Interview: Usha Vance Interviews Donald Trump on Her Literacy Podcast - July 3, 2026

Hello. I'm Usha Vance, and welcome back to Storytime with the Second Lady. I'm so excited to share another great story today, because when we read, we grow. As you probably noticed, we're not in our normal reading nook today. Instead, we're actually across the street at the White House, where the President of the United States lives.

In fact, we're in his office, the Oval Office, because today's special reader is none other than President Donald Trump. President Trump, thank you so much for inviting us into your office today.

Oh, thank you. Thank you, Usha.

Would you mind telling the kids who are watching a little bit about this office and what makes it so special?

It's the Oval Office. It was built around 1900. It's, uh, a spectacular place. It's the most powerful piece of real estate probably in the world. Everything starts here, ends here, starts again, and, uh, we've used it well. And your husband's been a great vice president. I have to tell you, we've had a lot of fun working --

[Crosstalk]

-- together, even in times of great stress because the world is under stress, but we're solving a lot of the problems. And it's an honor to have you at the Oval Office. The Oval Office basically represents the President, and it's never been used for such a purpose, I don't believe, but that's okay with me.

Well, it's a, a great honor to be here and to get to share it with so many kids. Everything that you just described, all of these incredible accomplishments, they take a lot of reading. Do you have any time to read for fun these days?

So I end up reading mostly newspapers. I usually read, uh, stories about myself.

Well, with so much going on in the world, it's really kind of you to take a moment to read. And I know you have 11 grandkids, so hopefully some of them will tune in and watch you read this --

Well, I'll make sure they watch. I'll make it mandatory.

[Laughs]

That won't mean anything, that means they still won't do it, but I'll make it mandatory.

Well, I'm sure they'll love it. Now, I know you brought a, a special book today.

I did. This was done by the White House Preservation and it's really very cute. Here's your coverage called Presidents Play! We don't play too much, right? And it says, "Let's visit the White House." So exciting. [Laughs] Run, Spot, run! We used to have Run, Spot, run! Remember when I was, maybe you were much younger, but when I was growing up, we had a book, Run, Spot, run! That was the title of the book, and every sentence was of that complexity.

I think this is a little more exciting.

So it wasn't too hard. This is much more exciting.

Yes.

And this is Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan. Two presidents, very different type presidents. And it said, "This is Lyndon Johnson, the Oval Office. All the presidents work hard here." I think the Presidents all work hard, but sometimes they take a break to have fun and exercise like Ronald Reagan. He was in very good shape.

Lyndon Johnson wasn't into shape, but he was a very tough cookie, real great politician. He found himself in a position of power and then Ronald Reagan was a highly quality, high-quality person. He was sort of, it was just, like, your father was president, you know --

Mm-hmm.

-- you looked up to him. He was a good-looking man. He was a man with, I think was very highly respected by a lot of people. Here's a man, President Harry Truman. It says, "Took walks." He'd walk right outside the White House and take a walk down the street. Although Washington DC with the help of your husband and others has become a very safe place.

We do like walking here.

Right. And you like, do you walk with your husband?

We do.

Good.

We try very hard.

With massive security? [Laughs]

Yes, (laughing), there's that.

I guess. And then you have President Bill Clinton ran on a special jogging track. He had a little track built for him at the White House. That's nice. I didn't even know that until recently. But he had a track built at the White House. I don't think I'll ever do that. I don't see myself doing that. I don't know.

But, uh, he's actually was a nice guy. I like Bill Clinton a lot. I still do. And then you have President Abraham Lincoln rode horses. He liked riding horses. And that's great. I'd like to ride horses too. In fact, it gives me an idea. But when you fall off a horse, I've seen too many bad things happen.

That's a fair point.

Falling off horses is not good.

[Laughs] No, it's not.

So, well, we gotta, a ni- -- nice old horse that's extremely slow, lazy --

[Laughs]

-- and maybe ride 'em. Anyway, father and son presidents, and that's George Bush, his father. They would like to pitch horseshoes. The Bushes. And here's, uh, John Quincy Adams. He was one of the very early presidents right at the beginning, and he swam in what was called the Tiber, Tiber, T-I-B-E-R, Creek, which I don't know if it exists anymore.

In fact, I think we're building a beautiful ballroom on top of it based on this picture. The Tiber Creek. Then we have an indoor pool, was built for President Franklin Roosevelt, that's right over here. That's now the press room. And he was a, um, he was our longest-serving president. Had four terms, and he was, uh, respected.

Uh, he was on the liberal side. That's a picture of him right up there, right above your head.

Oh, there he is.

And he was the longest serving. In fact, because of him, they made it two term. Gerald Ford, Gerald Ford was actually a pretty good athlete. He was a football player, maybe Michigan --

Mm-hmm.

-- one of the good teams. And he was, uh, a man, it says an outdoor pool was built for President Gerald Ford, and that's right on the side of the house. I don't get to use it. I don't know if I look good in a bathing suit. I haven't had a bathing suit in a long time. I'm too busy. I never, I mean, it'd be nice.

I'm looking at these pictures of people swimming --

[Laughs]

-- and I'm saying, I don't know. You know, my attitude is you're at the White House for a short period of time, and it's an honor to be here, and you should work for the people, right?

It's very important.

And here's another John Kennedy. He was a great guy and handsome. He was the second most good-looking president, they say. President John F. Kennedy enjoyed sailing on the water while President Grover Cleveland relaxed by fishing. So Grover Cleveland was, uh, a two-term president, but he also had an in-betweener.

Mm-hmm.

He was the only one other than me. And I think he gave us much greater strength actually doing it that way. I think he found that too, but that's John F. Kennedy sailing, good-looking guy and Grover Cleveland, was a good president. That's why they brought him back for a second term. Being a two term president is sort of important, I think.

There's so much to do.

Well, there's so much to do and I think it validates us a little bit. But back at the White House, President Richard Nixon enjoyed bowling. He spent a lot of time fighting to stay in office because he had a lot of, a lot of people got him into trouble, and he got himself into trouble, I guess. And then yet President Theodore Roosevelt practiced jujitsu.

He was a sort of a tough guy physically, loved the outdoors. He --

He was a real athlete.

He was a, sort of an athlete, but he loved the outdoors. And then the most sports played outside were done by Jimmy Carter. He liked playing tennis. He had a hard time as president. And then you had Barack Barack Hussein Obama. He used the same court for basketball so he, they used the tennis court for tennis.

Jimmy would play there with his daughter, his wife. He was a nice man, a very nice man. There's a picture of each. Jimmy as a tennis player, Barack Hussein Obama as a basketball player. I don't know if he's a good basketball player. I tend to doubt it. Actually, his favorite sport is golf.

Oh, is that right?

Yeah, but he won't be in the masters anytime soon. And then you have Dwight Eisenhower. He was a much better president than he was given credit for. He did the interstate system. He was a very good, maybe great General.

Mm-hmm.

So he won the war and he came back and run for pres- -- ran for president and he won. That was good credentials, you know? "I just won the Second World War. Let me run for president." And he won. And he was a nice man. He loved golf. He would play golf every day if he could. And there's a putting green for golf, a favorite of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, right?

That's this picture right here. And the putting green's right outside. I, I've never used it because I don't want to be seen putting at the White House. I want to be seen working at the White House. And then you have President Herbert Hoover, made up a game called Hoover ball and it, that worked out better for him than the economy because he was the president under which we had the Great Depression.

And here's a great picture. Many presidents, it says, like, "Donald Trump invite winning teams to the White House." We've had them all, which is right here. And it's true, winning teams. We have all the Super Bowl teams. In fact, we have the team coming very soon. We have, um, all the baseball. The Dodgers were here twice in a row.

They won two World Series. Uh, we have the basketball. We have everybody come. And then others like President William Taft throw out the first pitch of baseball. He was a large man, very large, and he loved baseball. He'd go to baseball games. Loved the hotdogs at the baseball games. He was our heaviest president, and I have to be careful because I don't want to supersede his record.

And a thing like that would be possible if I allowed it to happen. For all of you out there watching, keep yourself in good shape, right? Like you, you're in such good shape. And then in closing, when they aren't playing sports, presidents have fun watching them too, just like you did, see? This is the Super Bowl and it's president's watching football together.

Now, maybe I should invite Barack Hussein Obama, Joe Biden with the Bushes or Bush. Maybe I should invite some of those people to watch a football game together. Wouldn't that be a nice story? The press would go wild.

President reunion? That would be fun.

So here's the book, and they've really done a great job. Publication, White House Historical Association.

Mm-hmm. They do a lovely job.

What a job they di- -- here's another picture. That's, that's the presidents and some children watching a football game. And I'm doing this for a great Second Lady and, uh, she's been so popular around the White House. Everybody loves you. It's a great honor.

Well, it's a great honor for us. Thank you so much for inviting all the children watching into the Oval Office today. So do you have any advice for kids on why they should get out there and celebrate our country on the 4th of July?

So we have a great country. We have a country that is under a little bit of a ledge right now. It can go one way or another. You understand that. But we're gonna make it go the other and we're gonna make America greater than ever before. But the 4th of July is a, a fantastic day. It's a day of celebration.

It's a very important day for this country and the life of the country.

And it's a 250th year anniversary on top of everything, which is just wonderful, isn't it?

That's right. Yeah. We're gonna have a good time, and what we really are doing is celebrating America. We love our children. They are our most important people when you think about it, right? Our great children. And, uh, that goes along with teachers and all of the people that make them, that help to form a perfect person.

And that's what we want in this country. So we have great respect for teachers and for everybody and I guess most importantly, the parents of children. So many people go into that job of making somebody really good and sound, is so important. So thank you very much.

Well, thank you for everything that you're doing for children.

Thank you.

I hope all of you out there celebrate the 4th of July with some fun in the sun and with a good book or two about our beautiful country. We'll see you soon for another story right here on Story Time with the Second Lady.