Interview: Roop Raj of WJBK-TV Fox 2 Detroit Interviews Donald Trump in Michigan - October 25, 2026

Welcome back to Michigan.

Thank you very much.

Wanna ask you and begin by talking about the folks who live about 10 minutes away from here in Canada. Uh, this trade war, of course, continues. Uh, you just eased the tariffs, uh, to help, of course, the state of Maine. Will you do the same to help the state of Michigan?

Well, you know, Canada has been making $90 billion a year off us for years and years. They've taken advantage of our country, but we're getting close to a deal, and a deal could happen that's gonna be very good for everybody, but especially for the United States. Look, uh, for years, they've taken advantage of this country, and I love Canada.

I love everything about it. Uh, other than some of the leaders I'm not thrilled with because they have taken advantage of us.

You like Carney better than Trudeau, though?

Uh, I get along well with everybody, but it's not a question. It's a question that they took advantage of our country for many, many decades. Uh, we would lose, uh, billions and billions of dollars every year. And I've, I'm straightening it out. I will have it straightened out entirely. And you'll have a pretty good answer very shortly.

And the people, actually, the people of Michigan, the people of Maine, the people of everywhere are gonna benefit greatly by it. Uh, as an example, our farmers were charged 400% in some cases for dairy products, and nobody reads about that. They don't like to, you know, let you know about that. But they were really take -- our farmers were hurt badly with Canada, and now they're not gonna be hurt, uh, badly at all.

It's gonna be actually reversed somewhat.

Well, Mr. President, the auto industry, of course, depends on the trade that we do with Canada. So many parts go up and down between these two countries. You got that Senate race coming up. There are auto workers who supported you. Uh, now they're wondering what's gonna happen with this tariff situation.

What do you tell them?

Well, I tell you the following: Number one, it's, uh, worked itself out already. But, uh, we're having more car plants being built in our country, and including you, you're expanding all of your plants. They're building brand-new plants in Michigan. I'm announcing one today. Uh, we're building car plants.

In history, we've never built so many plants, and they're under construction. That's why when you look at the employment numbers, which are doing so well, but construction employment, because they're building plants, AI plants, car plants, but we're building more car plants now than we did at any time in the history of our country.

And, you know, we lost our car business. We lost, I think, 58% of our car business over the years, and now it's all coming back because of the tariffs. Uh, it, you're, what you're talking about specifically is parts, you know, some parts. And they're actually building those places here because of the tariffs.

They're building the part places, and it's almost taken care of itself.

Do you think -- when you say soon, are you talking weeks, months before we see the Canadian resolution?

I'm talking about, yeah, probably a couple of months, yeah. Maybe it could be sooner. It could be before the actual election. But, uh, look, I wanna make the right deal. I'm not a short-term person. I'm a long-term. Uh, when the deal is made, it'll be a great deal for America.

I wanna ask you about the situation in Iran. Uh, there are so many people who are concerned about it. Mike Rogers himself recently said, "Hey, you know, we gotta end this war." It's the only thing that him and Abdul El-Sayed agree on, probably, is that they both believe that. What do you --

[Crosstalk]

-- what do you have to say about that?

-- Mike wants to make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon. Abdul doesn't care. So I care a lot. And, uh, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And we've already sort of taken care of that, but we have to take care of it permanently. Uh, it won't last very long. And when it does, when we end, those prices are gonna come way down.

Mr. President, you have said, of course, at the beginning it was unpredictable. "It'll be months, perhaps weeks, perhaps months." And then you said, "Very soon." Would you be able to say and give us a timeline? Are you thinking kind of like the Canada situation? Are we talking months?

I sort of think, well, I, you know, I don't wanna put myself in a position. I wanna make a great deal long term, whether it's Canada or Iran, and they will both be great deals. In one case, they will not have a nuclear weapon, never. They already won't, because we've blown, we've blown that capability up, but we don't wanna allow them to start it again.

In the case of Canada, we'll have a fair deal for our country finally after 50 years of really bad trade practices.

What about the stuff underground in Iran, uh, that people are still worried about? We've done all these air drops, right? Destroyed a lot of their navy and their infrastructure. What about the underground uranium? Are you concerned that it will take a matter of months if you pull out that they can go back and start again?

No. No, I'm not because it's, uh, thousands of tons of rock on top of it. But over a period of time, I guess they could. Right now, there are only two countries that could do that, China and the United States. We're the only ones with the kind of, of equipment to do it. But no, I wouldn't be concerned. Well, don't forget, we have Space Force because of me. So we have Space Force and Space Force can see everything.

I could read, if you had a badge on your jacket, and your first name was Mohammed, I could read that name beautifully right on your jacket. So, from space, it's amazing. So, we have every site under watch. Uh, if there's any movement at the site, we know exactly what to do, but there won't be.

First name's Roop, R-O-O-P.

Okay.

Uh, just so you know.

I though so.

I wanted to ask you a question about AI data centers.

I was only referring to if you were over there, because the fact is, uh, we have such unbelievable equipment that we literally can read the name, the name tag on a jacket.

That's how far and far reaching that info --

It's amazing, yeah.

-- technology is.

It's amazing technology.

I wanna ask you about AI data centers. Uh, there are people who live in this community, uh, not far from here in Saline, Michigan, who are going, "Why did Governor Whitmer and all the rest of the folks, including President Trump, just say, 'Hey, we gotta do data centers. Here we go'?" And Mike Rogers recently said, "You know what? Maybe a one-year moratorium is a good idea." Do you agree with the, with the aspiring senator?

Well, I, I think there's, look, uh, people with data centers, communities are becoming very rich. Their taxes are going way down, and a new phenomenon's taking place, where the data center will pay this, the people living in a community. So, we had a community in Louisiana, and they were really, you know, opposed, and everything else.

All of a sudden, they got paid $10,000. Everybody living in the community got a check for $10,000, and everybody loved it. They said, "Where do we do our next data center?" Uh, you know, the data centers, because of what I did, they make their own, it's very important, they make their own electricity. So, we don't take from the electricity, we give it back.

The excess capacity they give back, they put it back into the grid. Now, the data centers will make a lot of money for communities. And when they see that, I think, you know, I told the data center people, "Uh, take care of the communities." And they're starting to do that. And I think it's gonna be very popular, actually.

But where they, many states really want the data. Like West Virginia's really very, very strong in trying to get data centers. But the place that really wants them is China. And when they want them, that's not good. But it tells you, uh, the importance of them. But the communities now are being paid more and more, and I think they've become very, because of that, very popular.

But, sir, right now in, for instance, Saline, they're not getting paid. They're actually worried about the power being depleted and not having enough of it. How do you change that?

You get your politicians to tell the data center people, "Take care of our citizens."

What about --

They do it.

-- gas prices? Final question for you here. Uh, these gas prices are, are driving people mad. We have an election coming up here. You talked about the Iran war. There's also the Ukraine-Russia situation. Uh, I know you're getting diesel being delivered from Ukraine, uh, from Russia to New York coming up, I think, in November, right?

Well, really all over the world. It's going all over the world. So, what's going to happen is Iran's gonna end soon, and as soon as it ends, oil is gonna drop like a rock. Gasoline's gonna drop. So, just before I started the war, which I had to do, you can't let them have, the No. 1 state sponsor of tariffs, you can't let them -- of terror.

You cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. Uh, so I said, "You know, just before I was in Iowa and I saw $1.85 a gallon, $1.95 and $1.85, two stations. I look, I watched the top of those meters." And I said, "Boy, that's tough, because I'm gonna, that's gonna be going up a little bit if I do it." It's a price, but it's not a big price to pay for keeping a nuclear weapon out of the hands of Iran.

And it's gonna be over very soon. And when it's over, it's gonna get down to that $1.85 level again.

Do you worry that people are gonna vote with their pocketbooks and, and not reflect as deeply perhaps as you are on the Iran war, this? They're just worried about getting food on the table, gas in the tank.

If you think about it, uh, if they're great Americans, they're gonna do what I'm doing, because you cannot let, you wanna see problems, you wanna see not only energy problems, but death problems, let them have a nuclear weapon because they would use it. And I have to do that first. I knew when I, when I did it, I, look, we blew the hell out of their nuclear capacity.

You know that. Uh, far greater than anyone even thought. It's, it's gone. But I have, I knew that that was gonna raise the prices a little bit. Now, if you take a look, uh, the oil just on the front page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday, oil coming out of the Strait of Hormuz is now topping it w- -- what it was before the war, because we have a blockade and it's been, uh, our Navy is unbel- -- our military, but our Navy has been incredible.

We have a naval blockade, and we have more oil coming right now out of the Strait of Hormuz than it was before the war started.

You're here to stump for two, for, for a couple different people, but John James is one of them for governor and of course Mike Rogers. You had Obama, President Obama, the former president in town yesterday. Uh, and it seems like a campaign against two presidents, rather than these senators. What do you make of this situation we're in?

Well, I won Michigan big, as you know, the last time and, uh, won it big the first time. And the auto people are very happy with me because of the auto plants being built. Their wages are going way up. Uh, I ended the electric mandate, which people were not happy with because it takes a lot less workers, et cetera.

But when I terminated the electric mandate, and I have great support from the Teamsters, from the right to work, I have support from, and from the auto workers. But I think nobody has ever done more for the auto business maybe than Henry Ford, if you wanna know the truth. Uh, what I've done for autos. And again, we're building more auto plants in the United States now than at any time in the history of our country.

Do you worry about approval ratings? I know that you don't like to talk about them, but Fox News had one that had yet 36%. I know the CNN folks had another poll. Do you, do you look at those ratings? Do you reflect on it?

I look at the CNN poll. I don't believe in the Fox poll. I think they have one of the worst pollsters in the world, actually. I've been talking to them about it for years. They got everything. They, he always gets me wrong.

But you do listen to the CNN poll?

I, I listened to the CNN poll that just came out that said I'm at 99% within the Republican Party or record the highest ever. Just came out. You'll be seeing it today. We're putting it up.

What about the overall rating, though, sir?

I think the overall rating's very good. If I ran against anybody right now, they say I'd win by 20, 25 points. So let's see what happens. But I think I'm not running. Again, I'm not running. But look at the crowds. You have 20,000 people outside trying to get in. Uh, Obama was here yesterday. He didn't have a very big crowd.

It was sparse, let's put it that way. So, uh, he opposed me with Hillary. How did that work out? He opposed me with Kamala, and how did that work out? He opposed me. He came, he was very strong about it. Uh, that "Hillary Clinton will win." I won. "Kamala will win." I won in a landslide. Obama opposed me twice, and so far, he's batting zero.

Who runs in 2028?

Well, I could tell you who I think, but, uh, it's a little bit early to --

Who do you think, what's the names that you, that you think?

Well, I mean, we have great names. You have JD, Marco, and many others. We have a great bench. They have no bench.

What about Gavin or Kamala? What do you think of them?

I guess they're possibilities. I mean, I look at their name. I think Kamala's leading right now, which is pretty amazing, but that's okay. It's, she's leading. Uh, I haven't seen Gavin's name much lately. Uh, no, you have four or five. You have some good people that people don't talk about, actually. I hope they continue not to talk about them.

Mr. President, thank you for your time here in Michigan.

Thank you very much.

Good to see you. Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.