say, why do they want to have that? Who wants to have open borders? They’re all the same thing. They don’t make any sense.

We’re the party of common sense, because I think we’re really the party of common sense. There can only be a couple of reasons. Number one, they’re stupid. They’re not stupid because you can’t be stupid, but you can’t be stupid and be that good at cheating on elections, because they’re not great at that. They could be stupid. They could also hate our country. They could hate our country. They may hate our country. They may not even know it. A lot of people don’t know it.

The other thing is they want to cheat on elections by signing these people up. They are trying to sign people up. They’re trying to sign people up that don’t even know what country they’re in. That’s the other thing. It’s one of those three things. Nobody really knows, but you’d say, okay, so I’ve been doing this for a while. I’ve never had anybody — I’ve had people come up and say, gee, it would be great if you could get the taxes down. Gee, it would be great if you could do this. It would be hundreds of things. Nobody’s ever come up to me and said, it’s really important to me that we allow men to play in women’s sports. Nobody. And yet, it’s such a big deal. It’s such a big deal.

TUCKER CARLSON: You think the point may be to destroy. Just to break the country.

Criticizing Adam Schiff

DONALD TRUMP: It could be they hate our country. I mean, they may hate our country. And we deal with real scum. I mean, like a guy like Adam Shifty Schiff. He’s a sleazebag. And he’s probably going to be a senator, if you can believe it, but I call him Watermelon Head. He has the… No, he’s unattractive both inside and out. That is… No, but this is a really bad guy. This is a dishonest guy. Not a dumb guy at all. He’s got the smallest neck I’ve ever seen on a human being. It’s true. He will never be a football player, I can tell you. But he’s a smart guy. But he’s a… He’s just a sleazebag. You know, there’s nothing else he could… I’ll give you… Should I give you a little example?

TUCKER CARLSON: I hope you will. I’m really enjoying this a lot.

DONALD TRUMP: This gentleman happens to like my son Don, I think. Yes, he likes you. Now, maybe you don’t, but he likes you. I have a son, Don, who’s a good guy. He’s a good guy. He’s a wild man. A little wild. I would say he’s a little wild. In a good way. But in a good way. He’s a very good kid.

The Russia Investigation and Donald Trump Jr.

DONALD TRUMP: And I read about, like, all of a sudden, he’s involved with Russia, Russia, Russia. I said, but I know him so well. He’s my boy. I know exactly… He knows less about Russia than the cameraman that’s sitting right there who’s never been… Don doesn’t know anything about Russia. But one day, about, you know, two years, three years before, they met a whole group of people, met with a Russian lawyer having to do with the [Novitskiy Act] or something. Having to do with child adoption. Crazy. But she was a Russian.

Now, everybody in Congress knew this woman. But anyway, they go after him. Now, think of this. Russia, Russia, Russia was a major hoax, okay? It’s now been adjudged to be a total major hoax. We had the Mueller commission. We had everybody. It’s all a… It was a hoax. It was made up to justify why Hillary Clinton lost the election, which she wasn’t supposed to lose. It was a totally… And it was made up by Schiff and Hillary and some other sleaze… Just total sleazeballs.

And what happened is the fake news media, which is back there. You do know that. They’re always around someplace. But what happened is the fake news media, what they said is it started with a simple move. How did you lose the election? It was Russia. And I’m saying to myself, wait a minute, I won this election. What the hell did Russia have to do with it? And then it went… And it was only supposed to be a one-day deal by the Democrats. In other words, it was going to… But the press picked it up, and they liked it. They liked it. Ooh, Russia, that sounds good. You covered it better than that. You were funny. You’d go, “Russia, Russia, Russia.” You’d go crazy. But it drove you crazy, didn’t it? Because you knew it was such a hoax.

DONALD TRUMP: It was such a hoax. They actually tried starting it up about two months ago. Did you see? It flopped. And this time, the press just couldn’t get away with it. They said… The New York Times, Washington Post, they got the Pulitzer Prize for accurate and beautiful reporting on the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. You know, the whole thing. And I sued them. And it’s doing very well, by the way. I want the reporters to give back their awards because they were wrong. There were plenty of guys that were right, like you and Sean. There were plenty of guys that were right.

But here’s the thing. Shifty Schiff. See, that’s the weave. See? We start. You know about the weave, right? Start. As long as you come back to the right location. So what happens? You understand that? Somebody said, “Does you ramble?” I said, “I don’t ramble. I do the weave. I cover many, many subjects.” And you always come back to the right. That’s genius. There’s a difference between rambling and genius. Right?

DONALD TRUMP: Okay. Now getting back to the point. So I have a son, Don, a good guy. Knows nothing about Russia. Has zero. And they went through millions of phone calls. There wasn’t one call to Russia, etc., etc.

Criticizing Adam Schiff’s Behavior

DONALD TRUMP: So Shifty Schiff, Adam Schiff, a real sleazebag. He’s at an intelligence meeting. And he’s not supposed to be talking. But wherever he goes, the press is out there standing because he’s provocative or whatever the hell. They figure they’ll get something bad on me, which is probably much more accurate. So Schiff comes out. Now think of this. How bad a person you have to be. I have a son, and I love my son. I love all my children. You love your children. I mean, there are a couple of people that who doesn’t love their children? There’ll be about 20 people out there. But I have a son, and I love my son. And he’s a good boy. He’s a good guy. You know Eric. You know Barron. I love my kids. I have good kids. But I love my son.

And Schiff goes out. Now think of this. It was him and Crooked Hillary and some other people.

Adam Schiff’s Behavior and the Russia Investigation

DONALD TRUMP: They conceived of this hoax. So they know it’s a hoax. They know it’s not real. Because it’s a made-up story that they conceived. And, you know, they spied on my campaign, all this stuff. But they conceived of the story. So he knows the story is false.

And yet he leaves an intelligence meeting. Goes to the press, which is waiting outside. A lot of press. And he says something to the effect, Donald Trump Jr., the son of the President of the United States, will be going to jail. He will spend many years in prison for what he’s done to our nation. And think of how bad you have to be. He just said that an innocent kid is going to go to prison on a story that’s a bullshit story. It’s a made-up story.

DONALD TRUMP: And he said, my son, the President’s son, is going to spend many years in prison. I called my son. I said, “Hey, Don, how’s everything? Are you okay with this?” He said, “Dad, I don’t know what they’re talking about.” He was, and he was — I didn’t want to get into it too much because I didn’t want to make him nervous. And I said, “Well, you don’t know anything about Russia.” And he said, “Dad, I don’t know anything. I have nothing. I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

DONALD TRUMP: So think of this. It turned out, the Mueller report, and I tell you, it was an amazing thing that happened because I had 18 radical left lunatics, and I had Mueller, who didn’t know where the hell he was, okay? You saw that in the hearings. But think of this. I had no chance. It was a stacked court. But I had an angel in that court. I had somebody that wouldn’t allow them to do what some of the sleazebags that you know, and you know who they are. Somebody on that court, and I think I know the person, high-quality person, and would not allow them to do what they would have loved to have done, is convict, even though you’re totally innocent, and you didn’t even know what the hell.

DONALD TRUMP: So we were exonerated fully. There was no hoax. There was no anything. We were exonerated fully. But just think of it. Just think. And the Mueller report came out, and it was a complete exoneration. But here’s a guy that made up a story that tried to put my son in prison for years, and he knew the story was false. They made it up. How bad of a person do you have to be? And I heard the son of the President of the United States is going to jail, and he’ll be there for many years on a story. Now, how would you feel if you’re the kid? I mean, you’re a young kid, and you’re hearing this crap. Just think of it. But how bad do you have to be?

So you know it’s fake because he made it up. And you know, he’s a storyteller, too. You know, he writes little bullshit stories. You know that, right? But I just think they’re really, we have some, and you know, I talk about the enemy from within, and they do have, they’re the greatest con people in the world.

Oh, they talk about how dare, that’s a threat to democracy. They’re the threat to democracy. You know, the amazing thing, the amazing thing is where they say, he wants to become elected, and he wants to put people in jail. How terrible. That’s what they’ve been trying to do to me for four years.

TUCKER CARLSON: And I should say that your son, Don, had five small children. Can you imagine threatening a man with five kids with prison for a crime he didn’t commit?

Trump’s Views on Religion and Support from Evangelicals

TUCKER CARLSON: So you said that you were saved in the end by an angel. How have your views about God changed in the last eight years, and particularly after getting shot?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, look, I’ve always been a believer, but I wouldn’t say, you know, there’s a certain pastor, Robert Jeffress, and I didn’t know, name is Robert Jeffress, nice guy from Texas, and he said, you know, Trump may not be the best Christian of all, but he’s the only one going to take us to the promised land because he’s the best leader, and he’s the toughest guy, and he’s going to be able to get us through this crazy lot. And he was a big supporter, and now I have unbelievable evangelical and Christian support because I have. I mean, I’ve done a great job for them, and we’re, you know, we’re together.

But he said he may not know the Bible quite as well as other people are supposed to, but, you know, he also did something. They picked Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter a long time ago, you know, that sort of, that was, they said he wasn’t quite as religious, but he’s the guy that’s going to get the job done, and I really got, I did a great job with a lot of things having to do with saving religion because these people want to put religion out of business.

The “Enemy from Within” and Threats to the Country

DONALD TRUMP: These people are, you know, they go crazy when I say the enemy from within, and I said, look, we have China, we have Russia, we have Kim Jong-un, North Korea, we have a lot of people out there. But if you have a smart president, I had a great relationship with President Xi until the China virus came in, and that was a bridge too far, but we’ll have a very good relationship. And there’s reasons for them to want to like us, there’s big reasons, but if you have a smart president, that kind of smart, meaning with people, if you have a smart president, somebody that knows what’s happening, you’re going to be fine, but, you know, we do have an enemy from within.

We have some very bad people, and those people are also very dangerous. They would like to take down our country. They’d like to have our country be a nice communist country or a fascist in any way they can, and we have to be careful of that, but they’re the greatest con artists of all, because as soon as I said, an enemy from within, they said, oh, he wants to, oh, he’s saying an enemy from within. These are sick puppies, I’m telling you.

The Riots and Tearing Down Statues

TUCKER CARLSON: Well, I mean, I gotta say, just objectively, I noticed that the second you left and Biden came in, we didn’t have any more Antifa riots, which makes me wonder if, like, how is Antifa not the militia of the Democratic Party?

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, but you do have, you did have a lot of riots, and you have a lot of, you have a lot of people being hurt in a different way. You have a lot of, you have a lot of people being hurt very, very badly. We stopped, you know, we had a period of time where they wanted to tear down statues, and, you know, they thought the statue of Abraham Lincoln should be ripped down immediately and a couple of others, and we stopped them. I signed an old bill that was old and dusty. It was like 1910, the United Statues Act of, like, 1910. It said that if you tear down a statue or even get near it, if you don’t want it, up to the President, you go to jail for 10 years.

DONALD TRUMP: And when they started getting a little bit frisky, I took that old, dusty statue. It hadn’t been used in a long time. We took it out, and they were getting a little wild. Do you remember that period of time? And I said, I had a little news conference, and I said, anybody that touches a statue, they were going to rip down Andrew Johnson. They were going to rip down Andrew Jackson. And the rope was already on him, and, I mean, I saw what was going on, and I signed that thing, and I had a news conference. I said, anybody that touches a statue, if you touch the statue, you go into jail for 10 years with no parole, no early getting out.

And I looked, because there was a little discord in Washington. I looked at those people from the back, and I saw those people. I saw about 1,000 asses. They were facing me as they headed out of town. They were heading out of town. And we never heard from them again until recently. Until recently when you had, about two months ago, you had some riots in Washington, D.C., where they took spray paint, and they sprayed the limestone lions, and they burned the American flags badly. And, you know, I’d like to see anybody that burns the American flag one year in jail. I really believe that.

Working with People in Government and Firing

TUCKER CARLSON: You mentioned the enemy within. It’s pretty clear. Well, it’s not clear. It’s a fact that the CIA and the FBI, which are absolutely not allowed by law to have any influence in American politics, because that’s the end of democracy, both of them and a bunch of other intel agencies worked against you on behalf of the Democratic Party from the minute you got elected in 2016. And they’re still doing it. They’re working against you now. What will you do about that?

DONALD TRUMP: So, one thing I’ve learned in Washington is all people, you’ve got to get the right people. So, when I got elected, I was only, according to the fake news, which I think in this case it wasn’t fake, they said I was here 17 times during the course of my life, and I never stayed over. So, I wasn’t a Washington person. I was a New York person. I knew New York, but I didn’t know Washington. And all of a sudden, I’m the President of the United States. I’m saying, and I didn’t know anybody. I said, “Hello, anybody. Does anybody would like to have dinner or something?” But, so I had to rely on rhinos and good people, too, even some good rhinos. There aren’t too many of them. They’re sort of a dying breed right now, I would say, actually. But I had to rely on people that I didn’t know to give me information.

And I won’t use any specifics, but I had some people in government with me, and I relied. And, you know, they have pretty much different philosophies than I would have or than you would have. And, for the most part, we had great people. I mean, we had great trade people. I had great military people. I had the real military, not the millies, you know, the stupid people, some of these people. By the way, every one of those people having to do with Afghanistan should be fired immediately. Every general should be fired immediately.

You know, Biden doesn’t fire anybody. That’s why he never has books written about him. Well, two reasons. Number one, nobody cares about him. It’s not like, “Oh, let’s write a book about Biden.” Nobody cares. But the other thing is that he never, I don’t think, has he fired anybody. I don’t think he’s fired.

I fired a lot of people. I didn’t like people. I fired them. And then you immediately get called by the New York Times or somebody because they’re very, I mean, they truly are the enemy of the people. They’re the enemy of the people, those people right there. Not all of them, but about 91 percent. They’re the enemy of the people. So they’ll say, “Oh, he got fired, therefore he…”

And the interesting thing about firing people, you can fire them really nice, even take, I’ve taken months nice and easy, have lunch, let’s think about it, in the end they get fired and then they wake up the next morning, “That son of a bitch fired me,” right? Or you can do like I did on The Apprentice, “You’re fired, get the hell out of here.” Doesn’t matter. When you fire somebody, you fire somebody.

DONALD TRUMP: I’ve learned after years, you might as well just fire. Then I do another thing, I say, and I wouldn’t do that again, because I’m a nice person. I don’t want to hurt somebody. I say, “Give me a letter.” You know what that means, give me a letter. I said, “Look, it’s not working out. You’re not the guy for me. Give me a letter of resignations.” I say, “Give me a letter.” Everyone knows what that means.

So a guy will write a letter, “Dear…” and then he’ll say he quit. And that’s okay. That’s what I’m, you know, the problem is when that happens with me, it’s always a big story. “So and so quits.” Virtually every person that gave me a letter, I said, “Give me a letter.” Virtually every person that quit, they only quit because I said, essentially, “You’re fired, get the hell out of here.” But I want to be nice, because I’m not looking to fire somebody publicly.

Firing People in Government and Real Estate

DONALD TRUMP: I wouldn’t do that anymore. I’m just going to say, if somebody doesn’t work out, and no matter how good you are, you always have people that don’t work out. It’s interesting. Sometimes people, you think they’re okay, maybe not so great. They turn out to be great. And sometimes you say, this guy is going to be phenomenal, and he turns out to be a stiff.

But I had some people that were, you know, like a guy like John Bolton. A friend of mine calls me after I put him on. He said, “Don’t hire that guy. He’s no good. He’s bad news. He’s dumb as a rock and all that stuff.” I said, “It’s a problem, but I like him for a different reason.” He’s got Bush, him and Cheney, and a couple of other of these lunatics. They got them to go into the Middle East and to create war in the Middle East to spend $9 trillion.

Remember I used to say, “Don’t go into Iraq, but if you do go in, keep the oil.” Well, they went in, but they didn’t keep the oil. They didn’t keep anything. You know, Iraq is a massive oil country. They have $400 billion right now. But I said, “Don’t go in.” But I said it as a civilian. So people cared because I get, for whatever reason, I get a disproportionate amount of publicity. And someday he’s going to explain to me why.

TUCKER CARLSON: Will you explain that to me?

DONALD TRUMP: So even as a civilian, sort of, before I ran, but I’d be very much, you know, involved with things and statements and call and ask, but I said, “Don’t go in.” They went in. It was such a bad decision.

So Bolton, see again, you get back. Bolton, a real dope. But I thought he’d be great because he was so stupid. He was like a boiler. Every time if somebody shot down a little, tiny, crappy drone that cost about $15, he’d want to go to war with Russia. I said, “No, I think he was great for me, though, for a period of time because he was a nutjob and everybody…” I could see his face get red, red, red with that stupid white mustache. And he’d be ready to explode. And this was good for me.

I went to Kim Jong-un in North Korea. I took this moron with me. And he never said anything. But when Kim Jong-un saw him, he said, “Oh, shit, I think the guy wants to go to war.” So he was great for me to negotiate with. The same thing with Russia. You know, when Putin saw him, I’d be very nice. I’d say, “Hi, Vladimir, how are you doing?” And then Putin, you know, two rows back, and I’d see that moron and I’d say, “Holy shit, this guy wants to go to war with me.” And I got a lot of what I wanted.

Nord Stream 2 and Keystone Pipelines

DONALD TRUMP: You know, we killed, as you know, the Nord Stream 2. I killed Nord Stream 2. That’s the other thing that’s great. Their, their, their PR sense, their political sense, very interesting. They love to say that I was a friend of Russia. I worked for Russia. I was a Russian spy. These people are sick. The biggest job Russia ever had is Nord Stream 2. This is the biggest pipeline, like, in the world. Goes from Russia to Germany and all over Europe. I killed it. Nobody would kill it but me. I stopped it. The thing was half-built. Dead.

Then this obviously, look, in all fairness to Biden, he was dumb 35 years ago he was a dumb guy. It’s true. It’s true. But he comes in and he approves it but he stops the Keystone pipeline, which really we need. That’s our pipeline. But think of it. Yeah, but think of it. It’s rough. It’s rough stuff. He stopped. I said, “Wait a minute. It’s supposed to be the other way. Let Keystone go but stop the Russian pipeline.” And I went to the like Germany and the different countries but mostly Germany and say “So let’s get this straight. We’re helping you and guarding you from Russia but you’re paying Russia billions of dollars a month for oil. How’s that working? That’s not working, dude.” I mean the whole concept.

Anyway, I stopped it. And then I keep reading stories that “Oh, I was a puppet for Russia.” Putin actually said to me, “If you’re a puppet now, I’d hate to see if you were angry” because this was the biggest economic job. This was the most important thing that they probably had ever done and I stopped it.

Putting the Right People in the Right Positions

DONALD TRUMP: It’s all about the people, Tucker. If you have the right people it goes beautifully. It’s like in my real estate business. If I have a good building here and I have a good superintendent of the building and that guy’s doing a great job and I’ve done it over the years with my father would have a building and another building and you’d have a great super here and a lousy super there. The one here, the building everything was perfect. Over here everything was crappy.

So now I say let’s take this super move them over here. It worked beautifully for there but not for there because now all of a sudden that one doesn’t. It’s all about the people. You gotta put the people in. And if I have any complaint about myself and I don’t really blame myself because in all fairness I became president of the United States and I never did this stuff before. Pretty good. I never did it before.

I was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue with Melania the new first lady who’s great. People love her. She’s got the number one selling book. Tucker, she’s got the number. Melania right now is the number one selling go out and buy it. It’s a great book.

The 2016 Republican Primary

DONALD TRUMP: But think so I had never done it before and I do it. We had 18 people including me. We had debates and all of a sudden we had 17, 16, 15 and they started disappearing and a lot of people thought I was doing it just for fun. I think Tucker did too. He thought I was having a good time. I was actually having a good time. But all of a sudden did you notice they started to disappear. Then you have 10 people and then you know you had low energy people. You had a lot of interesting people and then I came up with nicknames for everybody and for the most part they were extremely destructive, right?

DONALD TRUMP: We had some beauties. We had some like Pocahontas for the but the death because I don’t use my Republican names anymore because I’m friendly with all those guys. We retired those names but all of a sudden they start and then we get down to 10 so now eight are gone and we’re down to 10 remember we needed two stages because it was so many. I said “We have the children’s stage and then we have the grown up stage” and it was all based on the numbers, the ratings, the numbers your popularity, how you’re doing so there were 10, there were 8 there were 5 there were 4, 3, 2, 1, right?

And all of a sudden I’m the nominee and everyone thought I didn’t want to be but I did want to be. Don’t let them tell you that they said “He didn’t, all these geniuses they said he didn’t really want to win. He’s extremely upset that he would…” No, no if you’re going to play, you know, win some people are surprised but you heard that I didn’t want to win and I was miserable that I wouldn’t. No that’s a false story that’s their own misinformation a term I use a lot and now they use it all over. I always say misinformation, disinformation and now everybody says that.

So I don’t use it anymore but what happens is I end up being the nominee and then I watch the other side, Bernie Sanders and Crooked Hillary go at it and it’s Crooked Hillary and all of a sudden I’m fighting against Crooked Hillary Clinton who’s a smart woman, much smarter than Kamala but doesn’t lie as much.

Hillary was a liar, a horrible scoundrel but this one lies so much and she’s a low IQ individual, she doesn’t even know she’s lying, I’m telling you. This is not what you want for your president that has nothing to do with me, this is not what you want. She’s a very low IQ individual, she’s dumb as a rock and you can’t have that, you can’t have that. We love our country too much, you can’t have it. We just went through four years of it, you can’t have anymore. A country can only take so much and then I won. And so the point is that I never did it before I’m president of the United States and I was never even a politician before and I picked some great people, Lighthizer and Trade we had a lot of great people but it’s all about the people, you gotta have the right people.

Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney

TUCKER CARLSON: When you ran in 2016, the leaders and heroes of the Republican Party were the Bush and Cheney families and is it weird for you to see Liz Cheney that would be Dick Cheney’s repulsive little daughter running against you with Kamala Harris?

DONALD TRUMP: Well I think it hurts Kamala a lot actually. Look she’s a deranged person. The reason she doesn’t like me is that she wanted to stay in Iraq, she wanted to stay, she wants to, you know, tough, tough person you know people get killed all over, she’s real tough right? They’re not the tough people. Don’t forget I went against her and in her state which is a great beautiful state she lost for Congress with the highest number in history. There has never been a congressperson that lost by almost 40 points and the reason is because if they were ever in that situation they’d quit. And she lost, she was beaten by a tremendous person actually, that I fully, but the reason she couldn’t stand me is that she always wanted to go to war with people. I don’t want to go to war; she wanted to go, she wanted to stay in Syria. I took them out.

She wanted to stay in Iraq, I took them out. I mean if it were up to her we’d we’d be in 50 different countries. And you know number one it’s very dangerous, number two a lot of people get killed, and number three I mean it’s very very expensive, that’s why we owe 36 trillion dollars. We go — you know it used to be you go to war to the victor, belong to spoils right, in other words if you be in a country, you own that country you take the oil, we go to war, we bomb the crap out of it and then we leave. You know it’s almost like what are we doing, what’s going on we bombed the whole Middle East and then we left, what did we get? We got nothing, we destroyed I mean we bombed the hell out of everything.

Discussion on Iraq and Iran

DONALD TRUMP: You know when they went into — when they took out Iraq for a thousand years with different names, you had Iran and Iraq similar powers. They were the two big ones. And for a thousand years they would fight each other, this way, this way, this way, then they’d rest, this way then they’d rest. They were a self-check. Then one day we go in and bomb the hell out of one, we destroy one, and then all of a sudden Iran has the whole Middle East to itself. And by the way, right now Iran has Iraq. Iraq is like a subsidiary of Iran. We did so many bad moves.“

On Dick Cheney and the Middle East War

DONALD TRUMP: I’d never met him but I’d say, anybody that went into the Middle East I thought was stupid. And he, they say convinced Bush — Bush, oh he was just, he was another beauty — but he supposedly convinced Bush to go in. Him, Bolton, and some other lightweights convinced them to go in. ‘Let’s go into the Middle East and destroy the whole place and kill millions of people.’ So they went in, but I was never a fan of Cheney. I was always very critical, and when I announced that I was very critical actually, not personally but I said, he made a horrible mistake. What are these people doing?”

They’re spending — we spent nine trillion, trillion with a T, not even with a B. Normally I say not million, billion, but now I say not billion, trillion. We spent nine trillion dollars bombing the hell out of the Middle East, and what the hell did we get other than lots of dead people, including our people? We got nothing. So I was very critical of him, and then I announced I was running, and I was shocked that he was one of the first people — he endorsed me immediately. I said that’s amazing.

The Scooter Libby Pardon

DONALD TRUMP: But he had something that was very interesting. He had Scooter Libby — I mean these are little stories that are interesting. Scooter Libby was a man that could have done great destruction to Bush, and they left him behind. He was given to the prosecutors, they prosecuted him rather violently, and he was almost like a sacrificial lamb. And as somebody that knows a lot about what’s happening, I said, you know, if I were ever president, I’d do something with that guy. That guy got treated very badly, Scooter Libby.

When I became president, I actually called Dick Cheney. I said, ‘Let me ask you about Scooter Libby.’ He was best friends. He was begging Bush to give Scooter Libby a pardon, but Bush didn’t have the courage to do it. You know, it takes courage to give a pardon. It does take a certain courage because the press comes after you, you know, etc., etc., and he didn’t have the courage to give it. He should have given him a pardon, but he didn’t have the guts to do it.

But Scooter — and what happened is Dick Cheney for years, for a long time, hated Bush. And don’t let anyone tell you differently — he hated him. He said, ‘You don’t leave your wounded behind,’ and I understand that. And Scooter Libby really saved Bush because he could have said things that would have been very dangerous for Bush in terms of getting impeached, in terms of going to jail, in terms of bad things happening. But Scooter Libby didn’t do that, and in all fairness to Cheney, I give him credit for this — he was very loyal to him, but he couldn’t get Bush to do what he should have done.

The Pardon and Its Aftermath

DONALD TRUMP: I came into government and I did what they should have done. They didn’t have the guts to do it. I did it, and Scooter Libby was pardoned. I gave him a pardon, and I never met Scooter Libby by the way, never talked to him before that. And I got a call from Scooter Libby after I did that.

And he broke down in tears thanking me so, so much. And then Cheney called me and he said, ‘That was so incredible what you did for Scooter Libby.’ Because he was really on Scooter Libby’s — Scooter Libby took a lot of heat and took all of it and didn’t say anything bad about Bush or Cheney or anything else. Could have done it, I know, because you know you have guys that do that, and you have guys that lie, which is worse, right? But you have guys that do that, but he was very loyal to them and he suffered greatly.

On Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney’s Support

DONALD TRUMP: I released him. Cheney called me and he said it’s one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen done in politics. I said, ‘Look, I’ve heard for years he was treated unfairly, I’ve heard for years that Bush should have given him a pardon. All I did is do something that somebody else should have done.’ And Cheney was so — he said ‘I really want to thank you.’ He said ‘Now I’m so glad that I actually endorsed you.’ It’s amazing that you would do this, and I didn’t speak to him about it.”

But then you know, go a couple of years forward or go now, and I don’t blame him for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter is a very dumb individual, very dumb. She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face. You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying ‘Oh gee, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.’ But she’s a stupid person.

The J6 Committee Discussion

DONALD TRUMP: One other thing — they had the J6 committee, and I say this for the fake news back there. They learned a lot of phony things, like that I took on — I took on when I was in the car, ‘Take me to the Capitol,’ I said, according to this young lady. And then they said, ‘Sure we won’t do that.’ Well, number one, if I said it, they’d do it, but I had two people, Secret Service guys, both extremely rough guys. One was like a karate champion, one was a weightlifter.

She said I grabbed the one by the neck, and when I was rebuffed, I went over to the other one and I grabbed him in a chokehold or something. And actually, no, no, but how ridiculous, okay? It’s just not my thing. We can be tough, but it’s not my thing. I wouldn’t do it. I said, actually, ‘Can we go down to the Capitol?’ They said, ‘Sir, it’s better if we don’t.’ This was before anyone knew there was a problem because there’s a lot of people and it’s gonna be tough, probably not.

And you know, we had more people than I’ve ever seen at the Ellipse up on top, and a small group went down to the Capitol. But I said, ‘Can you take…’ they said, ‘Sir, it’s really a little bit tough.’ I said, ‘That’s okay, whatever you think.’ She said she had me grabbing the one around the neck and being rebuffed, and then I grabbed the other one. And these are — I know them both very well, Bobby. I know Bobby wins, Bobby, and they’re good, and they’re good guys too, but they’re tough guys. I think they probably could have rebuffed me. I’m a little bit older, but friends of mine love the story. They said, ‘Leave the story, you sound like the toughest dude around. It’s a great story.’ But it was totally made up, it was all made up.

The Committee’s Findings and McCarthy’s Decision

DONALD TRUMP: But here’s the end result: the J6 committee — I call it, they call it the J6 select committee, like ‘select.’ They’re not select, they’re scum. So what happens? Take a look at them, they’re all political hacks. But here’s the thing that bothers me: they found out all this stuff was untrue. They found out her story was untrue. The two guys in the car testified it’s ridiculous. They said it is ridiculous. Can you imagine they also I think said it was the Beast, and it wasn’t — it was one of the other ones. But you can’t even get your hands through.

But to think that I would be taking on two nice young guys simultaneously, alright? Same — I’m ripping one and ripping the other. I’m — they’re crazy. I went, oh, and then I went back to the White House, which I love, and I started throwing hamburgers all over the place, okay? Finish the story.

DONALD TRUMP: He says, what happened is terrible. They went a year and a half, and Kevin McCarthy, who’s a very nice man, he made a mistake because we wanted Jim Banks and Jim Jordan on the committee, and so there’d be like eight to seven or something. And called me on this — he said they didn’t want Jim Jordan, he’s a fighter, they didn’t want Jim Banks, he’s a fighter. And so Kevin said, ‘We don’t want anybody on the committee. We think this committee’s a sham.’ And I understood, that was good for a day, but for the two and a half, we had nobody to fight for us. In other words, we had a committee — you know who was representing us on the committee? Crying Adam Kinzinger and Liz the moron Cheney. That was who was on the committee.

So these were the two Republicans: Kinzinger, who was a total whack job, and Cheney, who was worse than him. So they talked about — they called it a bipartisan commission, and I think I’d never like the idea of — not because even if you didn’t have Jim Jordan, who’s very good, and Jim Banks — we have a lot of great people that would have been good. They would have mixed it up.

The Committee’s Final Actions

DONALD TRUMP: End result — like they finished their report, they burned and destroyed and deleted everything, everything, and nobody — and you know why? Because they found out that Nancy Pelosi, it was her fault. She didn’t put the security. I offered 10,000 National Guard military. They found out it was Nancy Pelosi. They found out that the stories about me attacking two very tough guys that are slightly younger than me, just a few years, that that wasn’t true. They found out that much of it wasn’t true, and they were very embarrassed.

So the unselect committee — I call it the unselect committee, which I always thought was a great name — I call it the unselect committee of political thugs. What happened is, think of it…

The Destruction of Evidence by the January 6th Committee

DONALD TRUMP: End of the story. They deleted and destroyed all evidence, all documents, there’s nothing. And the reason they did it is because they were guilty as hell. It’s the greatest cover up and the fake news back there will not cover it. They’ve never even, I think, done a story. In other words, when you go into court, we want that information. There is no information. It’s been destroyed. Everything’s been destroyed. We have a very, we have a very crooked government. Remember that. And we’re going to straighten it out and we’re going to make it an honest government.

Pardoning Hunter Biden

TUCKER CARLSON: So I have to ask you about the pardons. I keep hearing you’re considering pardoning Hunter Biden. Is that true? And if so, why?

DONALD TRUMP: No, I mean, I’ve never looked. I don’t like the idea of what’s happening. I don’t like it at all. They’ve weaponized government, but they’ve weaponized it against me like nobody’s ever been weaponized. The big case was the documents case. We won the case in Florida. We’re winning other cases, too. But I’ve had to devote money and time to this. Instead of running against these, these stupid people, I had to devote a lot of money and a lot of time, which is what they want.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Corruption

DONALD TRUMP: I had FANI, F-A-N-I, to me it’s Fannie, but she said Fannie. I think she changed it once she became the D.A. She wanted to put a little French accent on FANI. And her lover boy, Wade, who was hired for like a million dollars because of his expertise in whatever the hell law, RICO law, RICO, he was. But he never did a RICO case. And then they would take sailing trips like six times during the year, six times. Who the hell goes away or to sail for six times? Nobody.

And he got paid a lot of money. He took that money. They took trips. You know, there’s a whole thing that’s a whole. But that’s just one. They totally controlled it. They control the Manhattan D.A.’s office. They had their man in the Manhattan D.A.’s office. He was there. They put a man in the Manhattan. They put a man into the, into the Letitia James office. They had a guy running the whole thing. It’s all run out of Washington. They went after, in the Attorney General’s office, they had people.

But think of it. They went after their political opponent. It’s never happened to any great extent. Maybe a little bit someplace. I don’t know. Nobody knows of it. But it’s never happened to any great extent in this country. It happens in banana republics a lot. And it happens in third-world countries. But it’s never happened. They went after their political opponent.

The Upcoming Election and Voter Fraud

DONALD TRUMP: So it’s hard to believe that I’m winning, it seems, by a lot if they don’t cheat too much. If they don’t cheat too much, you know, we found a lot of things over the last three days. You’ve seen that. We found a lot of votes in a certain county in York, in York County, Lancaster County. You know, we found a lot of bad votes. There were 2,600 votes that happened to be written by the same pen, same hand, same signature, same everything. Maybe there’s an explanation for that, 2,600 votes. We found a lot of stuff, but we’re seeing to work it out. But think of it.

It’s hard to believe that I’m winning the election by a lot. Now, we got to keep the cheating down. We got to keep their cheating. Thank you. I love you too, darling. Thank you. We got to keep — we got to keep their cheating down.

But think of this. With all I’ve been through, with these animals, these animals coming and what they’ve done to this country, how they’ve hurt this country between the borders and between the weaponization. And think of it. I’m leading by a lot. I’m leading in every single swing state with all of the stuff they’ve done, where I’ve spent millions of dollars. I’ve spent millions of dollars on legal fees. Half of my time is taken up by this. They can campaign. Half of my time is taken up. And they’re the dishonest ones. They flip it. They’re the dishonest ones.

But it’s hard to believe. I said to somebody last night, can you believe the numbers came out last night? I’m really leading by quite a bit. Not a lot of things can happen. Who knows? It flips. Maybe. I don’t know. But I’m leading by a lot. I said, can you believe I’m leading by a lot and what they’ve done to me, that I’m leading at all, that I’m even living is almost hard to believe. These are bad people.

Expanding the Republican Party and Potential Roles in a Future Trump Administration

TUCKER CARLSON: So you’ve expanded and changed the Republican Party. And one of the amazing things that I have learned is the Republican voters really care about issues I didn’t realize they cared about, like clean air, clean soil, clean food. You’ve won somehow the full-throated endorsement of Bobby Kennedy, lifelong Democrat, who’s now like a full-time surrogate for you.

DONALD TRUMP: He’s a very, very good man, too, by the way.

TUCKER CARLSON: So what’s that going to look like after you get elected?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, you know, I feel interesting about this kind of stuff. I like to, number one, get elected. I hate to talk to stuff. A lot of people they set up. I know that even when I ran, Hillary had an office set up where they were interviewing all the people. I don’t want to do that. I want to get elected first and then we’ll cram a little bit. But you know, I don’t like doing it.

No, I remember she set up this big office. They’re interviewing people for jobs. And actually, you’re supposed to do it. But I want to win. I want to win. In five days from now, it’s almost four days from now, right? In five days from now, when we have a victory, we’re going to have the best people. Here’s the one difference, one big difference between now and 2016. I know Washington and the people through testing, real testing, better than probably any human being that’s ever hired people. So I went from not knowing anybody and having to rely on, in all fairness, Mike Pence and many other people.

You know, I had Mike Pence and I had others and they would recommend people. Sloppy Chris Christie recommended some people. And I wouldn’t have used him had I known. But you rely on people. And by the way, you know, I hate — in a way, I hate talking about this because we had mostly great people.

Accomplishments of the Trump Administration

DONALD TRUMP: Think of it. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We rebuilt the entire U.S. military. We defeated ISIS and we had no wars. We cut more regulations than anybody in the history of the country times five. And you know, but we had the best economy in the history of our country. I took in billions and billions of dollars in taxes and tariffs from China. I mean, we did an — we had an unbelievably successful administration. We were energy independent. We didn’t need anybody’s energy. We had so much oil, we didn’t know what to do with it.

And now take a look. Four years ago, we were energy independent. Think of it. And today, we’re taking tar from Venezuela. You know, they don’t really have oil. They have tar. You have to heat the hell out of it. Of course, you’re more to heat it than it does to sell it. But we are going to Venezuela. Think of it. Venezuela was like the enemy. We are now giving — you know, I got a kick a month ago. You saw it. They foreclosed on his plane, but they give him billions of dollars. I said, that’s okay. He’s going to buy a much better plane with the money we give him, right?

DONALD TRUMP: But we go to Venezuela for oil. We were energy independent. We have more liquid gold — that’s oil and gas — under our feet than Saudi Arabia, than Russia. And we were going to be not only energy independent — within six months, we were going to be energy dominant. We started off at number four, and when I left, four years later, we were number one. We were much better and bigger than Russia or Saudi Arabia.

Think of that. But we were going to be triple the size of both, and we were going to supply it to Europe. We were going to supply it to Asia. All over the world, we were going to supply. We would have made a fortune. But then we had a little mishap with the election, where I got more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country. You do know that. More than any sitting president. The only one that supposedly got more votes — and I wouldn’t believe it — was sleepy Joe Biden, who campaigned brilliantly from his basement. People had no interest in this guy. But he got more votes than anybody in the history of the United States of America. So anyway, so bad things happened. But we had something going that nobody had. I mean, we had an unbelievably successful administration.

Picking People for Government Roles

DONALD TRUMP: But I also put in people — some people that, in retrospect, I wouldn’t have used. But I had to rely on other people for recommendations. Now I know everybody. I know the dumb ones, the smart ones, the weak ones, the strong ones. I know. I think I know. I know everybody. And, you know, I’ve got people that I think will be great.

With that being said, you pick people and sometimes they disappoint you. Everybody knows that. And then you pick people and sometimes they turn out to be better than you thought. But for the most part, I tell you what, I think we have some incredible — we have some incredible people in Washington. We really do. We have some great people. And I now know, I believe, for the most part, I know who those people are.

TUCKER CARLSON: You think Bobby Kennedy and Elon Musk will be influential figures, without being specific about what those roles will be, in your administration?

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I do. I think so. Look, Bobby — let’s talk two of them. Elon’s so — you know where he is right now? He’s in Pennsylvania campaigning for me. Elon. That rocket ship, right?

Elon Musk and Rocket Ships

DONALD TRUMP: No, it’s so great. He docked that big monster, 22 stories. I thought the sucker was going to be — you know, I was — you know, it’s a very crazy story. I mean, I saw it coming in on television. I was talking to a very — I told the story tonight. But I thought it was a very — you know, I’m talking to this very important guy. Not as important as Tucker, but important. A big shot. Somebody everybody would know. Talking to him. Bored like — I’m bored, Steph. He’s a boring guy. Oh, who is he?

So anyway. No, I’m talking to this very big shot, important guy. And I have the television muted. This thing is going on. You know, the whole thing was really boring. Then I see this monster thing coming down. I see fire all over. Fire, left, right — and I’m looking and I’m saying, “Hey, could you hold it a minute?” “Yeah, sure.” I said, “Yeah, I just want to see something.” I put the phone down. I sort of forgot, and I didn’t pick him up for like 50 minutes. And — 5-0. And you know what? Because of the fact that I was President, and I very well might be President again, he held on the whole time. Can you believe it? But it’s true. I pick the phone up. I say, “Oh, shit, the phone — hello? Hello?” He goes, “Hello?” The poor guy. But I had to see this.

And I turn it on. I see the — now, you have to understand, it left. I saw it leave, and it was beautiful white paint. Now it’s coming down, and it’s just dark brown. You know, it’s coming down at 10,000 miles an hour or something — I think it’s 10,000. It’s coming down at levels of speed that nobody ever even conceived of. And it’s all burned, and it’s rough. But it’s coming, and now it’s turned around. It turns around.

And you have the gantry, the big, beautiful gantry. And it’s coming. And it’s going to — I said, “Oh, it’s going to crash,” because you see at that bottom, this section right here, that sucker’s — oh. I’m going, “Come on, baby. Come on.” And I didn’t know, actually, if it’s — if I’m watching a science fiction movie or am I watching the news. I didn’t know what the hell I’m watching. But I see this thing coming down, and all of a sudden, it’s going into the steel, the big steel gantry up here. It goes — the thing’s, like, 20 stories tall, too. It’s going to crash. I said, “Oh, shit, it’s going to crash.” Coming down.

And the lower section, right, it’s coming right — it’s ready. And then, all of a sudden, whoa, fire flames come pouring out of the lower section. It’s jets. And they’re pushing it over right here. And then it comes down. And I’m saying, I mean, is that the coolest thing you’ve ever seen, right? Is that the coolest? If you don’t think I want a guy like that working for us — so, you know, we’ve got to cherish our brilliant people. They don’t treat him right. We’ve got to cherish our brilliant people because we don’t have too many of them. Nobody does. Nobody does.

Elon Musk’s Ideas for Cutting Government Costs

DONALD TRUMP: So Elon — oh, talk Elon first. Elon wants to — by the way, I’m having a great time up here. You having a good time? Okay. Is he the greatest interviewer? He asked me one little question. I talked for 20 minutes and they’re going to say he’s better than Larry King at his prime, right? It’s an easy job. Is that the greatest? You’re an easy interviewer. And he is a great — he is great at what he does. If you like him, I will tell you that.

So with Elon, here’s a theory — and he’s right — that is unbelievable wasted fraud. Like, I saved much more than a billion dollars when I came into the White House in one day when I said, “I’m not going to pay that much to Boeing for Air Force One.” And they ended up taking, like, more than — much more than a billion dollars off the price. It took about a couple of weeks, you know, saying, “I’m not buying it. No, I don’t want it.” But there’s a plane that you’re saving much more than a billion dollars. And you’ve got thousands of things like that — not as much, and in some cases, much more. They’re building an aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford. The thing came in, like, at $20 billion for a boat — $20 billion.

And it doesn’t work because they decided to use electric catapults that throws the planes off instead of steam. They decided to go electric. Why are the people going all electric? By the way, I’d end the electric mandate on cars, day one. You should have electric, but you’ve got to have gasoline, you’ve got to have everything. That’ll come off on day one. Many things will be done on day one. Your head will spin when you see what’s going to happen, this stupidity.

But what I like about Elon — you know, Elon’s a great cost-cutter. And Elon thinks he can cut the costs of our government by $2 trillion. That’s the entire deficit, you know, because it’s now at a level — by the way, we have the biggest deficit we’ve ever had under this stupid group of people. But he thinks he can cut $2 trillion without affecting anybody, just through — and I think he can do that. I do. And that’s really what he wants to do. He doesn’t want to work. He doesn’t want to become a secretary of something. I mean, I’d love to have him, to be honest with you. But he doesn’t want to. He’s doing a couple of other things, you know, like rocket ships.

Elon Musk’s Rocket Achievements and Potential Role in Government

DONALD TRUMP: You know, he sends — Tucker, he sends 92 percent of the rockets that go up are his rockets. Think of that. Russia, China, and us, 92 percent are him. And he’s the only one. And I asked him, I said, “Are you the only one that can do that?” He’s the only one that can land it like that. And he said it’ll be years before they can do it. He’s a great guy. He wants to cut costs. That’s what he wants to do. He wants to save the country.

He said that if Trump doesn’t get elected, the country is finished. Because you know, he understands me. And I got to know him a little bit in the White House, but much more so over the last few months. He endorsed me. He gave me an endorsement that was so beautiful. He said, “If Trump doesn’t win, I think this country is finished.” He’s worried about the country. He’s worried about it. He thinks he can save $2 trillion, in which case we don’t have a deficit. We — I mean, the whole thing would be $2 trillion a year, by the way. A year.

Bobby Kennedy’s Potential Role in Health and Vaccines

DONALD TRUMP: And I will definitely — now, Bobby is — is great. The only thing I’m a little bit worried about with Bobby — so, I want him to work on health. And I think there’s nobody like him. I mean, I think he’s right with so much of the things he’s talking about. Because, you know, we’re not a healthy country. If you look at some of the countries in Europe, they’re much more healthy than us. We’re a rich country. I mean, you know, we got to get rid of a little debt, but that’s okay. We’re — I’ve typically been very good at that. I’ve been very proficient at that. I’ve had it both ways.

I’ve had a lot of debt and I’ve had very little debt. And as you get older, having very little debt is much better, believe me. But you know what? He is — he really wants to — with the pesticides and the, you know, all the different things. I said, he could do it. He could do anything he wants. He wants to look at the vaccines. He wants everything. I think it’s great. I think it’s great.

The only thing I say to Bobby is, leave the liquid gold under our feet alone. I want — we want to have a little gasoline. We want — because you know what I’m going to do? We’re going to unleash much of that, and we’re going to — you know, Germany tried to go all green, and they almost destroyed their country. And that was the end of Angela, by the way. That was it for Angela. They went all green. They had windmills all over the place, and the wind stopped blowing for a couple of weeks, and that was almost the end of Germany, actually.

But the only thing — and I say it jokingly, but I say, “Bobby, I love you looking at health. I want you to take care of the women of this country, the men of this country, and the children of this country. You don’t have to worry about anybody else. But the one thing you got to do for me, Bobby, is leave that — leave what’s under my feet, the oil and gas. You leave that to me, Bobby, because that’s going to — we’re going to make so much damn money — and it’s clean.” He’s going to make it clean. We’re going to make — you know, we have — look, China doesn’t have that. That’s why China is going electric.

If we go electric, we’re playing right into their hands. We have oil and gas. They don’t. They have things for making the batteries and other things. They’re going to make the electric cars. We’re not going to be making the electric cars.

Problems with Electric Cars and Trucks

DONALD TRUMP: The problem with the electric cars — and I think they’re great in a smaller application — they don’t go far, they cost too much, and they’re going to be made in China. Three minor problems, okay? But if you listen to this government, they want to make Army tanks electric because they want to invade countries with their Army tanks in a very friendly way, from the pollution standpoint. The whole thing. You know what you have to do? The batteries are so big, they have a design where the Army tank is going in and they have like a wagon, like a child’s wagon, with these massive batteries.

TUCKER CARLSON: These — Wait, we’re going to have green wars?

DONALD TRUMP: These people are crazy. No, they want trucks to be all electric. The problem is they don’t go far. That’s a problem. You know what else is a problem? So the trucking industry comes to see me because they think I’m going to win. And they come in to see me. And these guys come in, and they’re great guys. They’ve been in like Roger Penske. How good is Roger Penske? The guy’s won, but he’s in the trucking business too. He’s won like 19 Indianapolis Fives. Think of how good this guy is.

Japan spends billions on coming up with a race car. Germany spends billions — I don’t know if they’ve ever won. Maybe one or two. Roger Penske is an incredible guy. He won 19 Indianapolis Five Hundreds. It might even be 20. That was two years ago. I gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom because I said he deserves it. After the 19th, I said he deserves it.

DONALD TRUMP: But the truckers came in to see me. They say, “Sir, they want us to go all electric, and it’ll destroy the industry.” I said, “Why?” “Because a truck is two and a half times heavier if it’s run by a battery.” I said, “That’s not good. I don’t like that. What does that do to the bridge?” He said, “How did you pick it up so fast, Sir? Every bridge in the United States would have to be rebuilt. Every roadway would have — because they’re not set for that kind of weight.” Little problem. They don’t go far, right? They only go —

I said, “How many times would you — New York to L.A., how many times would you have to stop?” “Six times, Sir, six.” “How many times would you have to stop if you loaded up with diesel fuel?” “We wouldn’t have to stop at all, and we can come back a little bit of a ways, too.” I said, “That’s a problem.” They have a lot of problems, right? Another problem is the battery is much bigger than the tanks of diesel, so it would take a lot of their payload out. I said, “Have you explained this to the government?” “Yes.” “What do they say?” “We don’t care. We want all electric.” I mean, these are problems that, fairly short-term, are absolutely insurmountable. But the government is pushing them anyway. So we have to bring common sense back to our country.

The Need for Fair Elections and Common Sense

DONALD TRUMP: We have to have borders. We have to have fair elections, you know. We shouldn’t be worried about how they’re stealing in Pennsylvania and how they’re — we should have fair elections. We should have one-day elections, all paper ballots, voter ID, and we’re finished.

TUCKER CARLSON: So I know you’ve been up — your schedule is — and this is not a talking point — your schedule is beyond belief, and I know you’ve been working since 6 a.m. this morning. I don’t even know what time it is or what time zone we’re in, so this is my last question to you. But after almost 10 years of doing this, going around the country, speaking to huge audiences — almost a decade — you’re four days from — that’s it. How do you — are you sad about that? Do you — how do you feel?

The Trump Rallies and Their Significance

DONALD TRUMP: So, you know, we have these rallies, and it’s nice to have a president that doesn’t need a teleprompter. Isn’t it really nice? And — because you can’t have successful rallies if you read it all. They were, “Ah, wah, wah.” Everybody would pick up. I mean, we have great rallies. We have the greatest rallies. Even look at this crowd, although I would assume they’re here for Tucker, mostly Tucker. Look at this crowd of people you have here. This is not a normal — this isn’t normal. The Press. We have some people, too.

No, this isn’t a normal situation. I mean, what the hell time is it? And you go back — this is a monster building. I don’t know how many people you have here, but you also have a lot of people outside where we were driving up. There are thousands of people outside.

DONALD TRUMP: So I was making a — a couple of days ago, and I said something that I’ve never said. I said, you know, I’ve been doing this for nine years, and you’ve been with me. This is the greatest political movement in history, by far. By far. It’s MAGA. It’s called Make America Great Again. When our — when our — I’m going to be nice to him — when our president — no, when our slightly off — I mean, look at the way he performed in the debate. They should have never taken it away from him. Look at the way he performed. He was brilliant. Okay.

The Dangers of the Current Leadership

DONALD TRUMP: So — But they knew that a long time ago, okay? And she knew that, too. And our country is in danger. We’re dealing with Kim Jong Un. We’re dealing with very — you know, we’re dealing, by the way, with unbelievably smart, talented, vicious people that are at the top of their game. And we’re dealing with people that, number one, aren’t smart. They never were. They never were. She wasn’t. She was a bad student. She couldn’t pass her damn law exam. Okay? She wasn’t smart. And he was definitely not smart. And we’re dealing with other people that are at the absolute top of the poll. And we can’t do that. That’s a great danger. And people should have let us know.

The Uniqueness of the Trump Rallies

DONALD TRUMP: But I was talking, and I said, we’ve been doing this together for nine years. You know, we love these people. The people are so great. They stood — there was, like, a sea of red — the red hat. And I said, we’ve been doing this together for nine years, because, you know, a year before I started, in terms of before we won — almost a year, anyway. And I said, you know what? It’s sad, in a way, because there’s never been rallies like this. When that sleazebag said — during the debate, she said, “Oh, your rallies aren’t well-intended and people leave.” They don’t leave, and they’re really well-intended. We can’t get places big enough.

And then — and then I said — I said — I said, no, no. You know, the rallies are the biggest in history. We never have — just like this. This is a part of a rally. We never had an empty seat, and nobody leaves early. And you know what? If I saw people leaving, you know what I’d do? “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to make America great again. Goodbye, everybody.” And everybody would be happy. Nobody would leave. But we don’t have to do that. Nobody leaves. It’s a love fest. It’s never happened before. This has never happened before.

He’s a big fan of Ronald Reagan. So am I. If Ronald Reagan, let’s say, went to New Mexico like I did today, we probably had 25,000 people standing in an airport early in the morning today. But we had — we have massive crowds. Look, we had 107,000 people in New Jersey. We had 101,000 people in Butler just a few weeks ago, right? We had 114,000 people in California a month ago, right? 114,000. The owner said — the person that has the land, the nice guy — he said, “You get bigger crowds than these guys that play guitars.” And I don’t have a guitar.

DONALD TRUMP: So this has been a love fest. But I said — and I meant it, too. I said, “You know, we’ve done this for nine years, and it’s sad. I never thought of it, actually. It’ll never happen. It’ll never happen again. It’s never going to happen again. In four years, somebody is going to be running. Could be J.D. It could be this one.” By the way, he’s doing a good job. He’s doing a good job. But it could be J.D., and he’ll have competition no matter what.

But when you have a rally, they’re going to have 250 or 300 people. If Ronald Reagan came back from the dead, at the height of Ronald Reagan, if he went to California to have a rally, he’d have 250, 300 people in a ballroom someplace. We have 50, 60, 70, 80, 100,000 people. And in all fairness, we’re late. I don’t know. I have no idea. I’ve been doing this all day. I have no idea what time it is.

DONALD TRUMP: But I know it’s not exactly prime time for doing this stuff. When you look up into the rafters of this massive building and you don’t have — there’s no empty seat. There’s no anything. It’s — it’s — by the way, it’s — and for whatever reason, I don’t — I can’t explain the reason, but it’ll never happen again. And there’ll be somebody running, and he’ll be the hot one next year, and he’ll come here and he’ll go there, and he’ll have 200, 300 people. That’s what it’s going to be.

My consultants was telling me that. Said, “We’ve consulted for 25 years. If we’d have 300 people, we were thrilled. If we’d have 200 people, we were thrilled.” And you have, like, 30, 40, 50, 60 — in South Carolina, we had 88,000 people. In Alabama, we had 68,000 people. It’s an amazing phenomenon. And I’m not giving myself — it’s just — I’m giving you the credit. You’re tired of being the stupid country. We’ve become a stupid country. We were run by stupid people, and you’re tired of it.

DONALD TRUMP: So, I said to myself the other day, Tucker, it’s sad. And I was telling the people, because it’ll never happen again. This is never going to happen again. I don’t care. I just don’t believe. It’s never happened in any country. When Biden got up with the red background, the pink background, and he looked like the devil, he looked so stupid, right? And he said, “We will stop MAGA.” MAGA, we’re going to — he said, “Listen, you stupid bastard. MAGA means — because I don’t think — I think if you ask him what does it mean, he doesn’t know. MAGA means Make America Great Again.” That’s what MAGA means.

So, for the first time — I never said it to anybody. I never really thought about it that much. But all of a sudden, it was down to, like, maybe 10 or 8 or 9 days, a few days ago, right? I said, “You know, in 10 days, this will never happen again because I’m not running again and you’re going to lose interest. We’re going to meet, but we’re going to meet on a different basis. We’re going to meet on the basis of fixing our country. And we’ll meet, but it’ll be different than having rallies and having, you know, things where you have elections and all. It’s never going to be what we’ve done together.

The Importance of the Upcoming Election

DONALD TRUMP: We got to win, first of all. But we are leading. Just keep the cheating down. The only thing that can stop us is the cheating. It’s the only thing that can stop us. If we win, it’s the biggest event in political history. It’s the biggest event in political history. And there’s something — and it’s going to be the most important. I believe that the next election is the most important election in the history of the country. I really believe that. And it’s the one that’s coming up in four days.

But I said to myself, it’s sad. I told the people. Some people were in the road. They’re crying. They go — we have people that have gone to 200 and 250 rallies. We have the beautiful ladies of North Carolina. We have the Front Row Joes. I mean, we have people that have gone to hundreds of rallies. I said, “This will never happen again. I don’t believe it will. I don’t think it’ll ever happen again.” And we’ll get together, but it’ll be different. We’re going to get together and we’re going to make America great again. We’re going to fix our country. We’re going to have strong borders, and we’re going to have fair elections, and hopefully we’ll get a fair press eventually. Because that’s a very important element. You need a fair press.

The Dishonesty of the Press

DONALD TRUMP: He and I understand the press because you give them a story, you know exactly everything that happened, and they’ll write it the opposite, like the exact opposite. They’ll write it to actually hurt you. It’s hard to believe. You almost — that’s the other thing. You wonder, why do they do that? It’s so bad. And they’ve lost such credibility.

You know, when I first came to politics, the news, the press, had a 92 percent approval rating. Yesterday, it hit 14 percent. And I’m actually very proud of that because I’ve exposed them for being a total fraud. They’re a fraud. But hopefully they won’t be a fraud for long. Hopefully that’ll straighten out. Because that’s a very important — the press, a free press, a real press, is a very important part of greatness, of making a country great. They’re like — they’re almost like — they’re glue that keeps it together, but they’re also like, in a way, a police force that keeps it honest. But they’re so dishonest that they have no credibility.

The Importance of Cognitive Tests for Presidential Candidates

DONALD TRUMP: Think of it — 60 Minutes asks her a question. And you know, I brought a lawsuit on this today. You saw that. Sixty Minutes, because it’s so wrong. She gives an answer that only a moron would give. You can give bad answers, but this was an answer that a person who is not a smart person — a person who got the lowest score, perhaps, in the history of the bar exams, okay? You know, she failed the bar exam, okay?

But this is a person — this is a very low-IQ individual. This is the answer of a very low-IQ individual. And by the way, I think everybody that runs for President or Vice President should have cognitive tests. They should have testing because, you know — and I don’t mean by age, because, you know, some of the greatest leaders in the world were in their 80s, in the 80 period, because there is an experience thing and other things. Some of the greatest leaders in history — you look back, and I know many people that are in their 80s that are — I know one person from 80 to 90 made billions of dollars, and he was a failure for his whole life. And you know him. I’ll tell you who it is later. But he was a failure for his whole life.

The Need to Save the Country

DONALD TRUMP: But I said to myself, it’s sad that, in a way, this whole great thing that we’ve built is never going to happen again. But what is going to happen again is we’re going to turn our country around, we’re going to make it great, and we’re going to be so proud of ourselves because we have to save our country. Our country is going bad. We’re a failing nation. We are — as I say, we are a nation in decline. We are a nation in very serious decline. And look at what these stupid people have done. They’ve allowed Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and others to get together in a group. This is impossible to think.

When I was a young guy, I loved — I always loved the whole thing, the concept of the history and all of the things that can happen. The one thing — and I had a professor at the Wharton School of Finance, but we had history classes also. He said the one thing you never want to happen is you never want Russia and China uniting. We united them because of the oil. We united them. Biden united them. It’s a shame. The stupidity of what they’ve done.

I’m going to have to un-unite them, and I think I can do that too. I have to un-unite them. But early on, I’ve read — and you’ve learned. You never want Russia and China — and they’re natural enemies because Russia has massive land and China needs it. Okay? They need that land. China doesn’t have the land for the population. Russia has — if you ever look at the size of the Russian landmass, it’s like four times or five times. It doesn’t have like 12 time zones or something. It’s massive.

[Audio concludes abruptly]

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