[The following interview was recorded at Mar-a-Lago on February 8, 2025 and aired in two parts. This transcript is both parts. The first part of the transcript was provided by Fox News for the Super Bowl portion of the interview. It was cross-checked against two video segments and confirmed accurate. Video and transcript courtesy and copyright Fox News.]
We're pleased to be joined by the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Mr. President, thanks for having us.
Thank you very much.
Happy Super Bowl.
Thank you.
You know, you are going to be the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl. It's a big day for America. Always is. What made you want to do it?
Well, first of all, I'm very surprised to hear that. I would have assumed many presidents came. But I think just the spirit of the country, the country has taken on a whole new life. I thought it would be a good thing for the country to have the president be at the game.
I mean, it’s an iconic day.
It's an iconic day. It's going to be a great game. Two great teams, and let's see what happens.
You know, it seems the first days of this administration are like a no-huddle offense. You know, plays going down the field one after another. There's a long list of things you've already got done --
Right.
-- in three weeks. Big border policy changes, IC crackdowns on criminals, taking biological men out of women as girls sports, big energy policy changes. So, what's different with you and your administration? The difference between the 45th president and the 47th president?
Well, with the 45th, I had tremendous opposition. But I didn't know people, and I didn't have the kind of support that I needed. I put people in office. Some great, some really great ones, but I had some that I wouldn't have put. I would have, you know, known better if it were a couple of years later, or if I had a little more experience in D.C. I was a New York person, not a D.C. person.
And I had a lot of opposition. I just noticed I looked on the stage for the recent inauguration, and I'm looking it’s like a who's who of Washington. Well, if you look on the stage for the first one, it was just the opposite.
So, some of your plays have raised some questions and had some pushback. 19 states attorneys general filed a lawsuit and early Saturday a judge agreed with them to restrict Elon Musk and his government efficiency team, DOGE, from accessing Treasury Department payment and data systems. They said there was a risk of "irreparable harm." What do you make of that?
And does that slow you down and what you want to do?
No, I disagree with it 100%. I think it's crazy. And we have to solve the efficiency problem. We have to solve the fraud, waste, abuse, all the things that have gone into the government. You take a look at the USAID, the kind of fraud in there.
And you have found significant things?
Well, we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of money that's going to places where it shouldn't be going. Where if I read a list, you'd say, this is ridiculous, and you've read the same list and there are many that you haven't even seen, it's crazy. It's a big scam. Now there's some good money and we can do that through, any one of a number.
I think I'd rather give it to Marco Rubio over at the State Department. Let him take care of the few good ones. So, I don't know if it's kickbacks or what's going on, but the people. Look, I ran on this, and the people want me to find it. And I've had a great help with Elon Musk, who's been terrific.
Bottom line, you say you trust him?
Trust Elon? Oh, he's not gaining anything. In fact, I wonder how he can devote the time to it. He's so into it. But I told him do that. Then I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. He's going to find the same thing. Then I'm going to go to the military.
Let's check the military. We're going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. But I campaigned on this, Bret.
You announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico. You immediately got action from both of them on border security and drug interdiction.
I did. A lot of action --
Is that good enough?
-- that nobody expected.
Is that good enough?
No, it's not good enough.
So more needed in 30 days?
Something has to happen. It's not sustainable. And I'm changing it.
You know, the prime Minister said this weekend to a group of Canadian businessmen. It was a private meeting. He said that your wish for Canada to be the 51st state is a, quote, "real thing." Is it a real thing?
Yeah, it is. I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada, and I'm not going to let that happen. It's too much. Why are we paying $200 billion a year essentially in subsidy to Canada? Now, if they're our 51st state, I don't mind doing it.
You said that tariff is a beautiful word. There are some signs in the market, consumer confidence that they're a little jittery. So, if all goes to plan, when do you think families would be able to feel prices going down, groceries, energy? Or are you kind of saying to them, hang on, inflation may get worse until it gets better?
No, I think we're going to become a rich -- and look, we're not that rich right now. We owe $36 trillion. That's because we let all these nations take advantage of us. Same thing, like 200 billion with Canada. We owe 300 -- we have a deficit with Mexico of $350 billion. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to let that happen.
Sports has always been something that Americans rally around to come together.
Yeah.
They really do. You won the popular vote. You won all the swing states. Have you thought about how to try to bring the country together, to reach out or to find common ground? Have you thought about that? Or how that might go?
I'd love to do it. But I would say this. We have to come together, but to come together, there's only one thing that's going to do it. And that's massive success. Success will bring the country together. But it's hard. And I say it's hard. I just signed a bill allowing for women not to have to be punished by men in sports.
In other words, men are not going to be allowed to play in sports against women. It's ridiculous.
You're a sports guy, you're a football fan. Size up these two teams.
I'm a big fan of both teams. They're sort of different. In Philadelphia, you have one of the greatest running backs. Saquon, you know Saquon had an uncle who was a great fighter. Great fighter. And Iran Barkley his name was. So, you have a great running back. You really have a great quarterback. The other team?
The quarterback really knows how to win. He's a great, great quarterback.
So, game prediction?
I hate to do it. I just say that I've watched this great quarterback who has, by the way, a phenomenal wife. Okay. She's a Trump fan. She's a MAGA fan. So, I happen to love her okay? But she's a great person. I watched her being interviewed. I said, well, boy pretty good. But she's great and he's great. I guess you have to say that when a quarterback wins as much as he’s won, I have to go with Kansas City.
I have to go with Kansas City. At the same time, Philadelphia has a fantastic -- it's going to be just a great game.
Finally, listen, you are the most recognized person in the world, likely the most imitated person in the world. Every comedian has Donald Trump imitation. Everyone. But now you have UFC fighters winning fights, NFL players doing the Trump dance.
Yeah.
Did you ever think that was going to be a thing?
No, I didn't. I mean we do these rallies. They've always been great, but they got really great. And it's just, I don't know what it is. I try and walk off sometimes without dancing, and I can't. I have to dance because it's just got something special about it.
Mr. President, thanks for the time. Enjoy the game.
Thank you very much.
[This is the second part of the interview, which aired on Special Report with Bret Baier on February 10, 2025.]
You know, it seems the first days of this administration are like a no huddle offense. You know, plays going down the field one after another. There's a long list of things you've already got done in three weeks. Big border policy changes, ICE crackdowns on criminals, taking biological men out of women and girls' sports, big energy policy changes.
So, what's different with you and your administration? The difference between the 45th president and the 47th president?
Well, with the 45th I had tremendous opposition. I won, I did a great job. I never ran before, and I won the presidency, but I didn't know people, and I didn't have the kind of support that I needed. I put people in office, some great -- some really great ones, but I had some that I wouldn't have put, I would have, you know, known better if it were a couple of years later, if I had a little more experience in D.C. I was a New York person, not a D.C. person, and I had a lot of opposition.
I just noticed I looked on the stage for the recent inauguration, and I'm looking, it's like a who's who of Washington. Well, if you look on the stage for the first one, it was just the opposite. There weren't a lot of people that were Washington people. And I had some great people, but I had some people that I wouldn't have put there.
And I had opposition that I don't have now, this great unity, even many of the enemies are already, you know, whether they gave up and they just said, look, we're going with this guy, but I have great support in the business community, in the political community. You take a look at the Senate right now, it's like -- it's been phenomenal.
You take a look at the House. We have our leadership in both is fantastic. We really have tremendous -- we have a tremendous momentum, and it's great for the country and all over the world, they're talking about it. There's like a light shining all over the world. So many people have said that, not just here, all over the world.
So, some of your plays have raised some questions and had some pushbacks. 19 states attorneys general filed a lawsuit, and early Saturday, a judge agreed with them to restrict Elon Musk and his team, government efficiency team and Doge from accessing Treasury Department payment and data systems. They said there was a risk of irreparable harm.
What do you make of that? And does that slow you down on what you want to know?
No, I disagree with it 100 percent, I think it's crazy. And we have to solve the efficiency problem. We have to solve the fraud, waste, abuse, all the things that have gone into the government. You take a look at the USAID, the kind of fraud in there?
And you've found significant things?
Well, we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of money that's going to places where it shouldn't be going where, if I read a list, you'd say, this is ridiculous, and you've read the same lists, and there are many that you haven't even seen. It's crazy. We're talking about hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars.
It's just a fraud. It's a big scam. Now, there's some good money, and we can do that through any one of a number. I think I'd rather give it to Marco Rubio over at the State Department. Let him take care of the few good ones. But I mean, usually when you have a list like that, you'll have a couple of, like, bad ones and all good ones too.
We have a couple of good ones, and all bad ones, just hundreds of horrible places that they give you this money. So, I don't know if it's kickbacks or what's going on, but the people look I ran on this, and the people want me to find it, and I've had a great help with Elon Musk, who's been terrific. He comes in with a hundred very smart people.
You know, it started off with 12, then it went to 15, then it went to 25 then it went to 50. And everybody wants to join. And I guess you have to have an I.Q. of about 175 at least, to do it. They're a smart group of people. They don't dress as well as you or maybe me, but they are smart. And they go in there and they talk to people, and the people get all tongue tied because they have no idea.
Nobody thought this would be caught.
So, you'll fight this in court. But how does it work with Elon day to day? Does he come in and say, this is what I'm working on? Does he say, here's what we're doing?
First of all, he's a great guy. He was never really a supporter, or not a supporter. He was a, you know, sort of semi neutral kind of a guy, not a political person, very smart, brilliant person, and which I like, I'm a big believer in I.Q. points. I mean, it's a good thing. And I've gotten to know him a little bit over the last couple of years.
During the campaign, he liked what I said. He went to Pennsylvania. He actually campaigned right after the rocket ship went up, where he caught it coming down, which nobody saw before. He then took off. He went to Pennsylvania. He actually campaigned for me and did a very good job. I won Pennsylvania by a lot.
I won everything by a lot. But Elon, I'd say, go in here, because USAID, I heard very bad things about for years. I mean, you did too. I mean, I'm sure you did too. It's a scam. It's a fraud. A lot of it, most of it, but it's a fraud. Look at the jobs that they produce for people. I'm not even going to mention their name.
It's too big a show to mention their name. It's almost unfair. But the whole thing is a giant fraud, and I think judges will have to do the right thing, really, otherwise you're going to have a whole big problem with the country.
Bottom line you say you trust him.
Trust Elon? Oh, he's not gaining anything. In fact, I wonder how he can devote the time to it. He's so into it. But I told him do that, then I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. He's going to find the same thing. Then I'm going to go to the military.
Let's check the military. We're going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. And, you know, the people elected me on that, and we have a group of people that you just can't get, I mean, these are really brilliant -- it's a group -- I call it the group of a hundred, we literally started off with 14 or 15 young geniuses.
Now we have a hundred young geniuses. And what's happened? I'll probably get a lot from the show. People are calling up from all over the country wanting to do and wanting to help Elon. You know, they respect him, and they respect me, they love what's happening with our country, but I campaigned on this, Bret.
You announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico. You immediately got action from both of them on border security and drug interdiction.
I did, a lot of action.
Is that good enough -- is that good enough?
No, it's not good enough.
So, more needed in 30 days?
We have a tremendous deficit with Mexico. We have a tremendous deficit with Canada. We have a tremendous deficit with Europe, the E.U., with China, I don't even want to tell you what Biden is allowed to happen with China. They're eating our lunch, and something has to happen. It's not sustainable, and I'm changing it. But when I talked about Canada, they gave us tremendous security along.
It started out for security, and then it started getting economic, and it's really both.
You know, the prime minister said this weekend to a group of Canadian businessmen, he was at a private meeting. He said that your wish for Canada to be the 51st state is a, "real thing." Is it a real thing?
Yes, it is. I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state, because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I'm not going to let that happen. It's too much. Why would we do that? I asked Trudeau that question. I said, why would anybody want to lose $200 billion. Why would I as President say, I'm going to give you 200 billion a year?
You're Canada, you're a different country, and I love Canada. I have so many friends in Canada. You can't count them. Wayne Gretzky, I love Wayne Gretzky. I love so many people. I love their tradition. I love their ice hockey. But why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially in subsidy to Canada? Now, if they're a 51st state, I don't mind doing it, the Canadian citizens would have a much lower tax rate.
They'd have much better medical and they'd have military protection like nobody can have. You know, you have Russian ships all over the place, you have Chinese ships all over the place. They're sailing all over Canada. They're sailing right next to Greenland. We're not going to let that happen to Greenland.
They're sailing all over and we're going to stop that. But if you're a Canadian and you pay much lower taxes, you have much better military protection. You know, Canada is in default in NATO. I mean, they pay the lowest number of any country for NATO, and it's not fair. You know why they do that? Because they think America is going to protect them automatically.
We can't do that anymore. But as a state, it all works great. As a another country, I'm not going to do it now. What's going to happen if I take away the subsidy Canada really ceases to become a viable nation?
We talked about China, and that tariff is in place. You've said tariff is a beautiful word.
That's just a small portion of it. I just did the China having to do with what's happening with fentanyl. That was a penalty to China, because they're sending massive numbers. I mean, numbers like we've never seen before. It really increased under Biden. What's happened under Biden is a disgrace, not only the prisoners, mental patients, everybody from all over the world, not South America, all over the world.
How he allowed this to happen. And when you see the great job that Tom Homan is doing, and Kristi Noem and everybody else that they're doing with taking thousands of people a day out of here. And these are hardened criminals. These are murderers in many cases. Biden allowed this to happen to our country.
We shouldn't have to be doing this.
You said the tariff is a beautiful word. There are some signs in the market's consumer confidence that they're a little jittery. So, if all goes to plan, when do you think families will be able to feel prices going down, groceries, energy, or are you kind of saying to them, hang on, inflation may get worse until it gets better?
No, I think we're going to become a rich. Look, we're not that rich right now. We are $36 trillion that's because we let all these nations take advantage of us. Same thing like 200 billion with Canada, we have 300 -- we have a deficit with Mexico of $350 billion, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to let that happen.
In the meantime, they're building car plants in Mexico in order to sell cars in the United States. Our auto workers. Look at the kind of support I had with auto workers. Republicans don't get that support. I got record support with auto workers. I won the teamsters union. I mean, nobody -- no Republican wins the teamsters union.
I had support like nobody's ever had because they know I'm right. So, in Mexico, they're building car plants all over the place to make car sell them into the United States. I say, no way, you're not going to do that. We're going to put big tariffs in those cars. I don't want those cars. We can make those cars right here.
If you look at Canada, Canada has a very big car industry. They stole it from us. They stole it because our people were asleep at the wheel. So what happens is, Canada is going to have our cars. We're going to take the car industry. If we don't make a deal with Canada, we're going to put a big tariff on cars.
Could be a 50 or 100 percent because we don't want their cars. We want to make the cars in Detroit.
Sports has always been something that Americans rally around and come together. They really do. You won the popular vote. You won all the swing states, but still, Kamala Harris got 75 million votes in the country.
Well, if you believe the whole thing.
OK, let's just say -- let's just say that the election wasn't what it was.
It's ridiculous. Bret, excuse me. There are seven swing states. I won them all by a lot.
You did. But let me just get to the dismount here.
And I won the popular.
Have you thought about how to try to bring the country together, to reach out, or to find common ground? Have you thought about that, or how that might go?
I'd love to do it. And I can tell you, just prior to COVID coming in, we were doing so well, the greatest we've ever done. There's never been an economy like ours anywhere in the world. We were doing so well. We're eating China's lunch. I charge -- you know, I tariff China for $700 billion over a period of years.
We were doing so well. And then we had the COVID, we had to worry about that, and we took care of it. We did a great job with it. And then it was back to -- back to business. But I would say this, we have to come together. But to come together, there's only one thing that's going to do it, and that's massive success.
In my first term, when we hit that number, and I mean, the day before I heard the word COVID or pandemic, they told me, sir, I think there is a pandemic. That was not a good thing. I said, tell me about pandemics. But the day before we hit that word, I had a meeting with political people and pollsters and everything else.
And they said, sir, if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln got together and ran as president and vice president, they couldn't beat you. Our economy was so good, you know that. The best ever -- the best we've ever had. And everybody was coming together. I was getting a call from very liberal people, senators, congressmen, people outside, people that normally weren't speaking to me, and they were all getting to -- they were coming together.
Then we had the pandemic. And, you know, it was back to work. We had to do that. And, you know, I was very proud to have handed over the country, and the stock market was higher than it was previous to the pandemic coming in. It was an amazing achievement. We did a good job, but it was a terrible thing all over the world.
Think of it, millions of people all over the world. Countries were destroyed, far worse than what happened to us. I mean, some countries were just still suffering from the throes of the pandemic, but the word is success. Success will bring the country together, but it's hard. And I say it's hard, I just signed a bill allowing for women not to have to be punished by men in sports.
In other words, men are not going to be allowed to play in sports against women. It's ridiculous. I -- you saw, I quoted a couple of things, long distance race where the man won by five hours and 25 minutes -- five hours and 25 minutes, not by 12 seconds. Boxing, you see what happens there? Weight lifting, they are setting records, were hundreds of pounds more.
It's the craziest thing. Now, we're never going to change, and perhaps they're never going to change because I saw that after I signed the bill. The Democrats were complaining about it. They want men to play in women's sports. Open borders. I don't want to have open borders. I want to have very strong borders.
I want people to come in, but they have to come in legally, and they have to love our country. They have to be capable. They have to be merit. You know, we want a big Supreme Court case. It's called merit based. We have the right to have merit based -- employment --
[Crosstalk]
All right, let's talk about --
So, it's hard to come together when you have some people want a closed border, and some people want an open border. Some people want men playing in women's sports. Some people are big and transgender. The Republican Party isn't. With all of that being said, we were coming together when the country was the most successful it ever was, which was not very long ago during my term.
You say you trust Elon. I mean, you can't imagine a scenario where you would have to rail them in or set up guard rails for him.
Well, I think I have guard rails. Yes. Elon is somebody that I have a lot of respect for, but you have to have guardrails. He reports to me, and he's doing a fantastic job. I wanted somebody who's extremely intelligent. He is that. He is also a good cost cutter. You can't send an average person into that quagmire.
It's a very dangerous quagmire. I watched some of these horrible people, like Maxine Waters, real sleaze, and I watched her screaming at the security guard, or whoever he was, actually, he was pretty cool.
[Crosstalk]
At the Department of Education.
He was pretty cool standing in front of the Department of Education. She is only looking for trouble. She is not looking to help people learn. Look, tell Maxine and all of her friends that we're last in education out of 40 states. We're last, we're number 40. But we're number one in cost per pupil. That's all you have to know.
We have to make a change. I want to send education back to the states. You know, if you send education to Iowa and to Indiana and to a lot of these states that are so good. To Idaho, they have no debt, they have no crime, they have no this, they have no that, it's like perfect. Because the best states are, if you look at the list of the top, the best countries for education, it's Norway, and Sweden, and Denmark, and Finland.
And, by the way, China is right up there in the top five, which is pretty amazing for those that say it's too big for that. It's rated in the top five. We're number 40. And we can have, if you take those states and many others, I think 35 states, they would be as good as Denmark and Norway. They would be as good as the number one, number two, number three, number four.
They would be in there. But on a countrywide basis, I think we have 35 states would be in that category. Then, you'd have five or six that would be mediocre, and then you'd have the same ones that are bad on crime and bad on everything, probably would be better in education, but they'd almost be forced to get better.
But you could take New York as an example, and you don't have to do one, you do five or six, you do Suffolk County, you do Nassau County, you do Westchester County, and then you do upstate New York, and you do Manhattan. You know, you have five or six or seven, and they'd be small enough where they could really give some personalized education.
Also, the spotlight would be on that. Wouldn't be a country. It would be just on Manhattan, or it would be on Nassau County or Westchester County. And if we did that, if we sent them back, our educational system would be double, and it would cost probably half. You know what, Bret, it would cost much -- it would cost so little.
So, that's the next step. Have you seen how many buildings department of education occupies in Manhattan? And I keep saying, what do they do? It should be done locally. Also, we should have school choice.
There are a lot of hot spots around the world. I want to hit a few quickly. With Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, you said this.
[Begin video clip]
[Video clip] The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We'll own it.
[End video clip]
That caught a lot of people by surprise, obviously.
[Crosstalk]
Yes, some positive.
Some positive, but even some of your supporters wondered whether that meant U.S. troops were going to have to be going into a dangerous Middle East conflict.
No, not good.
So, where is that -- where is it today?
I've been watching 50 years, 60 years. They go in, they occupy, they get slaughtered. Everything is terrible. Everyone leaves, they go back. They -- this has been going on for forever, right? Forever. Now, it's essentially a demolition site. There is practically no building that's livable in the whole thing and the whole Gaza Strip.
I say, we go in. We knock them all down. We just create something. No more Hamas. There is no Hamas there. There is nobody there. We move them into beautiful areas of the Middle East. I'd like to go to Egypt. They have a lot of land. I'd like to go to Jordan. I'd like to go to others. And we'll build beautiful communities for the 1.9 million people.
We'll build beautiful communities, safe communities. Could be five, six, could be two, but we'll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land.
No big money spent.
[Crosstalk]
Would the Palestinians have the right to return?
No, they wouldn't, because they are going to have much better housing, much better -- in other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them, because if they have to return now, it will be years before you could ever -- it's not habitable. It will be years before it could happen. I'm talking about starting to build and I think I could make a deal with Jordan.
I think I could make a deal with Egypt. You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year.
So, when you hear the pushback from the Middle East, what do you think?
I don't hear that much pushback. A lot of people thought it was a great idea. Really, a lot of people. And I'm not talking about big money for the -- I just think it would be stabilized if the United States owns the Gaza Strip. If people are not living in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas isn't there, because nobody is there, people are not there, nobody is going to be there.
And later on, it can be developed. You'll give some to Saudi Arabia. You'll give some --
[Crosstalk]
So, you're not saying U.S. troops.
No, you don't need -- no. Israel will watch it.
OK.
Because it's right next to Israel. Israel will watch it.
[Crosstalk]
And what's the time frame? Do you have a time frame?
I would say, let it start, almost immediately. I would like to get some land from these others. We'll get Saudi Arabia. We'll get some of the great people. We have incredible people in the Middle East. We'll get these people to finance it. It's not a lot of money. You're talking about building $1.8 million house.
That's not a lot of people. You know relative to other problems in the world. When you look at what's going on in Ukraine, when you look at what's going on in other places. I mean, in Ukraine, they have lost a million and a half soldiers already between Ukraine and Russia. It's horrible.
[Crosstalk]
Let's talk about that. I know you want a Ukraine-Russia peace deal. But how do you get both sides to the table?
I think it's going to happen. I think we've made tremendous progress in the last week. We are dealing with the Russians. We're dealing with the Ukrainians. I think there's going to be something that I hope. And you know what, from --
[Crosstalk]
Zelenskyy says that he's up to doing some equity deal where you get rare earth minerals or something.
Yes. What I've asked them -- look, the United States is in for more than $300 billion probably 350 and Europe's in for probably a hundred billion, a $100 billion. We're in for more than twice, maybe even three times, what they are. This should have never happened. Biden should have never let that happen.
You know, it happened with NATO. And I got in and I equalized. I had an equalized and raised hundreds of billions of dollars. NATO became very rich after me. We were -- we were paying almost all of NATO. It was unfair. We take care of the military and then they take advantage of us on trade. You know, they are very tough.
I'll tell you what. The E.U. on trade is horrible. But NATO was very unfair, and I made it fair. I said, look, if you don't pay, we're not going to defend you. And the money came in like nobody has ever seen before.
[Crosstalk]
So, your secretaries have deal with Ukraine?
The secretary general just left, he said, I've never seen anything. When Trump left, all of a sudden, the money started rolling. And these people were all delinquent. By the way, Canada is a very low, you know, we were talking about Canada. Canada is just about the lowest payer in the whole thing, which is very unfair.
You know why they're low payer? Because they think the United States is going to take care of them. Do you think that's fair? It's not fair.
Yes, Ukraine, though, you think you can get a deal. Do you keep sending American weapons until you do?
No, what I'm saying is the following. They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured, because we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars. And, you know, they may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday, but we're going to have all this money in there.
And I say, I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth. And they have essentially agreed to do that. So, at least we don't feel stupid. Otherwise, we're stupid. I said to them, we have to, we have to get something. We can't continue to pay this money.
You know, you're a --
[Crosstalk]
But on the Russian side, how do you get Putin? Do you squeeze him to get him to the table? I mean, how do you --
It would have -- look, I say it all the time. This would have never happened if I were president. If the election weren't rigged, this would have never happened. And let's see whether or not Fox, let you put that in. OK? The election were not rigged, you hear me, rigged. Let's see. I mean, it would have -- this would have never happened.
It wouldn't happen with Putin, and October 7th would have never happened either. Iran was broke. They were down to their last very small amount of money. Now, they have $350 billion, but they have other problems. And, you know, let's go back over there, because I'm the weaver. I'm the great weaver. You know that, right?
Trust me.
OK, I'm the great weaver.
I get it.
Somebody said, oh, he rambled. No, no. Only the fake news says that. To weave, you have to be brilliant. To ramble, you don't have to be brilliant at all.
I just get back in the weave. And I had -- we got you back --
No, but I like the weave, because it covers a lot of territory. It covers it much more quickly.
[Crosstalk]
Have you --
But if you look -- if you look at October 7th, Hamas had no money, because Iran wasn't able to pay. Iran had no money. They were down. You know, I had sanctions on them, tremendous sanctions. China wasn't buying oil. I told China, if you buy oil from them, you can't do business with the United States. They took a pass.
They were down to nothing. Now, they are up to a tremendous amount of money.
Do you think there's a deal there in Iran?
Yes, I think we're going to make a deal in Iran. I think, I would rather -- OK. And you know, there are a lot of people think that we are going to attack Iran.
[Crosstalk]
Or Israel with your blessing.
Or Israel. But Israel needs us. Everybody needs us. We have the weapons, we have the strength, we are very strong. I rebuilt our military. People forget I rebuilt our military. Now, they shouldn't have given a lot to Afghanistan, which they did. They gave a lot. There was no reason for that. But we're very strong.
We have things that nobody else has. So, they need us. But everyone thinks Israel, with our help or our approval, will go in and bomb the hell out of them. I would prefer that not happen. I'd much rather see a deal with Iran where we can do a deal, supervise, check it, inspect it, and then blow it up, or just make sure that there is no more nuclear that we just -- we can't --
[Crosstalk]
A better deal than the Obama nuclear deal.
Well, that was the -- that was the dumbest deal. By the way, that would have expired by now. That was a road to a nuclear weapon. It was a short-term deal. You can make a deal with just a few years on it. That deal would be expired by now. Think of it, and they would have a legal right to have a nuclear weapon.
You cannot allow Iran, or just about anybody else, by the way, but especially Iran, because they are very militant. I mean, they are very, very militant. You can't allow them to have a nuclear weapon. But there is two ways of stopping them, with bombs or with a written piece of paper, and I'd much rather do a deal that's a -- deal that's not going to hurt them.
And I think they want it too. I think that Iran is very concerned. I think that Iran is very frightened, to be honest with you, because their defense is pretty much gone. Maybe they get to -- trying to get new defense as we speak, you know they are trying -- meaning, air defense, but their defense is largely gone.
They've had some very bad moments. The whole thing with the pages was a disaster for them. The pagers, you know what I'm talking about. It was a horrible thing. But it was, you know, knocked out a lot of leadership, like nobody has ever seen before. But I think, Iran is very nervous. I think they are scared.
I think Iran would love to make a deal, and I would love to make a deal with them without bombing them.
So, Iran, you think a deal is possible. China, you're saying maybe there's a deal possible? Have you talked to President Xi?
I think that China is so economic, it's so trade-based. And look, Biden allowed China to go crazy, and we have a deficit with China of over a trillion dollars a year. Can you believe it? But with all of that said, China needs us, because they take out so much money out of the United States. We're not going to let them take out the kind of money they are taking out now, but we're going to let them take out money, and they are going to do very well, and we want them -- I happen to like him a lot -- President Xi.
[Crosstalk]
Will you talk to him?
Yes. I love talking to him.
Since the inauguration?
Yes. I have talked to him. And I talk to his people, too. His people come in all the time. We have a very good personal relationship. You know, I don't want to sound foolish, because --
You had him here at Mar-a-Lago.
I've had him here. I know him very well. I know him probably better than just about anybody in various parts of the world. I know Kim Jong-un from North Korea better than anybody. Most people never even will ever get to talk to him.
I was on that trip. I remember it well.
Yes, you can attest to it.
I want to just hit on a couple other things. You had Republican senators here at Mar-a-Lago.
I did.
They are in kind of a back and forth with the House about the one big beautiful bill, the two bills.
Yes, but not much, Bret.
Has anybody figured it out? Have you decided?
First of all, the relationship is incredible. We had about 50 of them here last night for dinner at Mar-a-Lago. I think John Thune is doing a fantastic job. And I think that the speaker, Mike Johnson, is doing a fantastic job. I think Mike has even harder job because he has got literally --
A narrow majority.
Actually, it's probably five if you really think about it. But right now it's about two or three. That's pretty tight. But there's great unity in both the House, and there is great unity in the House and the Senate. Last night I made a speech, and it was actually, I think, on television. I said if the press wants to stay, I couldn't care less.
I think it was probably on to a large extent. There was a great love and respect and unity in that room last night. And we had, I guess, close to 50 senators there. We had a couple couldn't make it for other reasons.
So you think the process doesn't matter? Eventually you are going to get there one way or the other?
I believe we are. We have a very dangerous thing that was given to us, unfortunately, and very foolishly called debt ceiling. And the debt ceiling, I call it 1929 because bad things could happen. It should be just psychological, but it's really probably more than that. We shouldn't have had it. It shouldn't have been ours.
It should have been theirs. But somebody made a bad mistake, a stupid mistake, actually. And we inherited it. But6 I can't imagine the Democrats don't want to take care of the debt ceiling because that could be an explosion the likes of which we have never seen. And I just don't that's going to happen. I think it's very important that we do the tax bill, and I can't see the Democrats giving people the largest tax increase in history.
So we have to extend it and, I think, make it better, make it even more productive. We can do things we did even better than we did during the Trump tax breaks.
And you want to raise defense spending?
We want to raise defense spending. I think we have to have it. One of the reasons I can speak with authority is we really do have amazing military. But they are also getting bigger. One of the things I will be doing with President Xi and with Putin and everybody else is saying, let's ease up on all this building all of this, you know, the bombs.
We're talking about massive amounts of money, $900 billion. It's interesting. Russia was spending about $57 billion prior to the war, and China about $200 billion. We were about $715 billion. So we've always spent more. Does it mean we got better? We have better equipment than everybody else. Nobody has even close to us. But it's crazy to spend the money on things that, hopefully, aren't going to be used.
I mean, the tough part is that if you don't want to cut entitlements and you do want to add to defense spending and you want to eliminate taxes on tips and you want to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent.
Yes.
That's a lot of money.
But we're going to take in tremendous amounts of money on tariffs. We're going to have tariffs. We're going to take in tremendous amounts of money.
And you think DOGE is going to make up some difference?
Well, DOGE is going to make up a lot, but that's unrelated to tariffs. It's not fair that other countries have really taken advantage of us. And it's our leaders' fault, but I'm a different leader. It's not fair other countries taken advantage of us for so many years, and now all of a sudden we're not allowed to have tariffs, but they have had tariffs for years.
You know, they've done this to us for years, and we haven't. And I think reciprocal tariffs, I will be talking about it, I think probably on Monday or Tuesday. I will have a whole big thing. We have a very sophisticated plan. I want to have tariffs separately on that on steel, on autos, on semiconductors and chips, and probably pharmaceuticals.
And you are not worried that any of that is going to go back to the consumer?
It might. But it's ultimately going to be much less expensive. I will give you an example. The so-called fat drug or fat shot, whatever it's called, Ozempic or Mounjaro, in London you get it for $88. In New York you get it for $1,200, you can't even buy it. It's very unfair. The identical package made in the same factory, shipped to different places but made literally in the same factory.
In London it's $88 and in New York it's $1,200 and you can't get it. And the reason is because everything is added onto the United States because the United States has been too nice. I had transparency done. And Biden canceled it. Transparency would have solved that problem. But I'm going to solve it one way or the another, including, you know, they have a certain thing like rent control in New York.
And I don't like that, but at some point, nobody is going -- it's not fair that other countries. You go Canada, all of the drugs are much less expensive. I suggested that some of the governors should go buy their drugs in Canada and send them back to here. It's very simple. So, I think we're going to do some amazing things, really amazing things.
Last thing. You have a lot of things on your plate that you are going to do. But right now --
One thing did I last night that's very popular, the straw. They gave us a paper straw. It melts. It's horrible. You start -- they should make it in flavors because by the time you are finished it is so horrible. I ended the paper straw. We are going to go back to plastic.
That might be a 90-10 issue.
It's about a 99 --
Because no one loves the soggy straw.
This was a big Biden issue, big Biden issue. I'm sure Biden really knew. They'd put things in front of him and he's sign whatever they did. I think you are right, it's at least a 90 percent issue.
Right now, do you view Vice President JD Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?
No, but is he very capable. I mean, I don't think that, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he is doing a fantastic job. It's too early. We are just starting. I will say --
By the time you get to the midterms, he's going to be looking for an endorsement.
A lot of people have said that this has been the greatest opening, almost three weeks, in the history of the presidency.
It's definitely been the fastest and most stuff happening.
We've done so much so fast. And we really had to because they have really, what they have done to our country is so sad. It's so sad. We're going to be bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.
Mr. President, we appreciate all the time. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Bret.