Welcoming to The Dan Bongino Show and this special Election Day episode, President Donald J. Trump. President Trump, thanks for joining us today, we appreciate it.
Well, thank you, Dan.
Hey, listen, I know you're busy, I know you're losing your voice. I haven't seen a man at 80 years old rush around the country like this to save the country ever. I'm 51. I'm tired; I'm tired just watching you. So, uh --
You've got a lot of energy. I've known you for a long time.
Yes, sir, thank you so much. So, it was an amazing two years, Mr. President. We want to keep America going. We've got the ball rolling downhill now; we have all the momentum, the most secure border in United States history, things Republicans and Democrats have promised for a long time before Democrats went crazy.
The crime rate, the lowest in modern history, the murder rate, the reindustrialization of America. We've got manufacturing here again, which is critical for national security and otherwise, trade deals that are in the works now. You know, what can we expect in the final two years if we were to retain control of both the House and Senate on tax cuts, maybe some capital gains indexing, you know, maybe some more trade deals coming up for the future to help the reindustrialization of America.
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, we have many, many things in the hopper. We're doing so unbelievable, nobody's really ever seen it. You know, right now we have more factories and plants being built in the United States than at any time ever before, and that means the Roaring '20s, that means every -- there's never been anything like it. We have auto plants coming in from Canada, Mexico, Germany, Japan, South Korea.
They're building the biggest auto plants in the world. We went 49 years without having an auto plant built in our country; they were all being taken from our country. And the tariffs are bringing them back because they don't want to pay tariffs. If they build here, they don't have to pay tariffs. But, you know, we have something more important -- we're respected again, Dan. You know that better than anybody here, respected guy and you did a good job.
I can tell you he was -- for those listeners, he worked at the FBI, and everybody loved him and he was really good. But he was itching to get back to what he's doing right now. But Dan was fantastic. So, we're respected again, Dan. We're respected by the world again. We were a laughingstock. Two years ago, we were a laughingstock and now we're respected again like I would say never before.
But we're doing -- we're doing amazing things. The border is closed; you know, other countries, you see what's going on in France and other places. The border is closed and we have a great country again, Dan.
Yeah. Mr. President, you know, listen, I think one of the components of rebuilding our manufacturing base in America, which you focused on heavily, that's been downplayed by a number of folks, some on both sides of the aisle. Is the national security implications in this new SI era of not being able to build your own infrastructure, steal, antibiotics, advanced medicines, quantum computing, we have to be able to build this stuff here.
Listen, I love international trade like anyone else. But I think you recognized early on that, in this era of international supply chains, the United States has to be able, for national security reasons, too, to manufacture critical components to keep us safe and to be able, if, God forbid, there was an incident, to build critical components of our economy here.
Well, as you know, we're building steel like almost never before, soon we're going to be topping it. So, the steel industry is back. All of those industries are coming back. And you mentioned the drugs or the pharmaceutical industry, Eli Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, they're all building massive -- billions -- hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of plants.
It's all coming back, the drug manufacturing business is coming back and coming back quickly. They're all under construction right now, and you're going to see in the next year and a half, plants open at a level that has never happened in our country before. Dan, we had $22 trillion worth of investment, and that's only for 15 months, we're here longer than that so that number is going to go up. But we're $22 trillion of investment and, think of it, 25 -- $25 trillion in an increase of the net worth of our country.
Nobody's ever heard of a number like that; no other country has ever done that in such a fast time.
Mr. President, one of the things, you know, that that I think changed the electoral dynamic with your presidency, both 45 and 47, is the union American workforce. For some bizarre reason democrats pretend to be their friend, they are not. The union workforce in the United States in manufacturing's been hollowed out by a lot of anti-labor Democrats who pretend to be their friend.
You know, with your re-industrialization program and your fight for a more solid sound, you know, free market-based health care system, these union workers, if they vote Democrat in this election, they're going to get the Bernie Sanders bill, which is going to steal away their health care plans their unions bargained for.
You are adamantly against that. I've been warning people about the dangers of pulling the lever for the blue candidate.
Well, you're right, and it's amazing because I won with the autoworkers, I won with the Teamsters, I won with the unions and with the right to workers. But a lot of these people have the best health care plan there is in the world, and they don't want to see it. You know, if you go to the other, their health, the other health care, which would be like, let's say a Canada has or like Europe has in many cases, look what's happening to Europe.
You have to wait -- if you have cancer, sometimes you have to wait for two years, they send people notice, we're ready for you now, and the people die. It takes them years. Many people come to the United States to have the operations because it takes so long. It doesn't work but the interesting thing is, a lot of the unions, through years of negotiation have -- they call it Cadillac plans, have negotiated the best health care plans in the world.
They don't want to lose them. And, you know, under the Bernie Sanders type plan or the Abdul, good old Abdul, under a plan like that, all of that stuff would be by the wayside and you'd get socialized. Basically, it's socialized medicine and socialized medicine has never worked. Dan, people that want an operation in their country, they have to wait nine months, 10 months, a year.
By that time, they have -- half of them are dead. It's not a good idea.
Yeah. Mr. President, one last question here and I'll let you go. I really appreciate your time on this Election Day. You know, I've been warning folks out there that this new DSA socialist movement in the Democrat Party, we've never seen anything at this scale. We've seen Democrats run on crazy ideas before, you and I both know that, but not at this scale or scope, we haven't seen that.
They're talking about defunding the police, defunding ICE -- there is zero question, if you analyze your presidency based on data and pull the emotions out of it, that you have been the most effective public safety president in American history, just based on the murder rate numbers, the crime rate numbers.
You told us early on go and bring us bad guys, get these bad guys, follow the Constitution, follow the law, but do whatever you can to make the streets safer. If we elect these socialist Democrats and this defund the police regime again, we could be looking back to a blue city bloodbath again. And I just want -- one more thing, Mr. President.
The last crackdown you gave us instructions early on -- go into these liberal cities, even if the mayors don't want to work with you, you go in there and do it yourself and get these cities cleaned up.
Well, there'll be a point where I'll do that if I have to. You know, you're supposed to be asked by the governor, by the mayors, and I did that in Memphis and New Orleans, Louisiana. You know, the governor called and we straightened it out. We got, as you know, and you were so effective and it's such -- it's so good that you got to see it for a long period of time from the inside.
But we did a great job with Memphis, we did a great job with New Orleans, and we did the best job of all with Washington DC. You know, we virtually don't have crime in Washington. Washington, DC is a safe place. Two years ago, when I came in Washington, DC was a bloodbath. They were losing three -- you know it better than anybody.
We were losing three people a week to murder. They'd call up, where's my son from Iowa? Where is my son? Your son is being sent back to you in a casket. I mean, it was terrible. They call up from different places, they come to see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, they come in to see the different things, and you call the parents to explain that their son was just killed.
That's gone; we moved out 5,000 hardcore criminals, most of whom who came in during the Biden -- you know, through that stupid open border. We moved them out, Dan, and I'll tell you what, and much more than that. But we have virtually no crime in Washington, DC right now, it's safe. Restaurants are booming, the parks are booming.
We got the homeless encampments out, they were all over the place and, you know, were very unsafe and terrible. It's a terrible situation, actually. But Washington has never looked as good. We fixed 83 -- we had a news conference on it yesterday. The reflecting pool is gorgeous. We opened up 83 statues, monuments, things that were abandoned for 50 years, they were loaded up with red graffiti.
They look beautiful, better than when they were built, and it's a beautiful place. So, we're very honored. But the biggest thing is there's no crime. There's no crime. I mean, there's it's down like 84 percent. And it's a great -- it's a great honor, I'll tell you. Our nation's capital should be run that way and now it is.
I just want, on the record, too, for the media people listening that, you know, the president made a decision early on to use Title 8 at our border, get these people out of there. And you allowed us to expand these federal authorities, expand our purview to go and assist locals in cracking down on crime.
And that decisions, those -- I believe those two decisions that you had made early on in conjunction with the leadership team at DOJ, are what led to the safest streets in American history, and we want to keep that record going. We don't want to stop it with a bunch of defund the police, defund --
We're doing a great job. We are delayed on occasion by a radical left judge, you know, here and there. But we keep pushing and we end up winning. And it's -- you know, they make it a little bit difficult, you know that better than I do. But you're right, that was a big moment and we're doing well. I mean we're just -- we're doing well.
Look, you can be proud of your country again. Our country was a laughed-at joke, and you can be proud of your country again, Dan.
Mr. President, thank you so much for your time on Election Day. And on behalf of the audience that I know loves you, they really appreciate the fact that, you know, you put it all on the line and left it on the field. We really appreciate it. Thanks for your time, sir.
You've been my friend from day one, and you're a fantastic guy with a fantastic wife. I have to give her a plug; you've got a great wife who's always nice. But thank you very much and keep up the good work. Your voice is so important and just keep up the great work, Dan.
Thank you, Mr. President. We appreciate it.
Thank you. Take care of yourself. Bye.
All right, folks, that was the president of United States on our surprise interview for you on Election Day.