Interview: Greg Kelly Interviews Donald Trump Live on the Telephone on Newsmax - July 13, 2026

And we are proud to welcome the president of the United States, 45th and 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump. Welcome, sir. How are you?

I'm fine. I feel good. The country is doing really well. We're attacking Iran right now, as we speak, and they deserve it because we're not going to have it -- they're not going to have a nuclear weapon, that we can tell you with great certainty. But we're doing very well. The country is doing phenomenally well, actually.

You know, I would like to talk to you a little bit about Lindsey Graham. We've heard a lot of your comments. You lost a big friend. I saw him in Ukraine on his way back and we all saw the video. He didn't look so hot. Um, I'm told by those who know him. Maybe he looked a little off; he was tired. Look, the Russians have -- They have a habit of poisoning people they don't like and Lindsey Graham once -- once called for Putin to be taken out.

Do you have any suspicions or worries? Do you think we know the whole story about his death?

Well, I think we do. We've had great doctors and they talked about, you know, a certain part of his body literally blew up and that's a condition I believe his father had also. His father died very, very young from heart complications and that's what Lindsey had. And it's something that's, number one, it's very tough to see.

And even if you see it, it's hard to fix, very hard to fix. And, you know, he had a problem with arteries and I thought he was like a 70 percent blockage. I said, Lindsey, you're going to have to go and take care of that. But this was not that problem. This was a different problem that wasn't really related.

So he called me and I said, how are you doing? He just got back from Ukraine. He said -- he was a worker, I tell you. He was always someplace and he loved it, though. He really loved it. He was good. He was a good -- he was really a great politician, actually. But he just got back and I said, how are you doing?

And he said, well, I'm doing good, but I'm tired. And within, you know, a short period of time after that call, uh, he, he was gone. Amazing, actually. But he was -- I don't think -- you know, just to answer the conspiracy theory, I don't know. I -- I'd love to say yes, but I think he -- he had some problems and, uh, very, very difficult.

And his father died just about at the same age from -- you know, I'm a believer in the racehorse theory. You know, if you have problems, you have problems, and he had some -- some problems that were a little bit deep-seated and not easy to find.

Well, you made friends. You know, you were once enemies; you made friends. It's kind of inspiring, actually. I like how you do that. Let me ask you about the successor. His sister, looks like she's interim. Would you see yourself endorsing for the next round? I know you liked Pamela Evette, the lieutenant governor, when she was running for governor.

It doesn't -- I don't think she's running for the -- for the seat herself, uh, Ms. Nardone. Do you have any thoughts about what happens after this?

Well, yeah, the sister is going to be interim, and she's a terrific person. Lindsay loved her. They had a great relationship. They got along really well and, you know, I noticed he was always -- she was with him a lot and she's a very, very -- she's a terrific person, and I thought it was a great idea. The governor called me and told me about it. I thought it was a great idea.

And that's only interim, though. That's for a short period of time. That's during, you know, prior to the election. Uh, but you have some people there, I think Russell Fry, a young Congressman, is outstanding and that could happen. I could see that happening. I think he's a very -- very talented person. He took the place of somebody that was -- I mean, he's doing much better than the person that preceded him.

He's been very popular in the state. So I think a name like Russell Fry is somebody you can watch out for, and there are probably some others. I believe the sister is there only on an interim basis, however.

You mentioned we're pounding Iran hard right now. You also talked about Guardian of the Gulf or Guardian of the Middle East, a new role for the United States. Two things, who controls the strait right now? Is it ours? Is it theirs? Is it neutral?

We do. We do.

And how would this guard -- yeah.

We control it. They're -- they can make trouble, they can do things that are not nice, but we control it. We've knocked out most of their radar, most of their -- a lot of their ammunition, a lot of their weapon launchers. You know, they have the -- the missile launchers and we've knocked out drones. We've knocked out missiles and we control it and we're going to keep doing it and we're putting our blockade -- You know, the blockade was a tremendous success.

It was there for two months and nobody got through. We're putting that there. We're going to let everyone get through except if you're doing business with Iran.

The Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu, I know you guys go way back, it's been rocky at times. Is he still supporting the approach? I imagine he's kind of happy about this. Israel has called for elections in October this year. Do you support Prime Minister Netanyahu for reelection? Is that something you would do?

Well, we've actually had a good relationship. Look, if it wasn't for, let's say, the B-2 bombers hitting, our B-2 bombers, if we didn't blow up their nuclear site where they were making, essentially, nuclear weapons. They were very far along. Within two weeks to four weeks, they would have had a nuclear weapon and there would have been no -- there would have been no Israel, and there probably wouldn't have been any of the other countries also.

You know, they were all, uh, they were all under siege. And you saw that because when the war started, and you could call it what you want, you can call it a military operation or anything else, but when it's -- I call it a denuclearization of Iran, because that's what it is. They can't have a nuclear weapon.

But when the war started, they went after these five countries. I think it was a very big tactical mistake but they went after the five countries and, you know, people were shocked. So I think if they had a nuclear weapon, they would have tried wiping them out and wiping out -- definitely wiping out Israel.

Senator Graham, it's reported that a big priority for him was getting Saudi Arabia in on the Abraham Accords.

Yeah.

Is that doable right now?

Oh, I think so because they were -- they were all afraid of Iran and they're much less afraid, because they've been really, uh, neutered. They really have been. They've been -- it's been -- their power has been largely taken away. Now, they have some left, but it's been largely -- as an example, their military, they had 159 ships.

159 ships are under the sea. They had, uh, 200 airplanes. Their airplanes are all gone. Their radar is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Their weapon-making capability is largely gone. It's about 84 percent. And, you know, it's largely gone. So they're a much different country than they were four months ago.

In four months, we've, uh, we brought them back to the stone ages, to a large extent. Now, with that being said, they've got some missiles and they've got a little capability, but they've been largely brought back into a different period of time. And yeah, I think that the other ones would be able -- probably would be able to handle Iran right now, but Iran was the bully of the Middle East, Greg.

It was the bully of the Middle East, and they weren't going to be bullying me. The other presidents, this has been going on for -- even the SS Cole, this has been going on for 47 years. If you remember the SS Cole, they were responsible for that. They're responsible for the killing of many of our soldiers with -- you know, they had the roadside bomb.

That was their choice. That was their weapon of choice. They had Soleimani. And Soleimani, who I killed in the first term, Soleimani was a brilliant, uh, you know, he's a sort of a mad genius. He was a very, very smart general, but violent and terrible. An what happened is we took him out and we also took the head of the Iraq ISIS contingent out simultaneously.

But we took them out and it made a tremendous difference. I think Iran would have been a lot -- maybe a lot stronger today, had he lived, but he didn't live.

Well, they want to take you out, as you know.

Yeah.

And some of us suspect that they had a role in Butler, a suspect. Somebody was arrested, I believe, convicted right around there, an Iranian who was out to get you. Have you learned anything significant about the shooter, Crooks, say -- it's two years ago today, Butler. But in the last couple of months, about Crooks and the phone and everything -- and anything about that guy?

It's just so bizarre.

Well, we watch it and I watch it all the time and he shouldn't have been where he was. He should have been in no -- no location, frankly, but that was the mistake they made. The Secret Service made that mistake and they've done a lot of things right. They've done almost everything right but that was a bad -- that was bad, leaving him up there in that area.

That was an open area, which should have been covered. The, uh, the fact is that Crooks was a very disturbed young man, a very nutty man, smart academically, by the way, but very, very disturbed. And he paid the price. I will say, Secret Service, we had a an anti -- you call it an anti-sniper, basically someone who shoots the snipers, and -- nice world we're living in, right?

But he had a -- he was -- he was given 4.6 seconds. Within 4.6 seconds, he hit the sniper right between the eyes. I mean, it was amazing, actually, and he was close to 400 yards away. And given no chance because, you know, I mean, frankly, we didn't know he was up there. And that was the other thing, they should have had better communication with the local police.

So there were a lot of things but in the end, uh, I had -- I was -- I was really blessed by God, because I had made that little turn, that little turn, which was, you know, really not so little. It was a 90 -- it was exactly a 90 degree. If it wasn't exact -- the whole thing is a miracle. It's really a miracle; it's amazing.

But, uh, Secret Service did a very good job other than, and it's hard to say other than, but other than nobody should have been on that roof.

Uh, and a blessing to talk to you two years later. You know, thank God for -- for it all. A couple more quick things. We got to respect your time. Did you see the video or the picture, I should say, of Mitch McConnell this weekend? And what do you think of his outlook? What are you hearing?

Well, I don't hear much. Uh, I was, uh, you know, never a huge fan, but I -- you know, he's one of the people he should be voting for John Thune because, you know, John Thune was loyal to him, whether he liked John Thune or not, John Thune was very loyal to Mitch McConnell and Mitch McConnell is like a no vote on SAVE America Act, which is, you know, basically, you think about it, it's voter ID, it's proof of citizenship, and it's no mail-in ballots except for the military, disabled, sick, or if you're sick or traveling.

Which is pretty generous right there. But the mail-in ballots might be the most important of those three items, but he's against that. Now, how can anybody be against that? And against some other things, so it's too bad. But, uh, you know, I hope he's going to be fine. I don't know if he's fine, but, you know, I certainly hope he's going to be fine.

Uh, so do we. Uh, two years ago right now, you know, it was the midterms for the Democrats. Joe Biden was in. You know what was dominating TV, January 6th coverage. January 6th, they made it a year and a half after January 6th.

Yeah.

You have a prime time address scheduled for Thursday. Uh, some competing ideas, what it's about. Can you give us a preview at all, what will happen Thursday night?

Well, I'm going to talk about various things, but I'd rather not say because if I say, uh, maybe it's going to take some of the gilt off. I think what's going to -- when I -- this is G-I-L-T. When I -- when I look at this, when I look at what's happened in this country, so much with the elections, when I look at how rigged our elections are -- look at Spencer Pratt.

Spencer Pratt was an easy number two and maybe number one, but certainly number two and all of a sudden, they had the mail-in ballots pour in and Spencer Pratt was gone. That was in Los Angeles. Spencer Pratt was gone. And that was easy. And who beat him, a no name who was all of a sudden, you know, so great that she got practically 100 percent of the votes from the mail-in ballots.

The whole thing -- Our elections are crooked, and we've got to straighten them out. We got to have voter ID, we got to have proof of citizenship, and we have to do something about the mail-in ballots, which are corrupt -- just corrupt, crooked and should not be allowed.

And before we say good night, we want to take a look at the new $100 bill being printed with your signature on it. You know, some of us, we don't carry cash like we used to. We -- we have plastic. Cash is not as -- but your signature is on it. What does that mean to you? Your name is on a legal piece of currency.

It's never -- I guess it was done before, but from a personal standpoint and a professional standpoint, what does this mean?

Well, it's always an honor to have your name on something like that and it's on all the currency. And it was -- it's an honor. You know, it's great. They also just came out with a silver dollar, which is very nice. So I don't know, all of these tributes are nice. I don't fight for them, believe it or -- most people think I fight for them; I don't. Other people fight for them.

Because we have a base like there has never been in this country, whether you call it MAGA, whatever you want to call it. We have a base the likes of which nobody's ever seen, the spirit. And our country is doing so well. You know, we have a country that's respected again. We had a man as president who should have never been there.

It was a rigged election, should have never been -- and you see what a rigged election can do, where 25 million people are allowed into our country and, Greg, these people shouldn't have been here. And many of these people came from prisons, they came from mental institutions, they were drug dealers, they were drug addicts, they were just -- this is -- what they did to this country, what the Democrats or the Dumocrats, as I call them, what they did to this country, it's not even thinkable.

And we can never forget that that happened.

And Joe Biden somehow became rich as a public official. You know, we saw the front stoop, if you will, the outside of Lindsey Graham's house and it was rather modest, totally decent, but rather modest. You know, a man who lived his entire life in public service, that's kind of how it's supposed to look, and Joe Biden became a very rich man while working for the government.

It's very strange, isn't it? President Trump, we thank you very, very much for joining us.

Well, Greg, thank you very much. You're doing a great job. Everybody loves your show, and I appreciate it. Great to be on with you.

Thank you. All the best, sir, and, uh, talk to you again soon. And folks, we'll be right back.