[Terry Moran of ABC News interviewed Donald Trump at the White House on April 29, 2025. The transcript below includes some minor corrections and a three-minute discussion that aired on ABC News that was played prior to the full interview. You can find the original video and transcript here: https://cqrc.al/abc-20250429. Video courtesy and copyright ABC News. ]
Hello everybody. How are you? This is the Oval Office. This is the Resolute Desk, which is really something very spectacular. There's nothing quite like it, and it, uh, they give you a choice of about seven different desks, but this is the one I chose. Ronald Reagan had it. FDR had it. A few people had it, but I found it to be the most beautiful.
It is amazing.
This is an amazing space and amazing, maybe architecturally wonderful, but, uh, amazing for what it represents. It represents the US, and if properly used, a lot of good things can happen.
I see Ronald Reagan over there.
Yeah. Ronald Reagan.
Right to your left.
Being in the Oval Office is very important. See Ronald Reagan here and, uh, put him a little bit larger, sort of seemed to fit very nicely. Uh, you have, uh, Democrats a little bit. You have --
Franklin Roosevelt.
Franklin Roosevelt. So you look at that picture and people say, "Well, what's he doing up there?" But look, he was a serious president, whether we like it or not, he was a four-termer and, uh, you know, went through a war. You have Lincoln, you have Washington, but you look over here, that's Monroe, the Monroe Doctrine.
Why is he up there?
I think the Monroe Doctrine was pretty important, you know, that was his claim to fame. Over here you have the original of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and of course you have the Declaration of Independence.
What does it mean to you?
Well, it means, uh, exactly what it says. It's a declaration. It's a declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it's, uh, something very special to, to our country.
Lincoln's portrait up there, I'm not familiar with that one, but I think when I, when I'm looking at that, that famous line in the second inaugural, "With malice toward none, with -- "
Right, right.
-- charity toward all, is that --
Well, he was, uh, a great president. He went through a lot.
And the Oval Office is always changing between presidents.
It changes you.
It says something.
It does.
Wh- wh- what does this say about how you feel about the country and the office?
Well, I think it says, I love the country. I mean, I'm putting pictures of presidents up that have never been up. Uh, pictures that weren't largely used and in many cases, you know, great men in this case men, but, uh, great men of great achievement.
And your every detail of it seems.
Yeah.
This is your office.
I'm a, uh, very detailed person. I'm a very clean person. I like cleanliness. I like to see, uh, this space be treated properly. I've added a lot to the space in terms of, uh, beautification, uh, in terms of modernization.
That's a -- a gallery of presidents.
It really is. It really is. So, and it's an honor to have you people with us.
[The video cuts to the official sit-down interview.]
Okay. Mr. President, thank you for doing this.
Thank you very much.
Here in the Oval Office, it's -- it's special. A hundred days into your second term. So what's the one thing, just one thing, that you think is the most significant thing you've done so far in these 100 days?
Well, I think maybe the border is the most significant because our country was really going bad. They were allowing people to come in from prisons, as you know. And you've heard me say it, but you've heard a lot of people say it. Prisons, mental institutions, gang members -- murderers. We had many murderers, 11,888, they think.
Some murdered more than one person. So you had murderers coming in. You had everybody coming in. And not just South America. From all over the world, they were emptying their prisons into our country. And now it's totally closed down. And you've seen just yesterday, they announced 99.9%. Nobody thought that could happen, and it happened quickly, very quickly.
And I think that's very significant. But we're doing other things that are very significant. Results will take a little bit longer because it's one of those -- you know, it's complicated. It's -- many years of trading abuse. We've been abused by other countries for years and years. They laughed at us. They thought we were stupid people, and we're fixing it. And -- I think that's gonna be very, very important.
But I -- I would --
We have a lot of ground to cover.
Yeah. I would really say that -- that -- that the border is so important, you know? You just can't --
And we'll get there. Immigration is huge --
-- let that happen. Yeah.
And we're gonna get there. But I wanna start --
Sure.
-- with the economy, the number one issue for so many people, for just about everybody. It -- it's one of the main reasons that you're back in this office. And now we have this trade war with China that -- that Moody's and other analysts say is gonna cost American families thousands of more dollars per year.
And there is a lot of concern out there. People are worried, even some people who voted for you, sayin', "I didn't sign up for this." So how do you answer those concerns?
Well, they did sign up for it, actually. And this is what I campaigned on. I said that-- we've been abused by other countries at levels that nobody's ever seen before. We were losing $3 to 5 billion a day on trade. We were losing-- a trillion and a half to $2 trillion a year. Not sustainable. They were takin' advantage of us like they've never -- I could've left it that way, and at some point there would've been an implosion like nobody's ever seen.
But I said, "No, we have to fix it." I've -- I've wanted to do this for many years. You know, I had the best economy during my first term. We had a tremendous economy, tremendous success. And we -- we did tremendous numbers of tariffs on -- we took in a lot of money from tariffs -- China in particular, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs.
We had no inflation, as you know. We had an incredible economy. We were given credit for a great economy. But I said, "We have to fix this, otherwise it's just not self-sustaining."
Well, one of the things you ran on was you'd said you'd bring prices down on day one. And that --
And I have --
-- it would happen fast. And that it would happen fast and --
I have.
Many -- most economists will tell you that tariffs will raise prices. So don't your tariffs cut against that promise you made to bring prices down?
No, because I had massive tariffs on China, if you remember in my first term, and we had essentially no inflation. Like, around 1% inflation, which is, like, a perfect number. The -- and then when Biden took over it went through the roof. It went to the -- probably the worst inflation we've ever had. I mean, we had an inflation nightmare.
Now, if you look at what's happening now, we're only there for 100 days, as you say, and in 100 days we took over the -- we had bad inflation for four years, for two years of -- especially two years of his -- his administration. I would say record-setting like we've never seen. They say 48 years, the worst in 48 years.
I'd say it was much worse than that --
You lived through that, I lived through that, yeah.
Right. So -- so now if you look at what's happened -- energy is down. Gasoline hit $1.98 in a few states -- during the last couple of days. It was $3.50 and $4.00 and $4.50. But gasoline is way down. And when I took over, you remember the big thing with eggs? They hit me the first week, "Eggs, eggs, eggs," like it was my fault.
I said, "I didn't cause this problem. This problem was caused by Biden. What's the problem with eggs?" And they said, "They've doubled it." Well, eggs are down 87% since I got involved.
A lotta that is bird flu, right --
And by the way -- and there were plenty of eggs for Easter, which we just went through. There were plenty of eggs for Easter. They were saying, "You won't have enough eggs for Easter." We ended -- our sec -- my secretary did a fantastic job on eggs. Groceries are down. Everything's down --
Okay.
Interest rates are the same. Interest rates should be down, but we have a Federal Reserve that wants to be stubborn. They wanna be cute --
Alright, we'll get to that. A couple -- you said something a couple weeks ago that -- that struck me. You said, concerning the tariffs, which economists say are gonna raise prices, you said, quote, "Hang tough. It won't be easy." You said that to the American people. Is that what Americans should expect --
Well, I've said that --
-- some hard times?
I've said that during --
Because of these tariffs--
-- my campaign. Look, we won a campaign by a lot. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by a lot. You know, we had a tremendous campaign. I said all of these things during my campaign. I said, "You're gonna have a transition period." We've been ripped off by every country all over the world.
They're laughing at us. They thought we were stupid people, and we were. And I said, "That's not gonna happen. We're not gonna let that happen" --
Hard times -- hard times are ahead?
I don't think so. I think great --
Hang tough --
-- times are ahead. Look, since I came in gasoline is down, groceries are down, egg prices are down -- many things are down, just about everything. You know, you don't have the drop in -- in fuel and energy and oil like we did. I took it from maybe $3.20, maybe more than that, down into a low -- a much lower number.
When you have that kind of a drop you're not gonna have inflation.
Not now. But it's the tariffs, right? We still have 145% tariffs --
Well --
-- on China
Why is it --
Your Treasury secretary said we basically have an embargo on China.
Look, you're trying to --
And that --
-- say something's gonna happen, Terry --
No, no, no, no. Okay, well, do you --
Nothing's gonna happen
You know business. I wanna ask you --
Terry -- Terry --
I wanna ask you.
I do know business. And --
Yeah, so 145% tariffs on China. And -- and that is --
That's good.
-- basically --
That's good.
-- an embargo
They deserve it.
It'll raise prices on everything from--
They deserve it.
-- electronics to clothing to building houses.
You don't know that. You don't know whether or not China's gonna eat it --
That's mathematics.
China probably will eat those tariffs. But at 145, they basically can't do much business with the United States. And they were making from us a trillion dollars a year. They were ripping us off like nobody's ever ripped us off. And by the way, we have other countries that were just as bad. If you look at the European Union, it was terrible what they've done to us. Every country, almost every country in the world was ripping us off.
But I --
They're not doing that anymore.
I want you to think about the boom that this country has had in small businesses, mom-and-pops -- Etsy stores, small businesses that became --
Really? They haven't had a boom --
-- big businesses
-- because of inflation.
Well, your boom, what they've done --
The boom was inflationary boom. The people were wiped out with inflation. I mean, you read the news. You do the business stuff, I assume --
Now they face -- now they -- they -- a lot of 'em built those businesses on the trading model before you --
Yeah, and they're gonna make more money now
They source their products overseas. And now they're looking at an extinction event --
I've been here.
They're -- they're -- it's disaster for them.
I've been here for three months. I've taken a trade deficit down to a number that's very, very -- starting to get really good. I only -- I just got here. We had a country that -- it was not sustainable. What Biden did to this country, between -- the open borders where criminals poured into our country, between every country in the world ripping us off on trade, it was not sustainable.
So your message to those small businesses who are saying, "We can't live a month, two months with these tariffs," Apple got a big deal. Is there something for them?
No, no. Not only Apple. We've got $7-8 trillion being invested in our country in two months. Biden didn't have that over a year. I mean, if you look at Biden, nobody was really investing in this country. Everybody was ripping off our country. Apple's putting up $500 billion, but that's only one of many companies.
Companies are flooding into our country right now.
So your answer to the concern about the tariffs is, "Everything's gonna be hunky-dory?"
Everybody's gonna be just fine. It wouldn't have been if I didn't do this. I had a choice. I could leave it, have a nice, easy time. But I think ultimately you would've had an implosion. Our country had inflation that was worse than they've ever had it before. You don't mention that. Why don't you mention that?
We had the worst inflation probably in the history of our country. People say 48 years, probably in the history of our country we had the worst inflation. And people were dying over the inflation. You know that. Now the grocery prices are coming down. The energy prices are coming down. Gasoline's coming down.
It's all heading in the right direction.
Okay. Let's move on to immigration. And as you said, it is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted, a staggering decline. But there are questions about your methods, and so I want to ask you --
About my message?
Methods. About your methods, how you're accomplishing this --
Well, they seem to work.
Do you acknowledge that under our law every single person who gets deported gets a hearing first to make their case?
Well, are we talking about people that are citizens of our country or not?
No, you're not deporting citizens, at this point.
Well, lemme ask you. Do they get hearings when -- when Biden allowed 21 million -- 'cause I think the number's 21, 20 million -- people to flow into our country? He had 21 million people that came into our country through a stupid open border. And they were prisoners and they were -- people that you don't want, in many cases, in our country, right?
They came from all over the world. They came from the Congo. They came from south -- they came from all over the world. We're talkin' about some of the roughest countries in the world -- they had -- they had here, including terrorists, by the way. Now --
But the law --
Did we give them a hearing when they came in?
Well, the law requires that every single person who is going to be deported gets a hearing first.
Well --
Do you acknowledge that?
I'll -- I'll have to ask the lawyers about that. All I can say is this: If you're gonna have 21 million people, and if we have to get a lot of 'em out because they're criminals, we're gonna have to act fast. We can't -- do you think we can give 21 million trials? Let's say each trial takes two weeks. Is that what you want us to do --
The law is the law, sir --
-- give 21 million?
The law is the law and you're sworn --
No, no. The law doesn't say anything --
-- to uphold it --
-- about trials
No, not trials. Hearings. I said hearings --
If these people came in, they're not citizens, they came in illegally, they came into our country illegally, we have to --
And they --
-- get them out.
There's a legal process for that.
I can't -- sure, and we follow the legal process. I can't -- I can't have a trial-- a major trial-- for every person that came in illegally, we have thousands of murderers that came in. They're gonna murder people. They already have murdered people in our country.
Right, so --
We have to get 'em out--
They're bad guys --
And we have to get 'em out fast.
Really bad guys. But in our country even bad guys get due process, right?
If people come into our country illegally there's a different standard. These are illegal. They came in illegally.
But they get due process.
Well, they get a process where we have to get 'em out, yeah.
Okay. Let's talk about the Venezuelans.
They get whatever my lawyers say.
Right. Alright, let's talk about the Venezuelans. You deported more than 200 Venezuelans to that prison in El Salvador. You -- you say they're -- they're violent. They're gang members. They're terrorists. Many of them don't have -- a criminal record --
They are, by the way.
-- at all.
Well -- I'm not so sure about that, if you take a look --
I wanna -- I wanna read you something --
When you -- excuse me. When you look at those -- those people, they were violent people. They were violent people --
But many of them don't have a criminal record at this point --
Go ahead.
I wanna read you something --
I mean, that's what you say.
Well, it's based on -- their lawyer-- what their lawyers have said --
Go ahead. Go ahead.
Joe Rogan said this. Joe Rogan, one of the leading podcasters, Trump supporter, about the deportation of Venezuelans. He said, quote, "Rounding up gang members and shipping them to El Salvador with no due process," he said it was dangerous and added, quote, "We gotta be careful that we don't become monsters while we're fighting monsters." I -- is Joe Rogan --
I agree with that.
-- right?
Oh, I agree with that a hundred percent, yeah. We want to be careful. We are careful. We're doing something that has to be done. We have a country that's very sick. Joe Biden -- and it's not him, because I don't even think he knew what the hell was happening. But the people around him are vicious people.
And what they've done to the country is unbelievable. They've allowed 21 million people to pour into our country. Many of these people are criminals. They've allowed the -- you mention Venezuela -- the jails of Venezuela to be emptied into the United States. Do you know Venezuela crime is way down? Way, way down.
You know why? Because their criminals are now living happily in the United States of America, and we're getting 'em out. And I was elected to get 'em out, and we're getting 'em out --
Under the law, it sounds like --
-- getting them out fast, and we're getting them out legally. Now in some cases, we have judges. In some cases, they're radical left judges. What happened the other day, where a judge was protecting a criminal, was horrible.
Mmm.
And I think she's got big problems, frankly --
Probably. And talk about --
And there are a couple of them like that.
I want to talk about one man --
Wait a minute.
Yep.
We have to be treated fairly by judges. And we're not being treated fairly by all judges.
Oh, that's a subject its -- so you're saying that you don't like some of the rulings, some of the --
Well, I think --
-- court orders?
I think the rulings will be overturned, yeah.
Alright. Well, let me ask about one man and one court order. Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He's the Salvadoran man who crossed into this country illegally but who is under a protective order that he not be sent back to El Salvador. Your government sent him back to El Salvador and acknowledged in court that was a mistake.
And now the Supreme Court has upheld an order that you must return him to the -- facilitate his return to the United States. What are you doing to comply?
Well, the lawyer that said it was a mistake was here a long time, was not appointed by us -- should not have said that, should not have said that. And just so you understand --
Said it in court. Said it in court --
-- the person that you're talkin' about, you know, you're makin' this person sound -- this is a MS-13 gang member, a tough cookie, been in lots of skirmishes, beat the hell out of his wife, and the wife was petrified to even talk about him, okay? This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland --
I'm not saying he's a good guy. It's about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir --
He came into our country illegally.
You could get him back. There's a phone on this desk.
I could.
You could pick it up, and with all --
I could
-- the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, "Send him back," right now.
And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that.
But the court has ordered you --
But he's not.
-- to facilitate that -- his release--
I'm not the one making this decision. We have lawyers that don't want --
You're the president.
-- to do this, Terry --
Yeah, but the -- but the buck stops in this office --
I -- no, no, no, no. I follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I'd probably keep him right where he is --
The Supreme Court says what the law is.
Listen. I was elected to take care of a problem that was -- it was -- a, a unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man, a man that turned out to be incompetent that you always said was wonderful, a great genius, right? And now you find out -- all of the media, now they're saying what a mistake they made.
A man who was grossly incompetent allowed us to have open borders where millions of people flowed in --
Alright.
I campaigned on that issue. I wouldn't say it was my number one issue, but it was pretty close.
Right up there.
I campaigned on that issue. I've done an amazing job. I have closed borders. He said you couldn't do it, you wouldn't be able to do it, it would never happen. Well, it happened. And it happened --
Alright.
-- very quickly. Wait a minute. When we have criminals, murderers, criminals in this country, we have to get 'em out. And we're doing it.
By law --
And you'll pick out one man, but even the man that you picked out --
He's got --
-- he said he'd -- wasn't a member of a gang. And then they looked, and --
Alright.
On his knuckles -- he had MS-13 --
Alright. There's dis -- there's a dispute over that --
Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. He had MS-13 --
Well --
-- on his knuckles tattooed.
-- he -- he -- he -- it didn't say-- oh, he had some tattoos that are inper -- interpreted that way. But let's move on
Wait a minute.
I want --
Hey, Terry. Terry. Terry.
He -- he did not have the letter --
Don't do that -- M-S-1-3 -- It says M-S-one-three.
I -- that was Photoshop. So let me just--
That was Photoshop? Terry, you can't do that -- he had -- -- he-- hey, they're givin' you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you're doin' the interview. I picked you because -- frankly I never heard of you, but that's okay --
This -- I knew this would come --
But I picked you -- Terry -- but you're not being very nice. He had MS-13 tattooed --
Alright. Alright. We'll agree to disagree. I want to move on --
Terry.
-- to something else.
Terry. Do you want me to show the picture?
I saw the picture. We'll -- we'll -- we'll agree to disagree --
Oh, and you think it was Photoshop. Well --
Here we go. Here we go.
-- don't Photoshop it. Go look --
Alright.
-- at his hand. He had MS-13 --
Fair enough, he did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. I'm not an expert on them. I want to turn to Ukraine, sir --
No, no. Terry --
I-- I want to get to Ukraine--
Terry, no, no. No, no. He had MS as clear as you can be. Not "interpreted." This is why people --
Alright.
-- no longer believe --
Well.
-- the news, because it's fake news --
When he was photographed in El Sal -- in-- in El Salvador, they aren't there. But let's just go on --
He is --
They aren't there when he's in El Salvador.
--there -- oh, oh, they weren't there --
Take a look at the photograph --
But they're there now, right?
No. What --
But they're there now?
They're in your picture.
Terry.
Ukraine, sir.
He's got MS-13 on his knuckles.
Alright. I --
Okay?
-- we'll -- we'll take a look at it --
It's -- it's -- you do such a disservice --
We'll take a look. We'll take a look at that, sir --
Why don't you just say, "Yes, he does," and, you know, go on to something else --
It's contested. Ukraine. I want to turn -- I was just in Rome, and to that moving photograph of you and President Zelenskyy sitting in St. Peter's Basilica --
Yeah.
-- talking peace. It went around the world.
Sure.
Take us into that moment.
Well, look, the Ukraine is a very serious, very tough situation. And this is Biden's war. This is not my war. But I want to see if I can solve it, because probably close to 5,000 young soldiers a week are being killed, Russian and Ukrainian. We also spend a tremendous amount of money in Ukraine, and Europe should be spending much more than us. They're not.
They're spending much less. It's been badly handled by the Biden administration. It's been badly handled all the way around, all the way around --
But that -- that moment.
The moment was a moment of solace in a sense, because -- tremendous numbers of people are dying. A lot of his people are dying. They're being killed. And I feel very badly about it. I feel very badly about -- that's a war that would have never happened if I were president, and it didn't happen for four years.
It was never even a thought of it happening.
It -- it does feel like something's happening. After that meeting with Zelenskyy in St. Peter's, you posted this on social media. "There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, in cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe" --
Yeah, well, that was part of my post. But you're right. That was -- that was part of a post, yes --
And it says, "It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. He's just tapping me along--"
It's possible. Yeah, that's possible. Sure.
He might be --
He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that he would like to stop the war. I think that --
You believe that?
-- if -- if it weren't for me, I think he'd want to take over the whole country, personally. I always felt -- so when I left, there wasn't even a chance that this would happen. When Biden got involved, I won't say whether or not he handled it properly, but obviously it wasn't good, because the war started.
Putin went in. The war started. I believe that Putin wanted to get all of Ukraine once he went in. And I think part of the reason he went in is he saw what happened in Afghanistan, how incompetent -- how incompetently Milley and all these guys handled that. It was one of the greatest embarrassments of -- of our lifetimes but maybe in the history of our country.
Okay. So Putin went in. I think Putin wanted all of Ukraine.
Right.
I think if I didn't win the election, he would have gotten all of Ukraine. I think he would have taken all of Ukraine.
From --
I think his first choice -- never with me. He would have never gone in. With this group of losers, he went in. He saw what happened in Afghanistan. He said, "Wow, this is my chance," because it was always the apple of his eye. I talked to him. Ukraine was the apple of his eye. I think he wanted the whole country.
You've said for months that --
And because of me, I do believe that --
Yeah. Yeah.
-- he's willing to stop the fighting. Don't forget --
You think he wants peace?
-- this is --
You think Vladimir Putin wants peace?
I think he does, yes. I think he does--
Still?
I think because of me --
Even with the raining missiles on --
I think he really -- his -- his -- his dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he's not gonna do that.
Do you trust him?
I think --
Do you trust him?
I don't trust you. I don't trust -- I don't trust a lot of people. I don't trust you. Look at you. You come in all shootin' for bear. You're so happy to do the interview.
I am happy --
And then you start hitting me with fake questions. You start tellin' me that a guy -- whose hand is covered with a tattoo --
Alright. We're back to that.
-- doesn't have the tattoo, you know.
Alright.
I mean, you're being dishonest.
No, I'm not --
Let -- let-- let me just tell you --
No, I am not, sir.
Do I trust -- I don't trust a lot of people. But I do think this. I think that he -- let's say he respects me. And I believe because of me he's not gonna take over the whole -- but his decision, his choice would be to take over all of Ukraine.
Okay.
It's a war that never should have happened. It did happen because of incompetent people --
Last question on this.
But it never should have happened.
If there's no peace deal, will the U.S. cut off military aid to Ukraine?
I don't want to tell you that. I'm not gonna tell you whether or not I would or not --
That sounds --
I want to leave that as a big, fat secret, because I don't want to ruin a negotiation. But --
I'd be worried if I were Ukraine.
-- I will tell you I was not happy when I saw Putin shooting missiles into a few towns and cities. And -- that was not something that I liked seeing, and I thought it was inappropriate. But I think the whole war is inappropriate.
Okay.
Again, it's a war that shouldn't have happened. This war is a war that if the election weren't rigged -- and it was totally rigged, the 2020 election -- if it weren't rigged, you wouldn't have that. You wouldn't have had the embarrassment --
Okay.
-- of Afghanistan.
Got it.
You wouldn't have October 7th with Is --
Got it.
--Israel. You wouldn't have had any of the problems that you have right now --
Thank you. I want to ask one question --
And you wouldn't have had inflation either.
Alright. I want to ask one question about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. There's a lot of turmoil -- at the -- at the Pentagon right now. There's the Signal chat with his wife on it where he's discussing that attack in Yemen. There's another Signal chat -- discussing the attack on Yemen. There's a reporter accidentally involved.
You said the other day that you had a talk with the secretary. Did you take him to the woodshed?
I had a talk with him, and whatever I said I probably wouldn't be inclined to tell you. Bu t-- we had a good talk. He's a talented guy. He's young. He's smart, highly educated. And I think he's gonna be a very good defense -- hopefully a great defense secretary, but he'll be a very good defense secretary --
You have a hundred percent confidence in Pete Hegseth?
I don't have -- a hundred percent confidence in anything, okay? Anything. Do I have a hundred percent? It's a stupid question. Look --
It's a pretty important position.
-- I have -- no, no, no. You don't have a hundred percent. Only a liar would say, "I have a hundred percent confidence." I don't have a hundred percent confidence that we're gonna finish this interview.
We will.
Let's go.
Elon Musk and DOGE. Everyone knows that there's wasteful government spending. It's really important. But the cuts have had some serious consequences. There have been cuts to foreign aid programs that save lives and keep people alive overseas. There's been research at the National Institutes of Health on cancer, on Alzheimer's that has had to be stopped.
And- - the question I think people have is: Did DOGE go too far, too fast, too recklessly?
No, I think DOGE has been, look, saved $150 billion. Billion. We saved -- that's a lot of money. There's also a lot of things right now under investigation, which is gonna increase that amount by a lot. And that's a tremendous amount of money. There were some things where when I heard about 'em I -- I put 'em back, as you know.
There are things that I'm considering right now putting back. But overall, we've saved hundreds of billions of dollars of --
Well, the original promise was $2 trillion, went to $1 trillion. Now, it's $150 billion --
Well, I don't know --
-- and heading south.
You don't know what it's gonna be because we have things that are very -- at a very high level that are being looked at right now. We also found tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse, as you know. We found a lot of fraud. There was a lot of fraud. Fraudulent things were taking place, and we ended that, and those people are gonna be suffering --
Just --
-- because of it.
-- a legal note. Fraud is a crime. There have been no referrals to the Justice Department on any of this --
Well, you don't know that, do you? How do you know that?
Have there been referrals --
How do you know that --
-- to the -- are there criminal referrals --
Why -- how would you know that, that there were no referrals? I think there--
There's -- there's --
-- were referrals.
They generally -- alright. There's been no investigation from the Justice Department --
How do you know that?
I'm asking you, sir.
No, you're not askin' me. You made a statement. You're not asking me --
Now, I'm asking you.
That was a statement that you made. There have been --
Now, I'm asking.
Have there been? Yes, there have.
So there have been referrals for fraud from the work of DOGE?
Of course there have been. Take a look at some of these things --
Alright. Alright.
-- that took place. Millions of dollars were given to people for no reason whatsoever. Of course there have been.
I want to bring up -- what is truly one of -- to a lot of people, one of the biggest achievements of your first term. That is Operation Warp Speed. You got that COVID vaccine up and going --
That's right.
-- and distributed. And a lotta people took it, and a lotta people that feel their lives have been saved by it. Now, we have this measles outbreak, biggest in a decade -- in Texas, and it's because people aren't getting their children vaccinated. Do you recommend to parents that they get their children vaccinated for measles?
Well, I recommend the governors to make the decisions. You have a very talented governor of Texas, and he's making decisions, and those decisions are gonna be made rapidly. This is a very much different thing than COVID in terms of rap -- rapidity and speed and other things. Measles have been with us a long time.
And I'm not saying good, bad, or indifferent. I'm just saying that -- the governors are making the decision. It's a federalist decision --
So you're -- the president is -- is our leader in so many ways, and your voice counts so much. And you can't tell moms and dads, you know, it's a good thing --
Oh, sure. I rec --
-- to get a measles vaccine?
Do I recommend it?
Yes.
Yes, I do. I recommend it. Yeah.
Got it. That was my question --
Do I mandate it? No.
No. No, I didn't ask --
But I do recommend it, yes --
Good. Do you think your --
And I have recommended it.
Do you think the secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of at the very least vaccine skepticism -- do you think Kennedy recommends the measles vaccines?
He did. He did. He recommended it. Yeah, he did. He recommended it --
Are you satisfied with his --
Yeah, I mean, he --
-- response on this?
-- recommended that they go out and get the vaccine. Yeah.
Okay. I want to talk a little bit about presidential power, the powers that you have in the presidency- - temporarily that the American people ha -- have given you, right? You've revoked a lot of people's security clearances. You've revoked people's security details who are -- still threatened, you know, with death threats.
You've gone after law firms because they've employed people you don't like or they have represented people that you don't like --
Well, they obviously agreed because they paid me a lotta money.
Well, the reason they agreed is because you were threatening to destroy their business with your executive order that said, "You can't represent clients before the federal government." That's--
Well -- These are big --
That's their bread and butter --
These are big boys. These are big -- these are the biggest, most powerful lawyers. These are not people that --
You got a lotta leverage as president --
-- are easily intimidated.
As president, you've got all the cards.
And they paid hundreds of millions of dollars because they felt -- I guess they probably felt they did something wrong, you know --
It was for survival, sir. You --
No, it isn't. These --
You were crushing their business --
These -- these firms are very powerful firms, and there's 15 of them. And these are firms that -- probably-- look, you have to ask them. In fact, this is a separate story. You have to ask them, "Why did you all pay Trump hundreds of millions of dollars in services, et cetera? Why did you do that?" I don't know.
You don't think that factored --
We -- we -- we have a clause in the thing that, "While we admit no wrongdoing." But, you know, it's like one of those things. And now I'm friendly with those firms. But it's -- you know, these are the most powerful firms in the world. And they just signed whatever I put in front of 'em. I've never seen anything like it. I'm-- I'm actually surprised myself in a certain way.
But they obviously felt they probably did something wrong. I guess that's why they signed.
I guess the question out of that is the concern that people have: Are -- are you using your powers as president to get personal revenge?
No. I'll tell you what -- I tell you what you sh -- not -- you're really not asking and you should be asking. There has never been a president in this country in the history that was persecuted like I was persecuted by really crooked people. Dishonest, horrible people. And it's been proven. So when you say I'm treating people rough, I'm not treating people rough.
I was treated worse than any president in the history of our country. And, you know, people figured, "Well, maybe that's it. Finally we got-- you know, he's leaving town. There goes the helicopter." And then I came back. And -- I came back because I have tremendous support. You know, when you win an election like I won it -- and you will admit: I won all seven swing states.
I won the popular vote. I won -- 700 of -- let's say 2,750 districts compared to 500 districts. That's why the map is all red. And those people feel that I was treated unfairly.
But does that give you the right to go after your political opponents with the powers of this office --
I don't go after -- I don't go -- I'm going after -- all I'm doing -- hey, Biden did something to me --
So --
--a nd I did something to Biden. And you know why I did it? 'Cause he's grossly incompetent. That's not a man that should be allowed to, you know, be lookin' at things that are very confidential.
But what about --71 people you've revoked their --
Here's a man that used an autopen to sign very important documents. Now, who really is -- do -- do you think he knew what -- that they were using an autopen? I mean, he used an autopen to sign very, very important documents. And so those are really the questions you should be asking: "What do you think of the autopen?
Who wielded the autopen?" Because -- whoever that person was, think of it. Whoever the person that wielded the autopen, he was really the president of the United States.
You are the president, right.
I don't think that Biden knew anything about it --
Okay, fair enough. But you are the president now. And I'm asking the justification for going after people you don't like.
Uh. No, no.
That is the --
People that I think are dishonest. It's not that I don't -- I don't even know most of 'em. They're people that I think are dis --
These are people that made you angry.
No-- it's not anger. These are people that I think are very dishonest. I don't think they're worthy of being able to go into top-secret information. I think that's fine. And Biden did that with many of our people. But when you look at it -- these are people that I don't think are worthy. That's my decision.
It's not a question of anger.
Okay. I understand you just had a phone call with the new Canadian premier. And they just had this election. You were a big issue in it. And Canadians, many of them, are really angry, furious, about your talk about, "We're gonna take over Canada. It's gonna become the 51st state--"
That's their prerogative.
And it kind of is of a piece -- a lotta -- travel is down into the United States from around the world.
We're doing great --
Feels like there's been reputational damage --
The country's doing great.
Well --
Prices are down.
Not the tourism industry --
Gasoline's down. Energy's down. Tourism is gonna be way up. Wait till you see the numbers. The tourism is way up.
Not now.
Now, Canada -- oh, sure -- tourism's doing very well. We're doing very well. We're doing very well. Wait till you see the real numbers come out in about -- in six months from now wait till you see the numbers.
But do you think --
They're gonna be very good --
I'm gonna ask -- if I may, do you think the reputation of the United States has gone down under your presidency?
I -- no, I think it's gone way up, and I think we're a respected country again. We were laughed at all over the world. We had -- a president that couldn't walk up a flight of stairs, couldn't walk down a flight of stairs, couldn't walk across a stage without falling. We had a president that was grossly incompetent.
You knew it, I knew it, and everybody knew it. But you guys didn't want to write it because you're fake news.
Alright. Thank you --
And, by the way, ABC is one of the worst. I have to be honest with you --
Okay. Thank you for the opinion. But more importantly, thank you for having us here. I have one more question. It's a big one. It's a question that you know a lot of people have out there. What do you say to people who are concerned you are taking, seizing too much power and becoming an authoritarian president like we haven't had before?
No, I -- I would hate them to think that. I'm doing one thing: I'm makin' America great again. We have a country that was failing. We have a country that was laughed at all over the world. We had a leader that was grossly incompetent. He should have never been there. The election was rigged. He shoulda never been there.
Our country suffered greatly, and now our country's coming back like nobody can believe. I have editorials just today where they're saying they've never seen anything like it. They love it. Our country's coming back, and we're respected again.
Mr. President, thank you.
Thank you, Terry, very much.