[The following is a transcript of the interview conducted by Bret Baier with Donald Trump on board Air Force One en route to Alaska from Joint Base Andrews on August 15, 2025 as aired at 6 pm Eastern on Fox News. Video courtesy and copyright Fox News.]
Do you like doing those things?
It's almost like a competition. It's like winning at golf. You know, they're coming in, every question is a kill. They hope you're gonna make a mistake. They're looking, and they had a lot of -- They had a field day with Biden, that's why he didn't do it.
But you're making a news there?
Every -- I don't think so. Nothing -- I always go out, I say, "Is there breaking news?" In other words, when I leave? If there's breaking news, that's a bad thing. That means they got me on something. Let's go.
After you.
He's a good golfer, everybody.
[Edit in interview]
You just had me in the office here, and you had a phone call with the leader from Belarus, Lukashenko, and you talked about this meeting. Can I ask you what, what he told you about the possibilities?
Well, I really, uh, called him to thank him. He released 16 prisoners, and it was a very nice thing. Uh, they've been trying to get the 16 people out for a long time. Biden wasn't obviously unable to do it, uh, even other countries 'cause it's not just Americans. And he was great. He let them out, and I just called to thank him.
And believe it or not, there's about 1,300 more. And I think he'll let them out too at some point in the very near future.
And what about his thoughts about this meeting that you're going to in Alaska?
He was very positive about it. He's friends with President Putin, as you know, uh, very, very close neighbors. And, uh, they work together, and he thinks that President Putin wants to make a deal. He wants to stop this horrible killing. He mentioned it himself. He said, "It's a horrible situation." And he said he has great respect for me, and for the country, but he didn't have a lot of respect for our country under a certain different leader.
And I can understand that 'cause nobody else did either.
So what are your expectations? I mean, is the goal of this meeting in Alaska to walk away with a ceasefire?
So when you talk about deals, it's all I do. My whole life, I do deals. Uh, you never know. You don't like to have too many expectations. You wanna -- Because you have to weave, and bob, and you don't know what's gonna happen. Uh, but we're gonna go and find out. I'd like to see a ceasefire. Uh, I wouldn't be thrilled if I didn't get it, but everyone says, "You're not gonna get the ceasefire.
It will take place on the second meeting." The second meeting's gonna be very -- But I'm not gonna be happy with that. So, uh, uh, we'll see what happens. I'm gonna be -- I, I won't be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire. Now, I, I say this, and I've said it from the beginning. This is really setting the table today.
Uh, we're gonna have another meeting if things work out, which will be very soon. Uh, or we're not gonna have any more meetings at all, maybe ever.
But don't you sense that Putin comes to this table maybe in an economic pinch, and that maybe the things you've already done have put him in an economic pitch? Is there an economic side to this as Russia hoping to open up, um, to the world?
Well, he lost a- an oil client, so to speak, which is India, which was doing about 40% of the oil. China, as you know, is doing a lot. And, uh, others have another few countries. And if I did what's called a secondary sanction or a secondary tariff, uh, it would be, you know, very devastating from their standpoint.
If I have to do it, I'll do it. Maybe I won't have to do it.
He's coming, though with, with the thought that maybe there's going to be a deal on the economy. He's coming with businessmen and --
Yeah, they're bringing a lot of people. Uh, over 500 people are coming. A lot of them are businessmen, and they -- What they really would like to do is -- Look, we built in a short period of time, the greatest economy ever, ever. Uh, I had the four greatest years ever in, as an economy. And this is gonna blow it away.
We're doing well. We were a dead country. And you -- I say this often, I'll say it loud and clear, we were a dead country a year ago. A dead country, not respected by anybody. We had inflation at levels that we had never had before. They say 48 years. I say it was worse than ever before.
So if you were to paint a picture of what perfect looks like coming out of Alaska today, what does that look like in your mind?
Uh, uh, look, it's not for me to negotiate a deal for Ukraine. But I can certainly set the table to negotiate the deal. And our next meeting we'll have President Zelensky, and President Putin, and probably me. Uh, I'd like to focus on doing our country. But, you know, I get these, uh, interruptions. We've -- I've solved six wars in six months when you think about it. And, uh, that's from Pakistan to India.
That was gonna be a terrible one. Planes being shot down, that was getting ready to flare in their nuclear powers, and so many others. And, you know --
Well arm, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Congo, Rwanda. In fact, did you see that Hillary Clinton yesterday said that if you got this deal done and not capitulate to Putin, that she would nominate you for the Nobel Peace Prize.
If President Trump were the architect of that, I'd nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Well, uh, that was very nice. I may have to start liking her again. I, I will say this, this is an important meeting. The second meeting potentially is more important. It could be a more of a more finality. Uh, it's not for me to negotiate for Ukraine, but I think I have a pretty good idea what they'd like to see, and what's good and what's not good.
But more importantly than the deals, and all of the things we've been talking about, are the lives. They've lost, right now 5,000 to 7,000 they're losing a week. Mostly soldiers, Russian and Ukraine soldiers, think of this. You have Russian soldiers. You have Ukrainian soldiers. They're losing on average 5,000. Last week they lost 7,011 soldiers, and some other people where bombs were lobbed into Kiev and other places.
It's something that has to stop. And I'll tell you what, if I didn't win this election, and if I wasn't doing this, you right now could be in a third World War. That was heading to a third World War. You know,
You've said before that we got a lot of BS thrown at us by Putin. Um, what is it about an in-person meeting that makes you think he's not going to, in your words, give you BS? I mean, how, how are you gonna trust him because you can look across the table at him?
Well, look, uh, I've known him very well. I had a very good relationship despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. It was a hoax. And that really made the relationship much harder. But I had a very, a good relationship with him. Uh, we had no problems. We had, you know, country that was, we were getting along, we were doing fine.
Uh, we have tremendous potential. You know, Russia has very valuable land. We have tremendous potential to have a, a great relationship, a great business relationship. But we couldn't do it because of the crooked, demented people that created the phony Russia, Russia, Russia. And I told him, I said, "You know, Vladimir, uh, there's no way we're gonna make a deal.
You know that." He said, "Well, I think it's gonna be tough." I said, "No, not tough, it's impossible." Because I have wise guys that created a phony deal and until that's settled up, that was the, the hoax, the big hoax. The great -- Well, one of the greatest hoax. I think, uh, we have a lot of others that we can talk about, all by the same group of, of very, very bad Americans.
I'm gonna be nice when I say it that way. But we have a potential to do some very good things at this meeting. Uh, one of the things I think we'll discuss, and again, it's about Ukraine, but we have, uh, nuclear treaties to discuss. We have a lot of things to discuss that normally would be something that would come naturally, but it's not so natural now because of Ukraine.
You've had Steve Witkoff go talk to Vladimir Putin, so there has to be some sense that you have going into this that you're gonna have something. Because otherwise, you said you'd go in and look him across the, the table and be able to say in the first two minutes whether it was gonna happen or not.
I'll be able to tell very quickly whether or not this will be a good meeting. Uh, a good meeting really is more, in my opinion, scheduled to be the second meeting, but I won't be happy about that. I'm not looking to waste a lot of time, and a lot of energy, and a lot of money doing this. Uh, I wanna get it done, and I wanna really stop him this week, not next week.
So we're gonna have a second meeting. Now, it could be that if this meeting's bad enough, uh, that I'm gone.
1986, Reagan walks away from Reykjavik with Gorbachev, and it was a strong moment. I mean, you could foresee, if it goes down a bad path, you get up and walk away.
I'm not doing it based on history, based on anything else. I'm doing it based on a deal. If we make a deal, great. If we, if I see that there's no hope of making a deal, I'm outta there. It's over. I'm out of there. This isn't my war. This is Biden's war. This is, Biden screwed this up, just like he did with Afghanistan with that horrible retreat.
And it, uh, the way he did it, I'll never forget it. That was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country. Well, this is Biden's war too. This is a war that should have never happened. I saw it -- For four years, it didn't happen. And I understand Putin. It was the apple of his eye. Ukraine was the apple of his eye.
There was no way he was gonna move on it. I'll tell you, you know, you have a very similar thing with President Xi of China and Taiwan. But I don't believe there's any way it's gonna happen as long as I'm here. We'll see. He told me, "I will never do it as long as you're president." As President Xi told me that.
And I said, "Well, I appreciate that." But he also said, "But I am very patient and China is very patient." I said, "Well, that's up to you, but it better not happen now." [Laughs]
These guys, both Xi and Putin have said things before that they didn't live up to or they did other things.
So have I.
And [Laughs], you know, when you were campaigning, you said, "We can solve this right away, 24 hours." You got into it, you've explained it's much more complex. It's tougher, right?
So I thought this would be -- I settled six wars recently. Like, Congo was going on. This was with Rwanda. It was going on for 31 years and I got it settled. We have a case with -- Take a look at Cambodia, take a look at -- So many. And the most difficult ones turned out to be easy. The easiest one, which should be this one, turned out to be the toughest.
And that's because of Putin?
Well, it's because of a lot of things. It's because of personalities that don't get along very well. I mean, president Zelensky and President Putin did not get along. Again, I inherited this. I came in -- I got very angry at people yesterday. I came in and I said, "What the hell?" I inherited this mess. I inherited a mess from Biden with the economy, with inflation, with high taxes, with so many other things.
You've said that there could be very severe consequences if Putin doesn't do a ceasefire, if this falls apart. But you've also in the past said that sanctions, you don't think, really affect Russia because he's gotten around then before. What, what does severe look like?
Severe -- Let me, let me just tell you one other one, uh, Cambodia, Thailand. It was starting. It wa- and I got it right at the beginning. But many people are dead right along the border. And I happened to be talking to one of the two parties and I said, "Are you guys going to war again?" Because they've been fighting for, they said, as they said, 500 years.
I said, "How long are you fighting?" Said, "500 years." On and off, right? I said, "This is not good." I got that one solved. So we're gonna see what happens. Um, we're gonna have a meeting today. Hopefully it'll be good. If it's bad, if it's something I don't see a future in, I'm a deal guy. If it's something I don't see a future in, I'm gone, I'll leave.
I don't have to do a press. I'll just say, "Not gonna be a deal. I'm outta here." And I go back to the United States and I preside over the economy that -- Wait till you see what's happening with all of this. You know, we have trillions of dollars pouring in. Even people that were against tariffs only because they didn't understand tariffs.
They didn't even know what a tariff was. You had economists that didn't even know what a tariff was. They're all my biggest fans now. They're all say- you see it. We have an economy that's, uh, gonna be the best ever, I think, in the history of our world.
When you land in Air Force One, it's a, it sends a different signal. It's a pretty good way to travel. And we're gonna land in this base in Alaska that's gonna have a lot of military equipment there on the ground. It's pretty impressive.
Well, I think people are going to be impressed, and I hope your cameras can look at it. It's a very big base and it's got a lot of great equipment. We have F-22s, we have the B2 bomber that everyone saw. How about that? 36 hours back and forth. Not a screw was loose, not a plane went down. Even from a mechanical standpoint.
If you take a look at the last raid into Iran, it was the helicopters, Jimmy Carter. What a shame that was, that whole thing. And then they ended up taking our, our great patriots as prisoners. And it was, it just, it was the exact opposite. This was a flawless campaign.
And it sent a message to the world.
It sent a message. And that plane is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. But when you land, you'll see the B2s. You'll see, uh, I think the most beautiful fighter jet in the world is the F-22 you're gonna see F-35s all over the place. It's a big base. You're gonna see lots of equipment and I hope your cameras can cover it because it will be very impressive.
Mr. President, thanks for the time. Thanks for the ride, and we'll talk to you on the way back.
Thank you.