[Tom Llamas of NBC News interviewed Donald Trump at the White House on February 4, 2026. The extended portion of the interview was released in the evening of February 4, 2026. An additional portion of the interview -- the introduction, totalling 00:07:43, aired on February 8, 2026 before the Super Bowl. The following is a transcript released by NBC News. It has been proofread and minor changes were made to match the video. Video courtesy and copyright NBC News. Source: https://cqrc.al/nbc-news-20260204]
[The following portion aired before the Super Bowl on February 8, 2026.]
Mr. President, we thank you so much for your time. We really do appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
As you know, Americans are getting ready for the Super Bowl --
Right.
-- for this great big game, and you have two teams, the Seattle Seahawks versus the New England Patriots. Who do you think is gonna win?
Well, I've watched them both during the season. And -- New England's amazing because they have a second coming. It's pretty -- pretty good. Quarterbacks both good. Seattle's an amazing comeback quarterback and the other one's just an amazing quarterback. I -- I think it's gonna be a great game. You know, I like both areas of our country very much.
I better not make any predictions. You get yourself in big trouble. But I think it's gonna be a really great game. Seattle's had an amazing season.
Yeah.
And --
Strong defense.
-- New England has a great tradition of winning. And Bob Kraft's done a fantastic job. You know, the whole thing is -- really -- it's gonna be very exciting. The quarterback --
That leads me --
-- the quarterback situation's interesting 'cause it's --
They're great. They're both great.
Both great.
That leads me to my next question. You have a really good relationship with the Patriots --
I do.
-- including the former head coach Bill Belichick.
Right.
What did you think when he was snubbed on the first ballot of the Hall of Fame?
I thought it was terrible. I mean, he's -- won so much, won so many Super Bowls. Great coach. Became a little bit controversial, I guess, after that, this little period after that. During it he was just a great coach. I thought it was very inappropriate.
You think he deserves it, the Hall of Fame?
Oh yeah. It's like what have you done for me lately? Well, you know, you have a great career and he has had a little bit of a controversial year and a half, two years maybe. But -- what difference does that make? No, he should've -- he should be in there right at the top.
What are your plans for the Super Bowl? We know you're not gonna go over there. You gonna watch here? And who you inviting?
I'll be sitting in -- probably Palm Beach, depending on what happens. You know, in my position in this job of mine -- sometimes you have to move around quickly, very quickly. But we'll be -- most likely at Mar-a-Lago or one of the -- one of my clubs watching with a lot of people, a lot of friends. Or I may very well be in the White House.
Friends and families just like you will be coming together on Super Bowl Sunday. People are shopping this week. They're running the kids around. They're trying to heat their homes with this brutal winter we've been having. In the last year a lot of prices have come down, things like gas and eggs. But -- but others since you took office have come up, like natural gas and coffee.
When can Americans expect those prices to come down?
Well, they've already come down. I think you've seen, Tom -- when I took over eggs, poultry, all these things were through the roof. In fact, the first question I got: What are you gonna do about eggs? It was my second day in office at a news conference and they were screamin', "What are you gonna do about eggs?" Eggs had gone up, like, four times.
If you notice over the last few days, it's only a few days, but the Democrats have gotten to another subject. I think they're probably saying dictator or something. They've got a new -- a new word. They don't use the word "affordability" anymore because prices are way down. Gasoline is -- I was -- I just left Iowa, 1.99 and even 1.85 a gallon, $1.85 a gallon.
That's in Iowa. Many states are cracking $2. Gasoline is way down. And honestly, everything is coming way down. Beef is --
But --
-- coming way down --
Yeah, but beef, coffee, natural gas --
No, no, they're coming down --
Those are all -- you -- you bring that up --
Coffee's, yeah, coming -- coffee's coming down.
It -- it will come down --
Well, it's already come down. I'll -- I'll tell you what. In the last four days, it's only four days, the Democrats have not uttered the word "affordability." They're the ones that caused the problem. I took over a mess --
Yeah.
-- in every way. The border was a mess. That everybody admits. The border is great. Crime was a mess right now. A hundred and 25 years, it's the lowest crime that we've had in a hundred -- since 1900. So we're doin' the job. But the one thing that they don't say anymore is affordability, because -- I fixed the problem that they created.
Let's stay on the economy. You just mentioned it. You said you inherited a mess from President Biden when it comes to the economy.
Yeah.
But at what point is it on you? At what point are we in the Trump economy?
Oh, I'd say we're there now. I'm -- I'm very proud of it, 5.6%. You know, we have a GDP of 5.6 despite a shutdown. We had a 42-day shutdown. I call it the Democrat shutdown. And because of that I lost a point and a half. I would've been at a 7 GDP, which hasn't been seen I don't know if ever, maybe. Maybe ever.
Yeah.
And -- I think '26 is even gonna be better. You know, we have hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our country. Actually trillions. $18 trillion is being invested in our country as we speak. And there are factories and plants and thousands of businesses being built all over the country. Nobody has ever seen any -- I just spoke to President Xi of China.
Nobody has ever seen anything like s --
When -- when will we see those --
-- what's happening right now in America.
When will we see those jobs and those factories open? Because manufacturing --
Yeah.
-- has been down month over month.
Well, you're already seeing it in construction because they're all building. You know, we have factories being built, car plants. They're coming in from Canada, coming in from Mexico. They're leaving Germany, Japan, they -- they're all coming into the United States. And -- you're seeing it in your construction numbers.
And, you know, the plant -- we have to build 'em. And the plants are under construction and over the --
In your term you think those man -- those plants will be in your term --
Oh yeah. No, they'll be opening up over the next year, year and a half, yeah.
You've had successes on immigration, some big ones. Illegal border crossings are at historic lows. But the entire country watched those videos of two Americans being killed in Minneapolis. You've gotten calls from your own supporters to make changes, and now you're pulling out some officers from Minneapolis.
Are there more changes coming?
Well, the reason we're pulling out because we've done a great job there. You know, we have crime down there despite tremendous blowback from a governor that's incompetent and from a mayor who's just -- I don't know what the hell where he comes from. But -- the numbers -- the crime numbers in Minnesota, in Minneapolis in particular, are down 25, 30% because we've removed thousands of criminals from the area.
These are hardened criminals that came in, many of them -- most of them came in through an open border. And -- we've done a great job. But look at Washington, D.C.
Yeah.
It's, like, a safe city. You can walk to the White House. You didn't have to take -- an armored vehicle. You could walk. Washington's safe. Look at what happened in -- in Louisiana. I got a call from the governor.
Right.
Please do something with New Orleans. We went there four weeks ag -- ago. Crime is down 71%. Memphis, Tennessee --
Yeah.
-- crime is down 80% after five weeks. And here's the big thing. Crime historically in this country --
Yeah.
-- it's down at the lowest level it's ever been. And a bad word: murder. We've had less murders than we have had in decades.
Yeah, one more question on the Super Bowl --
And you know why? Because we're tough on crime.
The Super Bowl is this sort of rare time in America, right --
Yeah.
-- where we're all united.
Right.
It's -- it's a common experience. There's still divisions in this country, right, and Democrats will say it's all because of you. And then Republicans will say, "Democrats don't wanna work with President Trump. They blame President Trump for everything." What's one thing you can do, really, to help Americans find common ground?
Well, you know, we're working on -- the Save America Act, which is gonna secure up our -- a lot of things, but secure up our voting. I think people would like to do it. And I think Democrats would too. You know, when you go to voter ID and you ask Democrats, it's polling at 82% with Democrats. I'm not talking about Democrat politicians.
I'm talking about Democrats. We have to do something about our voting. We need strong borders. We need a fair press, which we don't have. And we need -- and very importantly, we need a strong border, the fair press, and we need fair --
Yeah.
-- elections. We need elections where people aren't able to cheat. And we're gonna do that. I'm gonna do that.
Yeah.
I'm gonna get it done. And by the way, it polls even with Democrats. They want that.
[The remaining portion was released the evening of February 4, 2026.]
Okay, let's drill down into the news today, that big change on immigration. Seven hundred officers leaving Minneapolis. Did that come from you?
Yes, it did. But it didn't come from me because I just wanted to do it. We have, we are waiting for them to release prisoners, give us the murderers that they're holding and all of the bad people, drug dealers, all of the bad people. We allowed in our country, I say, 25 million people with an open-border policy for four years under Biden, and that group the autopen group, I call them.
We allowed to come into our country people the likes of which no country would accept. And we're getting 'em out.
Yeah.
But we've gotten a lot of 'em out. So crime now in Minnesota, crime now in Minneapolis is down. Crime in all cities is down.
Speaking of --
And you know why it's down -- It's down because of us. It's down in Chicago by 25% despite the fact that we are always dealing with these --
Yeah.
-- people, and they happen to be Democrats --
Right, speaking of --
-- that don't know anything about crime prevention.
Mr. President, speaking of Minneapolis, what did you learn?
Umm, I learned that uhhhh maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch. But you still have to be tough. These are crim- -- we're dealing with really hard criminals. But uh look, I've called the people. I've called the governor. I've called the mayor. Spoke to 'em. Had great conversations with them. And then I see them ranting and raving out there.
Literally as though a call wasn't made. We've done a great job everywhere. The only place there's been a little inflammation has been -- really it's not in Minnesota 'cause we're -- we've done well with crime --
Well, Los Angeles, too, there's been others --
It's been -- well, I saved Los Angeles. The top law enforcement officer and -- right at the beginning when we t -- when they were having riots, before me and just -- and it carried into me. If I didn't go in there with the National Guard, with troops, you wouldn't have a -- the Olympics, which I got. I got the Olympics.
You wouldn't have the Olympics in Los Angeles. And he said, 'Without the president sending in the troops we would've lost Los Angeles.'
Yeah.
And you know what? I saved Los Angeles. And we will do it again if we have to. And by the way, we're gonna have a very safe Olympics --
Right.
-- and we're gonna have a very safe World Cup.
Speaking of -- of Minneapolis, after the shooting of Renee Good you said ICE made some mistakes. What -- what were the mistakes?
Well, look -- I'm not happy with the two incidents. It's not -- you know, it's -- both of 'em. Not one or the other. Uh -- he was not an angel and she was not an angel. You know, you look at some tapes from back -- but still, I'm not happy with what happened there. Nobody can be happy and ICE wasn't happy either.
But I'm gonna always be with our great people of law enforcement. ICE, police, we have to back them. If we don't back them we don't have a country. We don't back them, you're gonna end up -- look, Washington, D.C., was a very unsafe place to be. You couldn't walk to the White House. You couldn't walk to a restaurant.
Restaurants were closing. I inherited not only a mess with the country, I inherited a horrible, very dangerous capital. Do you know Washington, D.C., is now an extremely safe place. You see what happened. You're here a lot.
When -- when you mentioned Renee Good --
Well, let me ask you, Tom.
Yeah, yeah.
You're here a lot.
Yeah.
Would you have walked down the street a year and a half ago with your family? No. But today you can and nothing's gonna happen.
You mentioned Renee Good and -- and not al -- and Alex Pretti's not being angels. Do you think any of that justified what happened to them, though?
No. I don't. I -- it should've not happened. It was a very sad -- to me it was a very sad incident, two incidents. And, you know, they mention the one now. They don't mention the other. Well, I think they were both sad. And -- you know who feels worse about it than anybody? The people of ICE. They're strong, tough --
Yeah.
-- people. And they have to be tough because we're dealing with hardened criminals.
Right.
We're dealing with people -- you know, jails have been emptied into our country from all over the world. From Venezuela, where we had great success, you will admit.
Mm hmm.
But from Venezuela, from the Congo in Africa, from all over the world, jails -- the jail population --
Yeah.
-- was emptied into our country. If we don't have strong people, you're not getting 'em out.
Yeah.
And we're getting 'em out. Remember this, again. I say it again and again. We have record low crime in the United States. Nobody's been able to say that for 125 years.
So I wanna be clear 'cause it sounds like there is a shift in immigration enforcement here, that there's gonna be a shift after Minneapolis. What should Americans expect going forward?
Well, one thing I say to my people. You know, we do a good job, we don't get credit for it. I say they have to ask, and they have to say please. When a city is going through --
Who -- who has to ask and who has to say please --
The mayor or the governor. I don't wanna go and force ourselves into a city, even if their numbers are terrible. Like, for instance, I got a call from Jeff Landry, governor of Louisiana. He said, "We have a big problem. Could you go in and help us with -- with" -- well, let's see, certain sections, I mean, to be honest with you.
Yeah.
Certain sections of the state. Beyond their famous, beautiful city, certain sections of the state. We have done -- not only in New Orleans. We've done a really great job in --
Yeah.
-- Louisiana. But I was called. I wanna be called. Chicago, we could solve the Chicago crime --
Well -- well, on that question, where -- which cities are you headed to next?
Uh we have five cities that we're looking at very strongly. But we wanna be invited. We will sometimes call the governors and say --
Are -- are they cities like Chicago --
-- "Are you going to" --
-- Philadelphia? Are these the cities --
We would -- we could straighten out the crime in Chicago. We've already brought it down 25% just by being there. We could have Chicago be a safe city just like D.C. is a safe city. Just like all of these places that we've gone to. And I look forward -- you know, I didn't campaign on that. I campaigned on law and order, but I didn't think I'd be going into individual cities and making 'em safe.
Anything else you can tell us about the five cities -- the five cities, anything else so Americans are ready --
Well, we'll be announcing 'em very quickly. But, we could do something. As an example, I was called by people. San Francisco said, "Please, we have a Democrat mayor. He's trying very hard. Would you" -- friends of mine that live there. It's got crime problems. "Would you let him do the job and not come in? Let's see how it works." I said, "Look, I can do it much quicker, much faster." Don't forget, we remove criminals.
We took over 2,000 hard-core criminals out of Washington, D.C.
Yeah.
If we didn't do that -- 2% of the people create 90% of the crime. Think of that. 2%. So you have a criminal --
Yeah.
-- because they c -- it's over and over again. Two percent create 90% of the crime. We took out 2,000 people, more than 2,000 people out of Washington, D.C., and we now have a --
Yeah.
-- safe city.
You -- as I mentioned, you've had success on immigration. Illegal border crossings are at historic lows, right? But --
You know, it's so nice that you said that --
But -- but if you look at the --
No, no. Tom --
OK yeah.
-- what you just said.
It's true.
No, but it's so nice. I hope you air it. It's so nice what you said, because that's called good reporting. That's called fair reporting.
Yeah.
Now give me the second part --
But now lemme give you the second part of the question. But --
I don't wanna hear the second part --
But if you look at the polls, most Americans say they don't like how you've handled immigration, right? Especially what's happened in Minneapolis. How do you change their minds?
Well, I don't believe the polls, for one thing. Because how can you not have -- I -- I saw a poll on the border where I'm at 55%, okay?
The polls show that, that Americans aren't against the deportations.
Well --
It's the handling of immigration --
You know polls. It depends on the way you ask the question. I saw a poll on the border. I'm at 55%. Well, how could I only be at 55% when everybody agrees that the border is totally, beautifully closed and nobody's coming in unless they come in legally, et cetera? It couldn't be better. I should be at 100%. I don't believe the polls.
And some polls -- I mean, I could show you polls where I'm polling at 69% popularity and some polls where I'm -- I have one --
We'll ask the White House to share that with us --
-- at 71 -- but wait a minute. 71%. And then I have polls where I'm at 44% and 42%. The polls are almost dishonest -- almost as dishonest as some of the reporters themselves.
Yeah. Um, but --
I'm getting very good polls. I'm getting very good polls on crime prevention, on law and order --
Yeah.
-- and on the border. I have to. And I'm getting -- starting to get great polls on the economy, which I think is --
The -- the -- the polls on the economy are -- are -- they're -- they're not great.
They should be great.
They should be, so why aren't they --
People don't know.
-- if -- if -- if you believe that?
I don't know. I don't know. I mean, look, I've got --
Americans tell us. We hear this. I mean, we're gonna get into the economy later, but, they tell us --
I know, but -- but --
-- they don't feel it. Yeah?
Just, just so you understand.
Yeah.
I have $18 trillion being invested into the country. Biden had less than a trillion for four years --
But when can Americans expect to --
-- and the whole country's --
-- feel that? When does America feel it?
Do you know that if they won that election, and we won in a landslide, do you know if they won that election this country was, I think it was finished. I actually think it was finished. You would've had people -- instead of 18 coming in --
Mm hm.
-- $18 trillion --
Yeah.
-- you would've had $10 trillion leaving. I think --
Yeah.
-- our country -- I think we would've been Venezuela on steroids.
I have a question about immigration, still, looking forward now. Your goal during the election was to deport everyone who came here illegally under President Biden. Is your mission now to deport everyone who came in illegally or just people who have come in illegally who have also committed additional crimes?
We are totally focused on criminals, really bad criminals. Now, you could say people that came in illegally are criminals. But I'm talking about murderers from different countries. We have 11,888 murderers that Biden and his group let into our country. We've captured a lot of them. We've brought some of 'em back.
A lot of 'em we don't wanna bring back 'cause we don't trust the country that they're not sent back again.
Yeah.
Despite how strong the borders are, they'll figure a way to try and get in. And we don't wanna -- and we'll -- we'll incarcerate 'em. But 11,888 murderers.
Yeah.
We are after those people. We're after the drug dealers.
Right.
We're after the -- we are af -- by the way, a big problem. They ent -- they allowed to come into our country people from their mental institutions, people from insane asylums --
Yeah.
-- that are mentally ill and very dangerous. We're getting them out.
Right. Joe -- Joe Rogan was one of your biggest endorsers in 2024. He said he understand the Trump's -- the president's sort of plan to deport people here who are here illegally. But he also understands why critics compare ICE officers to the gestapo asking people for their papers. What, what's your response to him?
Well -- look, first of all, he's a great guy who had a tremendous success before the election. I think it was his biggest interview ever, and -- over 300 million people. It was very good. She -- she didn't wanna do it, you know?
Right.
She decided not to do it because she's not capable. But I spoke to him three days ago. We had a great conversation. And all I'm doing. I have to keep --
Did he mention this to you?
-- the country safe --
Did you guys talk about this, the -- the ICE enforcement --
A little bit. Just had a good conversation. I think he's a great guy, and I think he likes me too.
Yeah.
And, you know, liking me isn't important. What happens is that -- I think we do a phenomenal job, but I don't think we're good at public relations.
What -- what does that mean? You've said that a couple times now. What -- what do you mean by that?
We don't sell the great job that we're doing. Look, we have the safest country --
Is that your staff? Are those your staffers?
Excuse me. People from your persuasion, somewhat left, do a job. A job on numbers. It just came out that in 125 years we have the safest country. The best crime numbers in --
Yeah.
-- since the year 1900.
Yeah. That's a stat, yeah. We know it's true --
That was way before my father was born.
Right.
Think of that. And yet -- then you talk about crime, or you talk about this, or you talk about that. And the poll numbers aren't that good. People -- we don't do a good public relations job.
Yeah.
That's why I'm doing the interview with you today.
We appreciate it --
I'm trying to help my people.
Um --
You know, PR, public relations.
Speaking of your people, you -- you're never afraid to shake up your team. You -- you've said that you're -- you're okay with shaking up your team. Do you still believe in Kristi Noem --
I do.
-- to deliver on your vision of immigration?
Look, look she was in charge of the border. The border's closed. I mean, everybody gives me A+ on the border. The border was a disaster. People were pouring into our country.
But what about the enforcement --
They don't even try and come up now. You know the beautiful thing? The caravans. I think I came up with that name. Thousands of people, 25, 30,000 people in a group. You know who sent 'em? Their countries. They sent the people that they didn't want. Not only criminals, people that didn't wanna work hard, et cetera.
They know who it is. They sent 'em into our country. We have nobody coming in anymore. We have very good -- you just -- you just asked me a -- Kristi. We have the best crime numbers that we've had in 125 years. I think she's doing a very good job. Again, public relations. She's not getting credit for the job that she does.
Let's move to the economy now.
And excuse me --
Yeah yeah.
What is sad though. And -- and it is -- we had the two incidents, the two primary incidents --
Right.
-- in -- Minnesota. So --
And you shook up leadership there. You brought Tom Homan in.
Yeah, I did. And -- and Tom is great. Tom is a superstar -- but -- you do thousands of arrests. You arrest thousands of rapists. You arrest thousands of the worst people. You arrest the drug dealers. I mean, we had drug kingpins. We had murderers. Thousands, no incident. We bring 'em back to their country.
Two people it's bad. I hate it. I hate --
Yeah.
-- even talking about it. Two people out of tens of thousands, okay?
Mm hmm.
And you get bad publicity. Nobody talks about all of the murderers that we're taking out of our country. They don't talk about --
But it was two Americans who died, you know --
They don't talk about we have the smallest drugs -- as an example, we've been very tough on the waters. And soon, you know, pretty much overall --
The w, the -- the waters?
But if you look at, if you look at the waters where we knock out boats --
Oh.
-- each boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives. We're doing a job like nobody's ever seen before. I just got off the phone with President Xi and he is amazed at how well the United States --
Yeah.
-- is doing.
What --
He says -- he said he's never seen anything like it.
You -- you brought the conversation, Mr. President, so let me ask you. What -- what did you talk about with the leader of China --
Well, we had a lot of topics. We talked about so much --
What's the most important topic? Is it -- is it chips? Is it the wars -- in Ukraine? What -- what is going on --
I mean, I would say the economy, the relationship that we have with China. I'm gonna be going there in April then he's coming here toward the end of the year.
Coming to the White House?
He's coming to the White House, yeah -- toward the end of the year. We have a very good relationship. And, you know, it's important that I have a good relationship and for him, that he has a good relationship with me. We have to have a good -- these are the two most powerful countries in the world and we have a very good relationship.
You talk about tariffs --
We spoke for an hour --
Does -- does -- does he ask you about the tariffs? Does he say this is hurting us?
Well, they're paying a lot of tariffs, as you know. China's paying a lot of tariffs. In the past they didn't. I'm the one that put tariffs on China. I put tariffs on a lotta -- tariffs are, just so you understand, making our country rich. Our country has taken in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, really trillions.
Because --
Yeah.
-- the -- the threat of tariffs is getting all of these countries to lose to us.
Yeah.
And by the way, they've been doing it to us for 40 years. And now -- but I'm doing it very judicially, very fairly. But tariffs are bringing in tremendous amounts of money. I just gave $12 billion to our farmers because they were mistreated by certain countries.
Yeah
Tariff money. We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars --
No, and I wanna ask you about that. I wanna -- I wanna get into that. Talking about the economy, you've brought a lot of prices down, as we said. Some are still stubborn.
Very few.
But -- but when -- yeah, very few. I get it --
Tom, very few --
I get, yeah, when you -- when you talk to Americans, though, do you have to get them to understand that --
I do.
-- the prices are not gonna come back down to your first term because we had a pandemic and we had record inflation?
Yeah
Are people's expectations too high or is it just too expensive to live in America --
I -- I just, again, don't think we're selling it properly. We've done a great job. Look --
But -- but it's expensive out there.
You saw gasoline this last week --
Yeah.
-- at $1.99 a gallon. It used to be it was four and a half, $5 a gallon. $1.99 a gallon of gasoline. Um, I think we've really bring -- I mean, we're -- I don't expect them to be much higher. Now, --
Yeah.
-- there's a natural inflation.
But they're never gonna go down --
Remember this --
-- to that first term --
Tom. I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. It was through the roof. Now, you will say it wasn't in history --
Right.
-- it was 48 years. You know there's a theory. There was -- I say it was the worst. But whether it's 48 years --
Right.
-- or what, I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. And now we have almost no inflation. Think of it.
Right.
You know what it was for the last three months? 1.2%. You know what it was under Biden? You can't count that high.
Yeah.
I inherited the worst inflation. I inherited the worst crime. I inherited high prices. So when I inherit --
Inflation is down. 2.7 right now --
-- all of those things --
But it is down --
No, no, no.
Yeah.
For the last thr- -- don't forget --
Yeah.
I inherited this mess.
Right right.
For the last three months it's at 1.2%. You know that.
Yeah. But the last -- okay.
Last three months.
You -- you floated the idea of $2,000 rebate checks for Americans from tariff revenue. Who's gonna get that and -- and when is that gonna happen?
We'd make it -- I -- I'm gonna -- I'm looking at it very seriously. I'm the only one can do it because I'm takin' in hundreds of billions of dollars of money from tariffs --
But you can promise some Americans will get those checks?
Oh yeah, sure. I can -- I can do that. I haven't made the commitment yet, but I may make the commitment.
So it's not -- it's not a done deal --
Well, I just gave 1776, right --
Yeah
-- to the military, right? 17 hundred --
Right.
-- and 76 dollars.
But you said all Americans --
You know, it was 1775. They presented it to me because that's what we have in a budget that I created 'cause I wanted to take care of our military. Nobody takes care of the military like I do.
Yeah.
So $1,775. I said, "Wait a minute. If you add one dollar it's $1,776." You know that's quite a famous date, right --
Yeah, of course. Of course. Um --
Wait. So I gave 1776 to our military, and they are very thankful.
Let's get to the Fed.
And now I may be doing that --
Yeah.
-- with regard to the entire population.
Okay. Let's get to the Fed. Is there any doubt in your mind that interest rates are gonna be lowered?
Not much.
Why? How can you say that?
I just think they're going to be lowered. I mean they should be lower.
Is your new Fed pick on board with that?
We're way high, okay? We're way high in interest. We have now with me and with all the money I'm -- I -- I've always been good at money. And with all the money coming into our country we're a rich country again. We have debt, but we also have growth. And the growth will soon make the debt look very small.
Because there's -- the greatest way -- you have two ways. You can cut, cut, cut, and we do that anyway, and we did that. You know, we got rid of hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
Yeah.
And those workers went out and got themselves jobs in the free enterprise system. And you know what? That's called making America great again. We had 10 workers in the federal government for every single job. When the Democrats go in, they hire. I could right now give you the best employment numbers in history.
You know what I do? Go out and hire 2 million people, put 'em in the federal government.
D -- does your new Fed --
I do the opposite.
Yeah, does your new Fed pick understand that you want him to lower interest rates?
Oh, I think he does. But I think he wants to anyway. I mean, if he came in and said, "I wanna raise 'em" -- we should have --
If he said that he wouldn't have gotten the job?
He would not have gotten the job, no.
Okay.
No.
Do you believe --
If I thought he was a interest rate -- now, there'll be times if I see inflation on the horizon. But we don't have that. We have low inf -- remember, --
Yeah.
-- 1.2% inflation in the last three months.
Yeah.
We have low inflation and we have tremendous growth. You haven't had these numbers like this.
Right.
We have -- think of it, low inflation, great growth. We --
Yeah.
Now all I have to do is one thing, easy. Get down the interest rates.
Do you think the Fed chair answers to you or is an independent body?
Well -- I mean, in theory it's an independent body. But I think, you know, I'm a smart guy. I know the economy better than almost everybody. You know, they did --
So he answers to you?
-- they did that prediction chart a year ago, and they had 71 great economists and me making the predictions. And, you know, only two people were right, me and one other guy who is a very smart professor from a certain school that I went to.
Yeah.
A very good school.
Yeah.
And, the two of us were right. Everybody else was wrong.
There's been bipartisan suggestions that the criminal investigation to the current Fed chair, Jerome Powell, is payback, right, for not lowering interest rates but also for when he was in that sort of news conference with you with the hard hats and he was shaking his head and showing you the papers and disagreeing with you in public.
Is that why he's under criminal investigation --
He was -- no, he was very respectful to me. He wasn't dis -- he was explaining to me.
Yeah
I'm asking him, "Why are you spending almost $4 billion on a very small little complex of buildings?" It's the highest price per square foot. They're -- he's renovating buildings for $3-4 billion. And, you know, this Fed chair that I have is -- I think he's gonna be great. He might not have a home because this guy has spent so much money.
And I looked. It's a see-through. There's nothing inside. They haven't done -- they are spending money. He's in charge of the project.
Yeah.
He's the -- this is the Federal Reserve building. I'm talking --
Yeah.
-- about. It's a very small little -- it's actually a couple of little --
Yeah.
-- b -- they're spending more money than any building ever built in history per square foot.
Some Republican senators say they're not gonna approve him unless --
Oh, I know --
-- you drop that investigation.
A lot of people say a lotta things.
You don't think that's true? You think --
I don't know.
Would -- is it worth it to drop the investigation to get your Fed chair through?
I think, the investigation is the investigation. It's being -- handled by -- Pam and Jeanine and the people, they'll make their own decision on it.
Yeah. Let's talk about AI. Have you ever used --
But I do say this --
Yes.
-- about --
Yeah.
-- you can't let a man spend billions of dollars doing a b -- I woulda done that job for $25 million and it would've been done much better.
Alright.
They're spending billions of dollars on a renovation of --
Yeah.
-- a little complex.
Let's talk about AI. Have you ever used ChatGPT --
Uh --
-- or Claude?
I haven't really, but I know all about it. Let -- let me just talk about AI.
Yeah.
AI's a big deal. AI is going to be maybe the biggest thing, bigger than the internet, bigger than anything else. We are leading China by a lot. We are leading everybody --
Yeah.
-- by a lot. They're all building their factories here. And you know what I did for the electric? Because they need twice the electric as we currently produce for the whole country which is crazy. Nobody can do that. But so what I did is I came up with a concept. Each building that is built is gonna generate their own electricity.
They're gonna build their own electric plant. We are building -- numbers of AI. And by the way, also auto plants. Everything.
Right.
We're building everything. But do you know --
Yeah?
I just left Michigan. I was with Ford. They were gonna close this building that was built in the early 1900s, one of the biggest factories. They were gonna close it.
Yeah.
It was scheduled to close prior to my election.
Right.
After I won the election they said, "Let's try keeping it open." They just went to three shifts.
Right.
It's 24 hours a day, and the head of Ford, Mr. Ford --
Yeah
-- said, "It's the most incredible auto comeback I've ever seen."
Mr. President, let me ask you. You -- there's no doubt you are the president who's ushering in the AI revolution. But this is happening on your watch. If AI affects humanity in a negative way is that on you? Because some of these CEOs of AI companies say, "We need guardrails." This could get outta control.
Does that worry you?
Uh -- everything's on me as president. Everything's on me. I can say this. It'll be the greatest jobs producer. It'll be the greatest military producer. It'll be the greatest medical producer. There'll be tremendous good. And there'll be probably some bad too.
Well, it's killing a lot of jobs. And what do you say to Americans --
No no, it's not killing --
-- who are gonna lose their jobs to AI --
It, it's going to make -- it's going to create a lot of jobs.
Right now it's taking jobs in a lot of ways. It's --
Well, right now --
-- taking jobs -- companies like Amazon. What would you say to those Americans --
But it hasn't -- But it hasn't really started. You know, these major plants haven't even been built. What you're gonna see --
No, no, but Mr. President, it start -- AI has already started to take jobs because the technology's there --
Okay, you ready? So --
Yeah.
-- we have, it was just announced, more jobs right now occupied in the United States of America that at any time during its existence, 250 years -- uh, there are more people working today than at any time in the history of our country. Pretty good stat.
Um, you -- you are --
That kills that question.
Yeah, we'll look it up -- you are, you are --
That's how good it is, that kills that question --
Mr. President, there's widespread concern that AI is gonna wipe out a lotta jobs, manufacturing jobs.
Look, look, they said the internet was gonna do -- everything was gonna do. Robots are gonna kill jobs. Everything's --
Yeah.
-- gonna kill jobs. And you end up, if you're smart, doing great.
Okay. You are close with the Ellisons who are trying to stop a merger between Warner Bros., Discovery, and Netflix. This deal could change the make-up of the media as we know it. Are you personally gonna get involved in that deal?
I haven't been involved. I must say, I guess I'm considered to be a very strong president. I've been called by both sides, it's the two sides, but I've decided I shouldn't be involved. The Justice Department will handle it.
Okay. In what way? Just looking at it to see if it's regu- --
Well, they make a decision. I mean, there's a theory that one of the companies is too big and it shouldn't be allowed to do it, and the other company is saying something else about -- you know, they're not gonna --
But you're not gonna interfere even though you're --
They're beating --
-- close with the Ellisons --
-- the hell out of each other and there'll be a winner.
Okay, let's talk about the midterms. You've recently suggested nationalizing elections. What what do you mean by that?
When -- and I didn't say national -- I said there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt. They have very corrupt elections. Take a look at Detroit. Take a look at Philadelphia. Take a look at Atlanta. There are some areas that are unbelievably corrupt. I could give you plenty --
Yeah.
-- more too. I say that we cannot have corrupt elections. If we have to, if they don't straighten it out, as an example, voter ID. Why don't the Democrats want voter ID? You know who does want voter ID? Democrat voters want it but Democrat politicians don't. Why don't they want it? Because they want to cheat on elections.
Can you imagine, if, if I were a politician and they asked me, "Do you want voter identification," and I said, "No," there's no way you could win that debate.
But even -- yeah, yeah.
The Democrats don't want voter ID. If they don't want voter ID that means they want to cheat. We can't allow cheating on elections. Now, if we need to put in federal controls as opposed to state controls --
Mm hmm.
-- remember this, they're really an agent. They're really --
Yeah.
-- accumulating the votes for who wins an election. If they can't do it honestly and it can't be done properly and timely, then something else has to happen.
Will you trust the results of the midterms if Republicans lose control of Congress?
Of -- I will if the elections are honest. Look, I -- I want -- the last one that wants to complain. I just w -- I just had a great election. They say one of the greatest elections, you will agree, ever. Won all seven swing states. Won 84% of the counties in America, that's why --
Yeah.
-- the map is all red. We just had a great election. I believe there was cheating. I think -- I think there was cheating --
Well, speaking of counties, what are you doing in Fulton County --
-- but, it was too big to rig.
Speaking o -- of counties, what -- what is happening in Fulton County --
I'm not doing anything but the FBI went in because it's been under -- under -- I guess review for years, the cheating that took place in Fulton County --
What are they looking for 'cause --
-- and in that particular state --
-- nobody knows what's in the warrant. What are they looking for --
They'll find out. Look, w -- why would anybody be upset that they went in and they -- they got the ballots I guess, right?
Yeah.
Again, they did this. That's been under review and under investigation for four years. And now -- they got a court order. You know they got a court order --
Yeah.
-- signed by --
But nobody knows what --
-- a respected --
-- the evidence they're looking for. Yeah.
-- but liberal judge signed a court order allowing them to go and pick them up. Well, you're gonna know what the ballots say because they're right now inspecting the ballot. I'm not involved in it but they are inspecting and checking the ballots --
Why is Tulsi Gabbard there?
I don't know but, you know -- a lot of the cheating comes from -- it's -- it's international cheating. You have people, they say, from China --
You -- so you put --
-- trying to --
-- this on Truth Social --
Let me ask you, do you think tr -- do you think China tries to influence our elections?
We -- we know that foreign governments try to influence a lot of things in this country --
OK. Well, therefore, she's -- she's foreign governments.
But you -- you've --
-- she's --
-- tweeted out some -- some theories about Italians and satellites. I mean, do you believe that stuff?
No, no. No. No. I -- no, I didn't ch -- I sometimes will retweet --
Re-truth, yeah.
I'll re-truth --
Re-truth? Okay.
But -- but let me ask you this -- if China or any of these countries are involved in our elections, that would bring her into it. And everybody knows that Russia, they talked about Russia, turned out to be a hoax. It was -- Hunter Biden. It wasn't Russia. Look, we have to have honest elections.
Yeah.
There should be nothing wrong with the fact that they went in, got ballots from a while ago, and they're gonna look at 'em. And now they're gonna find out the true winner --
Yeah.
-- of that state.
Yeah.
And you know what? If there was cheating, which there was, but if there was cheating, it should be found because we can't let it happen again.
Mr. President, I have a few more important questions for you. That's okay with you. Yeah?
Sure.
Okay.
I mean, they've all been important.
[Laughs] Let's go to -- there -- there's a new lawsuit by you and your family that you're -- you're suing the IRS for $10.5 billion for leaking your tax documents.
Yeah.
Is this a good use of taxpayer money?
You can't leak documents. And any money that I win, I'll give it to charity, 100% to charities, charities that will be approved by government or whatever. I have another lawsuit with the United States. I sued because they broke into Mar-a-Lago.
But that's taxpayer money. It's gonna --
No, no.
-- get taken outta --
No.
-- the system. I know it's goin' to charity --
No, no.
-- you're gonna say.
If -- and I've won that case. I mean, I virtually -- they broke -- the FBI illegally, Biden and his group. It wasn't Biden.
Yeah.
He didn't know what he was doing. It was a group of very smart radical left people.
Yeah.
They're very smart. They just -- they've lost their way.
Right.
And they broke into Mar-a-Lago. They broke into my home. They went through --
Well, they had warrants. They didn't break in.
-- my wife's --
Yeah.
-- drawers.
Yeah.
They went through -- you know, it's a double meaning. They went through Barron's, my son's --
Yeah.
-- everything. They went through the whole house. Hundreds of people, they -- they w -- they went in with guns. They went in -- guns --
H -- how would this work --
-- woulda been a-blazing --
Yeah. S -- how would this work --
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Yeah.
I brought a lawsuit. Essentially, the lawsuit's been won. I guess I won a lotta money.
H -- h -- how would this work --
No, but listen.
-- though? Scott Bessent's the head of the IRS.
I know. What I will do --
Pam Bondi's the head of the d -- Justice Department. They're gonna defend the IRS against you.
I know, that's intere --
You're their boss.
Well, there's never been anything like it. In all fairness
But -- so are you gonna --
No, d -- don't forget --
-- are you gonna tell 'em to pay you --
-- don't forget, I sued as a private citizen, because I sued between terms.
But are you gonna tell 'em to --
I won three times.
-- pay you?
I won three times, but I didn't assume -- unfortunately for this country, I didn't assume office the second time. But here's the story, I sued because they broke into Mar-a-Lago. That was before I became president. Now it goes along and it turned out that the suit is a very strong suit.
You're gonna tell 'em to pay you though?
I --
'Cause, you're the boss.
Well, I w -- what I would do, tell 'em to pay me, but I'll give 100% of the money to charity. I don't want any of that money.
You take it out of the system. Um, a couple more questions here --
No, no, I'm putting it back into the system.
Yeah.
If I give money to American Cancer Society, I w -- I will give 100% of the money away to ch -- I don't want any of it.
$30 trillion debt and we're gonna take 10 billion out of the system?
Well, I mean, you give it away anyway. They give away a lotta money.
Your endorsements --
I'll tell you what.
Yeah.
Speaking about that, Minnesota and these other states, we have massive investigations going into fraud.
Yeah.
Do you know, if we captured 50% of the fraud of this country --
Yeah.
-- right now, we would have better than a balanced budget. And you gotta mention that.
OK.
Minnesota --
Yeah.
-- $19 billion in fraud that we know about.
Your endorsement is the most important thing in the Republican primary, will you --
No, no, in any primary.
Will you endorse in the 2028 presidential primary?
I -- I hadn't even thought of it. But probably, yeah. I mean -- I'd be inclined to. I -- I have great people. We have a great bench. We have a lotta people. But -- yeah, I think so.
You've suggested that JD Vance, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be a tough ticket to beat. Who should be at the top of that ticket?
Well, I don't wanna get into this. We have three years to go. I don't wanna, you know, I have two people that are doing a great job. I don't wanna have an argument with or a f -- I, I don't wanna use the word fight, it wouldn't be a fight. But look, JD is fantastic and Marco is fantastic.
How are they different --
They're both doing a great job --
-- how are they different?
-- and I do think this. It's a great question. I think that's your most interesting question.
Yeah.
Um, I would say one is slightly more diplomatic than the other. I think they're both of very high intelligence. I mean, you -- they -- they will do shows. They will do Joe Rogan, as opposed to the opponent not doing it because they couldn't handle it. They will be able to do whatever they have to do. Um, I think there's, a difference in style.
You know, you can see the style yourself. But they're both very capable. I do think this, the combination of JD and Marco would be very hard to be beaten, I think. But you never know in politics, right? They say in the age of Trump you never know.
Yeah. On January 21, 2029, do you see any scenario where you are still president?
I -- I don't know. It would be interesting. But wouldn't it be terrible if I agreed with, you know, if I gave you the answer that you're looking for? It would make life so much less exciting, right? It would be so much less exciting. But I only do this for one reason: make America great again. And that's what we're doing.
We're making America great again, greater than ever before. Our country is greater than ever before. We're a rich nation. We're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs from nations that took advantage of us. They thought we were stupid. They thought we were fools. They laughed at us. You know, people were laughing at us one and a half years ago.
They laughed at this country. They're not laughing anymore, they respect us. And I get along with them. They respect us.
Mr. President, I have pages and pages of questions, but they're telling me my time is up. I thank you for your time.
We'll do it again. Thank you.
Mr. President, thank you.
Yeah.
[Break in interview]
[Voiceover] That concludes the sit-down portion of our extended interview with the president. We'll show you our walk-and-talk in the Oval Office.
[Interview resumes.]
So this room had almost no pictures up.
Yeah.
And these pictures all came from the vaults.
Yeah.
And -- they're magnificent. I mean, I think they're magnificent. And all, you know, first-run, top-of-the-line stuff.
Yeah.
But mostly of presidents. We have a couple with -- Ben Franklin, but I think he qualifies, right?
Yeah.
Ben Franklin's pretty good.
Is there any one you ever kind of hone in on when you're thinking deeply about anything, about any issues, or one you look at?
Maybe all of 'em. They're so different. George Washington, and you have -- Jefferson, and I took Ronald Reagan --
Yeah.
-- in the place of honor also.
Yeah.
Did a great job. But -- Honest Abe Lincoln.
Who do you have up here? I mean, these are big ones here --
That's -- Ulysses S. Grant, George Washington --
George Washington.
Here we have the famous -- come on over here.
Yeah.
Here we have Declaration of Independence. That's one of the three. This was in the vaults for many years --
Yeah.
-- and I said, "It's time to take it out of the vaults."
Do you think at, at one point people will talk about you when they talk about presidents like Washington and Lincoln? Is that something you think is gonna happen --
All I know is this, it's such an honor but [Laughs] all I know walking down and everyone's screaming, "GOAT, GOAT." I said, "What are they talking about?" I hope they're right, not for me, but for the country. Because if I do --
Yeah.
-- a great job that means the country's doing well.
You're building the new ballroom. We hear about this new arch you're building, the Garden of Heroes as well. You're -- you're building a lotta things that are gonna cement your legacy. Are you also doing this so the country never forgets you?
No. I think we need glamour brought back to our country. We need -- prestige. We need beauty brought -- I mean, in addition to everything else we need strength, we need all of those things. Like, I'm doing an arc, a triumphal -- they call it a triumphal arc. Fifty-seven cities have arcs.
Yeah.
We're the only major, important city, Washington, D.C., should have maybe the first arc.
Yeah.
We're doing one that will be more magnificent and larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. I would say the Paris -- Paris arc is probably the most --
Stunning.
It's incredible. We're gonna do one that's gonna top it.
Is it true it's gonna be 250 feet to mark --
It'll be about that --
-- the anniversary?
-- yeah. It'll be a little bit taller than the one in Paris. It'll be l -- a little bit larger than the one in Paris.
You're doing a lot of things for the -- the 250 anniversary.
Yeah.
What do you want Americans to feel this July 4th?
Strength, victory, security, you have a secure country. We've done so much militarily. We have a great military. I mean, you saw Venezuela, that was -- the -- the people -- the general that was in charge -- he lived. He said he's never seen anything like it when we came. They were all ready.
You talked about the weapon, the discombobulator. What -- what -- what is that --
Yeah, the discombobulator. Well, I'm not allowed to talk about it. But let --
But what -- what does it do --
-- let me just tell you -- you know what it does? None of their equipment works. That's what it does. Everything was dis --
What -- how does it --
It was my name, I'm very proud of the name. Everything was discombobulated. It was -- you know, practically a shot wasn't f -- you know, they were ready.
Right.
And when we came --
I mean, what --
-- they couldn't do any of that --
-- you saw this in the video, you could tell.
Tom, it discombobulated everything.
Nothing worked, even -- including humans.
Well, let's put it this way --
It knocks the humans out.
-- we lost no equipment in a very strong -- and they're good fighters --
Yeah.
-- great fighters -- in a very -- bad environment. It was a military base.
Mm hmm.
The biggest in South America. In a very -- because the house was in a base in South Am -- in a very, very tough environment we lost no men and we lost no equipment.
The discombobulator just knocked everything --
Well, it did something.
It did something. Did Delcy Rodriguez work with you guys before that raid?
I can't -- I can't talk about that. I mean, I don't talk about --
Do you trust her?
Well, so far she's done a great job. I mean, so far she and all of the people that are working with her -- remember in Iraq they got rid of everybody, they had no generals, they had no people, they had nobody to run the government? Turned out to be a mess. And that's where ISIS came from. You know, that's where ISIS came from, it came from the military and all the people.
They formed ISIS. It was handled very badly. But this is handled very well.
Do you think the Cuban government will still be there, the -- the current leadership will still be there by the end of your term --
Well, the Cuban, now you're asking a different question. Cuba's in big trouble. Humanitarian aid is gonna have to be sent there. They're in big trouble --
It's a disaster.
They got their money from Venezuela, they got their oil from Venezuela, they turned the oil into money, et cetera, et cetera. And there's none of that happening anymore. They're in big trouble. We are --
Do you think that government is still there, though?
We -- well --
Do you think that government lasts?
Uh -- I don't wanna say that. But we are talking to Cuba.
You're talking to Cuba?
You know what? Look, we have tens of thousands of people that were forced out there here. They voted for me, 94% -- Cuban population, previous Cuban population, now they're Cuban Americans. Maybe they go back, maybe they wanna go back, they h -- they're gonna have that choice. But for years they've been talking about this happening.
Now it's happening. We are talking to Cuba. We wanna open it up to those people that wanna visit. Even -- you know, I think most people, when they're here, they wanna stay here. I hope that's true. I hope we're not gonna lose 'em. But they're gonna have options. And they're gonna be able to go back, Tom, and see their loved ones, see their family, their friends.
Should the Supreme Leader in Iran be worried right now?
I would say he should be very worried, yeah. He should be. As you know, they're negotiating with us.
I know they are, but the protesters have said, you know, w -- where are the Americans? You promised them we -- we would have their back. Do we still have their back --
Well, we've had their back. And -- look, that country's a mess right now because of us. We went in, we wiped out their nuclear -- if I didn't take out --
So the question, if we want them out --
We want peace in the Middle East
Yeah yeah yeah.
If I didn't take out their nuclear, think of it, if we didn't take out that nuclear, we wouldn't have peace in the Middle East, because the Arab countries could've never done that. They were very, very afraid of Iran.
Yeah yeah yeah.
They're not afraid of Iran anymore. We wiped out, those beautiful B-2 bombers, one's right over there, those -- beautiful little model, those beautiful B-2 bombers --
Yeah.
-- went in and they hit their target, every single bomb, and obliterated it. And because of that, they were gonna have a nuclear r -- weapon within one month.
Yeah.
Within one month they were gonna have a nuclear weapon.
Yeah.
That was a big threat. They -- they're not gonna have it anymore. Now --
But -- but if we obliterated it --
-- Iran is tough.
-- wait, if we obliterated it --
Iran is --
-- what's the deal about? I mean, if there's no more -- are they -- are they trying to restart the nuclear program --
Well, I heard that they are. And if they do, and I let 'em know, if they do we're gonna send 'em right back and do their job again.
So your understanding is they tried to restart it and that's why you're threatening force.
They tried to go back to the site. They weren't even able to get near it, there was total obliteration. But -- they were thinking about starting a new site in a different part of the country. We found out about it. I said, "You do that, we're gonna do --
Game over.
-- very bad things to you" --
Yeah. Mr. President, the ballroom over here, I want you to show it to me --
Yeah.
-- because the thing you said that stood out to me, it's gonna be massive. But -- is it -- it's got a drone-proof ceiling and it's got bulletproof windows? What does that mean --
It's got bulletproof windows, because, well, we're in a different time. You know, if somebody's up making a speech, we're gonna have the inauguration there. We're gonna probably have --
Yeah.
I would say definitely it's gonna be -- large enough. But -- we have drone-proof ceilings.
What, what does mean? What is that --
That means if a drone hits the ceiling it bounces off. It doesn't blow up the building.
It's a fortress essentially --
It's protection.
It's gonna be a fortress.
Well, it's gonna be very heavy steel.
Okay.
Very simple. It's heavy steel.
Because of that, do you --
And, by the way --
Yeah.
-- the ballroom is so bea -- it'll be the most beautiful ballroom of its kind --
Yeah.
-- and it's very much in keeping with the White House.
You survived that assassination attempt that we all covered. It was terrible. Two of them.
Yeah.
Do you worry about your safety? I mean --
Yes.
-- you think about the ball -- you do?
I worry about it but -- but you have to put it out of your mind otherwise you wouldn't be able to do your job.
You didn't think about it as much before, now you talk about it a lot?
Maybe, could be. I mean, you look, statistically I'm in a very dangerous job.
Yeah.
I mean, if you take a look at the walls, if you take a look, you know, statistically this is a much more dangerous job than being a race car driver or riding those broncos --
Yeah.
-- you know, those bulls are tough, right? But, I wouldn't want to do that. But statistically being president is the most dangerous job there is.
We first met 10 years ago when you were running the first time. How do you feel now as you approach 80?
I feel great. I mean, physically and mentally I feel like I did 50 years ago. It's crazy. Now, there'll be a time when I won't be able to give you that answer. But that time hasn't come --
If, if --
-- you know? I -- I do, I think it's very important. I've done more physicals, I take physicals just to give the report out.
Yeah.
I take cognitive physicals. So --
Yeah.
-- I do a cognitive mind test, okay? And a lot of people wouldn't be able to do very well. Not easy. You know. You get to those last questions. I've aced -- I've done three of 'em. No other president has agreed to do them. I do 'em because I have no problem with it because I'm 100%. Now, there will be a time --
Still taking the aspirin? Still taking the aspirin --
I do, I take aspirin. And -- I don't want to change, you know? I don't want to --
So you go against your doctor's orders? You do what --
I do --
-- you kind of feel?
You know, I've been taking aspirin for 30 years and I don't -- I don't want to change it. So, you know, they say take the smaller one. I say, well, th -- I want that blood to be nice and thin running through my heart.
If at any point your age impacts your job --
Yeah.
-- who's gonna tell you that or you think you'll know yourself --
I think I'll know myself, yeah. I think I'll know myself. I wouldn't do an interview with you, as an example.
Yeah.
Did Biden do an interview before Super Bowl? I'm not sure. Maybe he did --
Last one he --
-- maybe he didn't --
-- he didn't.
I mean, he wasn't capable of doing an interview. And that was things -- look, you know, I know people that are 95 years old that are sharp as a tack. And Biden was a bad thing for old people. He's the worst thing that ever happened to old people because he obviously didn't have it. And one of the things that's so depressing about the press is the press refused to report the obvious.
And he did have very smart people around him but they had a radical left culture, and -- they were very bad for this country. This country would not have survived two more years if one of them got elected.
Yeah. We didn't get a chance to speak about the DOJ. I appreciate all your time and of your staff's time. They've been --
We'll do another one --
-- very, very kind.
Yeah
Should anybody else expect the DOJ to kind of come after them like you've come over -- after some of your political enemies --
Well -- well, you -- you remember this, Tom.
Yeah
I was impeached twice. Two fake impeachments, won both of 'em easily. Republicans stood by me 100%. But I won both of them.
Mm hmm.
I was indicted 87 different times. And then you ask me that question.
Yeah.
So I think I'm extremely moderate, especially for what they did to me. They wanted to take me down. I had -- I said to somebody, "Do me a favor. Add up the counts. If I lost -- you know, I won. But if I lost these cases, add up the counts and tell me how long would I have to serve in prison." You know what they came up with?
Two hundred and eighty-seven years. I said, "I better win."
In your mind that calculation means it's okay for the DOJ to go after your --
No, it isn't --
-- political enemies --
No, it isn't. And I -- I could be involved. You know, I'm the chief law enforcement officer --
Yeah.
-- of the United States. I could be involved but I'm not. I don't choose to. But when they say to me, "Oh, you're going after people," I got indicted all of those times. It's 287 years in jail they were willing to put -- you know, they asked me a question yesterday at the press conference about Clinton because of the testimony --
The Epstein --
-- the Epstein thing, which turned out that I have nothing to do -- and they did -- about Epstein. And they said, "Do you think it's terrible what" -- you know, with the subpoenas and everything and they're disobeying the subpoenas. And I actually said it's a shame. You have an ex-president and you have, you know, the president's wife and secretary of state.
And I said it's a shame. It is a shame --
NBC News broke the story today, I don't know if you saw it, that the Democrats are already saying if you bring President Bill Clinton and he has to testify, we're bringing President Trump. What do you say to that --
Well, I think they might say that, you know? But they've already brought me. See, I've been brought. They had me indicted, many, many times. Many, many times. They didn't do that to Clinton --
Do you think if the Democrats win in the midterms at least one house of Congress, they're gonna try to impeach you?
Well, you know, I've done a great job as president. They say I've had the best first year of any president in history and I think I have. If you look, I settled eight wars. Biggest tax cuts ever. Right now we have more under construction with the factories, the car pla -- you know, they're all moving back into the country.
They were stolen from us over a 40-year period. They're all coming back from Germany, from Canada, from Mexico, from -- Japan. I think I had the greatest first year that we've had --
But you think they may come after you again?
Well, they'll find something. Like, I did an interview with you and because I did the interview -- let's -- impeach him or something.
Anything out there that Americans are gonna be surprised about --
They shouldn't do --
-- that you're -- yeah.
I'll tell you -- they shouldn't do it. And that's one of the things -- I didn't do it for that reason but it bothers me that somebody's going after Bill Clinton. See, I liked Bill Clinton. I still like Bill Clinton --
What do you like about him?
I liked -- well, I liked his behavior toward me. I thought he got me, he understood me. You know, he was the one that said very famously that you don't want to run against Trump when there were 18 people. It was 18 people --
Yeah
-- including me, total. And he kept telling them, "You don't want to run against Trump. Run against anyone. Don't run against Trump." And Hillary sort of laughed at him. He said, "Hillary, you know it and I know it. Don't run against Trump."
Yeah.
And -- they ran against Trump. It didn't work out too well, did it? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. President --
Thank you --
We thank you for your time, thank you.
Thank you --
Appreciate it.
Have a good time.
[End of interview segment.]
And we'll have even more of the interview coming up on Sunday during the Super Bowl pregame show on NBC.