[Audio begins in progess] Kicking off this week is the apex alpha of global politics President Donald Trump. Mr. President, thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you.
Our very first podcast. Um, especially, I mean, I know how much you have on your plate. I don't know. I mean, how do you juggle it all? You've got wars. You've got big, beautiful bills.
I've got lots of war. War and peace. I have --
Yeah.
And I have you. [Laughter] And I heard it was your first. So this is your first. That's going to -- it's an honor to be on your show.
Thank you. And so, tell us, um, we're in this room, why did you choose the library?
Well, it just represents a lot having to do with the White House. Books on the library. Books on the White House. I'm very familiar with this building, and I love it. And it's -- you know, it's a very special building. People walk in from rich people, powerful people, the biggest politicians in the world, kings and queens, and they walk into the White House and they just sort of want to look around and see it. And this represents a little bit of it. It's a small piece of it. Perhaps the next one, we'll do will be the Oval Office.
That represents an even bigger part.
The power. I mean, the grandeur of this building, the power that comes from it.
It's such an incredible building. And people don't say, you know, you don't say, oh gee, the White House -- somehow it's -- it's so beautiful, but as a -- as person -- as somebody that lives here, you can't go out and say, oh, this building's the greatest blah, blah, blah. You know, you just don't do it. I don't know why, but it really is one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere.
And it represents so much beyond the beauty.
And I mean, do you -- Joe Biden was here, of course. Jill Biden's book is, uh, nearby. I think one of the ones where she didn't acknowledge the -- the fifth grandchild. Um, it must have been strange for you coming back to the White House and having a president who, um, doesn't seem to have been all there, who seems to really have been gaga.
Well, you covered that better than anybody. I think you covered it. [Laughter] Look, I guess it's not for me to say, but uh, what he did to this country was disgraceful.
What was the worst?
There's so much damage done to this country.
Yeah.
And we're fixing it step by step. I think we're really way ahead economically. You saw the numbers are coming out phenomenally well.
Um-hum. Yeah.
But you know, we -- we have those -- all of those errors, I guess you could call them unforced or maybe you call them forced errors, the border where you -- where they allowed 21 million people in. Many of these people should never be in this country. They're from jails and prisons, all over the world. They're from mental institutions.
Why did he do that? That's so destructive.
Nobody can understand it, you know. They say for the votes, but I don't believe that. Because they cheat and you don't have to do it. When you cheat, you don't have to do that. Um, so destructive. And so much of what we're doing now is getting killers out of our country, taking them back to where they came from, whether it's Venezuela.
And by the way, not just South America. It's all over the world. They come in from the Congo. From prisons in the Congo. They come in from places that nobody would believe from all over the world. And a lot of times I get asked that question, why would they do that?
Yeah.
And I can always tell you, you know, when you have an opponent or you have somebody on the other side or you're buying a property or something? You always sort of understand why are they selling and why are you buying? Nobody can understand why they allowed people to come into our country totally unvetted, unchecked.
No checks. No nothing. Just come on in.
Do you think Joe Biden knew or do you know?
No, I don't believe so. I think it was a little bit of an Autopen deal. The people who ran this country were radical left lunatics.
Um-hum.
And I believe they use to -- he was -- he was perfect. They didn't want him, they wanted Bernie Sanders. They got him. And I think for the first two weeks they were really, really disappointed. They couldn't even believe it. And then they realized that they had somebody that didn't know what he was doing.
Um-hum.
They could do anything they wanted because the Autopen was the power.
And you can tell where the Autopen is used, can't you?
Oh, you can see it easily. Yeah. I mean, Autopens are easy to -- if you know that, so.
How?
Usually they have pinholes. That the pinhole grabs it, you know, boom. It's like two little pinholes that grabs it this way. You know, for the next one, it just signs as much as you want.
Yeah.
In some cases they have that. Um, and you see it from, if you're going to look at two or three or four, you see it's exactly the same. There's zero change. You know, when you sign your name, everyone's a little bit different, right? When you have an Autopen, it's exactly the same.
That's a crime to do that to the country.
Well, number one, I really believe it was a crime because I don't think he knew he was doing it. I think that people took over the Autopen. They got things signed that shouldn't have been signed. I don't believe he ever wanted open borders. I don't believe it. You know, he talked, uh, as -- if you go back and look a few years before, he wanted borders as tight as I did.
Hmm.
And so -- they took over the White House. These people took over. They're sick. And what they've done is terrible. But the good news is we're fixing it. We have phenomenal numbers that just came out. Prices are way down for everything. Energy now we're cracking $2 in some states. Think of it, $1.98 came out today in three states.
And I think we're going to do really well. You know, I had the greatest success, the greatest economic success of any president for four years in my first term. I think we're going to blow it away this term. I think we're going to do even better.
Well, I mean, most Americans now think the country is on the right track.
Yeah, for the first time.
So despite all the negativity from the media, yeah.
The first time in 28 years.
Yeah.
That's a good thing.
And the riots, um, in LA.
Yeah.
Uh, I mean, again, 75 percent of Americans polls show want deportation of illegal alien criminals. What are the Democrats doing defending them?
They can't defend it. They can't defend transgender for everybody. They can't defend men in women's sports. These aren't 90/10. These aren't 80/20 like they say. These are -- these are literally, I think, 97/3, most of them. They don't want people pouring into the country unchecked, unvetted from prisons and from mental institutions.
They don't want this. They want their country back. They really want their country back.
Foreign flags, what did you think when you saw?
Well, I mean, you had every flag up other than American flags.
Yeah.
And I happen to think if you burn an American flag, because they were burning a lot of flags in Los Angeles, I think you go to jail for one year.
Yeah.
Just automatic.
Are you going to arrest Gavin Newsom?
Well, he's not doing a good job. You know, arrest, what is that mean? He's not doing a good job.
Charge him.
Well, in theory you could, I guess. You know, it's almost like a -- a dissipation of duty. Nobody's ever seen anything like that. First, he had his fires that burned down half of the place. I mean, nobody ever saw anything like that. I told them water. Get the water at -- from upper --
Um-hum.
You know, the Pacific Northwest.
Yeah.
Tremendous amounts of water. They put it into the Pacific. And you have half pipes. These are big, massive pipes. They're all empty. They were. I -- as you know, I got the water to go down. But I told them to do it in my first term. And after the fires I said, forget it. They were using environmental as a reason not to give water.
Yeah.
They were protecting a certain type of fish, which by the way is not -- has not done well. [Laughter] And -- and it wasn't -- it wasn't worthy of protection. It was, you know, in many other locations. But you now have tremendous amounts of water going down there. But he should have done it in my first term.
You wouldn't have had the fires.
No. The thing happens in Australia. It's criminal.
It happens here.
Yeah.
It happens. It happens. But in Australia, maybe they didn't have the water. We have the water. You know, in Los Angeles, we have plenty of water in California.
Yeah.
But they have it. They have a big pipe that turns it into the Pacific Ocean. It falls into the Pacific. We turned it back.
So why are the -- Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass, why are they objecting to the National Guard? I mean, they're saying that you provoked the riots.
Yeah.
Um, Gavin Newsom called you a stone cold liar. He said you talked on the phone, you never mentioned anything about the -- deploying the troops.
Of course I did. I mean, the phone call was to deploy the troops. It was late at night. I said, you know, your city is burning down. Your state is in bad trouble. You got to get the -- why would -- why would I call him at that time?
Yeah, he said it was a setup. What's he -- what's he on about?
A set up? A set up for what? Because he's not putting in the troops. All I want him to do is do a good job. I'd rather have him do a good job than a bad job.
Yeah.
Even though politically, I guess you could take the other extreme. He's doing a poor job. He's doing a poor job with the train. How about the train that's costing like 40 times more than it was supposed to? And doesn't go -- [Laughter]
Yeah. Did you talk about that?
Yeah, I always mention it. Doesn't go to -- it doesn't go to San Francisco or Los Angeles. It's way short. [Laughter] Because it was too expensive to go in. The whole thing is crazy. It is the worst run -- one of the worst run places, we have a lot of them, in almost all cases, run by Democrats.
I -- I saw your, um, a few of your cabinet members uh, just a few minutes ago.
Yeah.
Um, Pete Hegseth. You had JD Vance. You had Kristi Noem.
Great people.
Great people. Pam Bondi. Um, you must be incredibly happy with your cabinet as it is now compared to particularly in 2020 when you had a lot of turncoats. And you know, the Millie's and the Esper's who really weren't helpful to you.
Yeah. Well, they were bad. Esper was a loser. Millie was not a good general. I mean, we have great generals here. [Inaudible] one.
Why did he need a pardon?
Excuse me?
Why did Millie want a pardon?
Uh, well, he needed a pardon because of what he said. I mean, he had conversations with China.
Yeah.
And I guess he felt he needed a pardon. But he wasn't very good. They were -- they were just not talented. We had a lot of very talented people. I had great generals in the military that as an example, I totally defeated ISIS using General Caine. Raisin Caine, we call him.
Yeah.
But he's fantastic. He's now the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Yeah.
We have great people. And I had great people then too. You know, I had really great people in the first term, but I had some bad ones. I mean, I don't know if I should go over it. A lot of them have endorsed me. I feel very badly because they endorsed me. [Laughter]
Yeah.
I don't want to say bad things about them, but guys like Esper were terrible.
But now you've got a team that seems to be really singing in unison.
Yeah, I think, fantastic. Yeah. I think fantastic.
Yeah.
We have a great team. And we're having great numbers, great economic numbers, great security numbers. Crime is down. But we have -- we're doing a job, but we --
And Scott Bessent's been in China.
Oh, yeah.
He's been in London talking to the Chinese.
That's right. We're right now working on a deal. We'll see what -- how that turns out.
Yeah.
And China's always very tough to deal with. They're a little spoiled from having such great success against our negotiators.
Yes. [Laughter]
But we have some things that are going on. I got along great with President Xi. Always have. And we'll see if we can make a deal with China. But we're making deals with others. We just made a big deal with the UK as you know. And we have others coming down the road. And if we don't make deals, we just send them what the price to do business in the United States is. Which frankly, is the best way to do it.
Yeah.
I like doing that better than making a deal. You know, making a deal with a country is always very tough politically. Just telling the country what they have to pay is very easy. You send a letter with two or three paragraphs. And you say this is what you have to pay to do business in the United States. And they're going to pay it.
But negotiating a trade deal, you've managed to do that with several.
We have. We've -- we're doing great.
Yeah.
But you know, there's only so many deals you can do. Because we have let's say 170 countries that we do business with. That's a lot. And you don't want to do deals with 170. I mean, you'd go absolutely semi crazy, right? What we do is, at a certain point, we're going to just set the terms of the deal. And those people are going to pay those terms.
They'll pay it.
And now what happened with Elon? Um, is there anything that -- that you can do that -- to forgive him? Could you see that happening?
Well, look, I have no hard feelings. You know, I was -- I was really surprised that that happened. He went after a bill that's -- that's phenomenal. It's the best thing we've ever signed in this country. And that's Phase 1. Phase 2, Phase 3, all of a sudden is, you know, it all comes together. It's coming together so well.
And when he did that, I was not a happy camper. So it's too bad.
You said he had problems. What kind of problems? I mean, is it the drugs?
I don't know what his problem is really. I don't know. I haven't thought too much about -- him in the last little while. [Laughter]
Yeah.
But the bill is so good. When he went after the bill. This bill is going to turn around this country so fast, your head will spin. It's -- and it's good for everyone. It's also a tax cut. It's a massive tax cut. It's an extension of debt. Which we need. We have to get that. And then we're going to start paying off debt at record levels.
It's tariffs on certain people. It's, by the way, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. You know, --
All your promises.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I mean, it's, uh, no tax on overtime. If a worker works overtime, there's no tax. That's going to be a great stimulant for the country.
Yeah.
Now I think the bill is great. And I think he --
He just didn't get that?
Feels very badly that he said that actually.
And maybe it was something else. And in, he had the fight with Scott Bessent outside your office.
Yeah, well, they had -- not a fist fight. You know, people. But I guess they had a little bit of a shouting match, but that's -- [Laughter]
Did you hear?
It -- that's typical. I heard a little bit. [Laughter] That's sort of typical about, you know, --
Yeah.
That happens.
You were very kind to him. I saw you together. And I think he treated you a bit like a father. And --
I was disappointed, uh, in him.
Yeah.
But you know, it is what it is. That happens. Things like that happen. I don't blame him for anything. It's uh, I was a little disappointed.
Could you reconcile?
Say again?
Could you reconcile with him, do you think? Could you forgive him?
I guess I could. But you know, we have to straighten out the country.
Yeah.
And my sole function now is getting this country back to a level higher than it's ever been. And I think we can do that. I think we're going to do it easily. Again, I had the best economy in the history of our country for the four years, especially the first three before COVID. I mean, we had numbers like we've never had here.
I think we're going to top it this term. I'm pretty sure. And the early indication is that we will.
You -- I mean, the thing about you that's, um, I think, uh, quite striking is that you are your own man. You're sort of uncontrollable. People can't push you around or own you. Um, and does that come from your childhood being that sort of independence? I ask that because Newt Gingrich has this theory about you.
And he says that you grew up in Queens. And you were never really, um, accepted in Manhattan. And rather than conforming to fit in, you just thought, huh, I don't have to fit in, they'll fit in with me.
Is that what his theory is. [Laughter]
Yeah. And you just stayed -- always stay the same wherever you are.
Yeah. Well, I think I was accepted in Manhattan. We did -- I did really well in Manhattan as a developer.
Yeah.
Did some of the best buildings in the country and outside of Manhattan also. But no, I just had my way about me. I want to -- you know, if I think I'm right about something I fight for it. That's all I say. I don't think it's non-conforming. It's just that maybe it's the opposite. If I think I'm right, like on sending troops into LA.
Yeah.
A lot of people say, oh, we -- don't do it. If I didn't do it, you wouldn't have LA. Between the fires and now the riots, there'd be nothing left. You have a governor that's incompetent. You have a mayor that's highly incompetent. I mean, she has -- she can't even get permits out for people to rebuild. You know, the federal government has their permits out.
Yes.
The federal government is always the last one, and now we're the first one. They can't get -- Lee Zeldin has done a fantastic job. You know Lee.
Yeah.
But they can't get the permits out for people to go and rebuild their houses.
So how do you know, like, how are you so confident in your own judgment that you will go against the grain?
Because I've had success. You know, when you have a lot of success, I've had a lot of success. No matter what. I mean, in the real estate business, I did great. I go into show business. I have the apprentice. I didn't do anything else. I mean, I had The Apprentice, which was big. I did, you know, number one best-selling books.
Yeah.
You know, you have a certain success even though they're somewhat different feels and everything else. And after a while you feel that you're going to be right about something. And the nice part is you can do it through conviction. You know, you really believe it. And if you believe it makes it a lot easier.
But -- so I don't think -- I don't think I'm a rebel, I just feel that I want to do things the way I did them.
Yeah.
Even you take a look at what we're doing in Washington, DC, with everything, you know. I'm doing something that's a little unusual. For 150 years, they've wanted to build a ballroom at the White House.
Yeah.
I'm good at building ballrooms. I'm good at building period. But I'm good at building. And so we've never had a president that would understand it. And it's a little complex because you know, the site and everything else. And I'm going to give -- gift the White House the most beautiful ballroom you've ever seen.
We're going to -- we're working on it right now.
When will that be finished?
And a lot of people wouldn't sort of say --
No.
Let's do it. They've wanted it for 150 years. You know, when they have somebody like the head of China or they have the head of France or the head of some country come, they use a tent. They put a tent up. And if it's raining, you're in deep trouble. We're going to have a beautiful ballroom. And --
How long will that take? Will it be done before you're term?
I'd say, 18 months, maybe two years.
Well.
Yeah.
So, have you ever doubted yourself? I -- I've seen videos of you when you were quite young, and you were still very self-assured and confident. Were you like that from your earliest memories as a little boy?
Yeah, well, I don't know. It's not -- I don't think of it like that. I don't even think about it, I just do whatever I want to do.
Yeah, yeah.
And I just, you know, I seem to be able to get it. Remember when they said Trump was right about everything on the hat. [Laughter] It said it very big Trump was right. [Laughter]
It did.
And if you look at the wars and all the different things that --
Elon used to where them. Yeah.
Elon agrees with it, OK.
Yeah.
He still agrees with it.
Yeah.
Um, Trump was right about everything. A lot of it's common sense.
Yeah.
And it's not anything -- it's a conviction I have. It's a feeling I have. But a lot of --
You -- you --
A lot of things -- a lot of life is common sense, you know, when you say it.
And when you were little though, you have said that you were a bit rambunctious. Like you had -- you were headstrong. You knew your own mind even as a young boy. Um, and you went to military school at 13. I guess was your dad trying to straighten you out?
Yeah, he was trying to sort of make me behave a little bit better. No. Um, I really think when people -- you're born a certain way.
Yeah.
And even before you can speak and everything, you're sort of a certain character.
Yeah.
And as you get older, you don't change that much.
No.
You can change a little bit, but you don't. And you want to change for the better. But I really -- you're born a certain way. You're born with a certain energy.
Yeah.
A lot of people don't have energy. If you don't have energy, it's going to be a tough life. But they don't have energy. To be successful, you need energy. You have to be able to go hard and long. Now you need a lot of other things. You need a lot of things, but you do need energy. I see people with that energy, they're really smart, but they don't have what it -- the drive necessary to be successful.
Yeah. And when you were quite young, your father, um, sent you for aptitude testing, didn't he?
Yeah.
Tell us what happened?
Well, I was sent for aptitude. Like, I just did one over here. I just did a cognitive test, and I aced it. [Laughter]
Yeah.
The doctors will tell you. I aced it. I'm the only president that's ever done a, you know, a cognitive test.
Joe Biden should have done one.
Well, he wouldn't have gotten past two or three questions, I don't think. [Laughter]
No.
He wouldn't have done very well. But no, I'm the only president that's ever done, a cognitive test. The doctors say, sir -- I did my physical. It came out good. And then they said sir, would you like to take a cognitive? I said well, I do well. You know, it's Walter Reed. [Laughter] I said if I do well, nobody's going to write about it. If I do poorly, it's going to be the biggest story in history, right, so. [Laughter] But I got 100 percent of the questions.
Aced it.
I aced it.
Yeah. [Laughter]
Yeah, the doctors have reported it. Although, there's a -- there's a --
But when you were little --
It was a little risky. You know that right?
It was, yeah. But you knew you'd be fine. But when you were little --
Yeah.
You were found to be -- have a musical genius.
That's right. They said, uh, well, my father and mother took me to a place, like an aptitude place, to see what I would be good at, and what I liked and what my talent was.
Yeah.
At -- at pretty young, like probably 11 or 12. And I went through this process for a couple of days. And they came up to my father and they said your son is brilliant at music. He'd be an incredible musician. This is not -- this is not what my father wanted to hear. You know, this was not the greatest thing.
[Laughter] But I do have an ear for music. I mean, I really --
Yes.
You know, I think music has played a big role. We have -- I play great music. People like the music I play.
You choose --
Um, but it was funny because my father would not have thought about music for me. But I do. I think I have an ear for music. They play a note and -- like on a piano and then I remember it to this day.
Yeah.
And then they'd ask you other questions. And then they'd play notes later on. And they'd say, which is the note we played from one hour ago. And I'd like get it right I guess, but --
Well.
But that was a long time ago, but --
Did you ever play an instrument?
Um, I played like for very short periods of time the flute. Would you believe that? [Laughter]
Oh, really. Did you like it?
I had flute lessons. [Laughter]
It's the first person that's ever asked me that crazy question. Yeah, I had flute, can you believe it? I could have been a flutist. Yeah.
And I didn't particularly like it. I don't know. It wasn't for me, but. And my mother had me with uh, I had instructors -- an instructor come in to teach me how to play the flute. Can you believe that? Who would think? [Laughter]
I can't imagine it.
I wouldn't think it. An unusual instrument.
You could maybe still do it.
I doubt it. I don't think so.
And do you -- do you -- um, I guess you've incorporated music into your life anyway. And in, your rallies, you choose great music.
Music has been important, yeah.
Yeah.
It also gives you energy. It gives you something that's -- it gives you -- if it's good, um, good music, people that produce good music are really talented, in my opinion. It's a -- it's not an easy thing to do. But it's -- it's uh.
Do you play it in the residence?
I play it as much as I can. I love it. I love great music.
Yeah. What do you hear -- what do you love?
Well, I love different types of music, but um, I like country music a lot. I like uh, I think Elton John is terrific.
Um-hum.
I think he's absolutely terrific. There's so many great talents.
The show, the Broadway shows.
You know, there's so many great talents.
Yeah.
But it's amazing actually how many. And there's some people that make it that I don't think are talented. But um, great music is -- is -- I think, it's very important actually.
And you were -- um, you were fourth of five children, um. So one of the youngest.
Yeah.
And were you spoiled? Or do you think you were more neglected as a -- as a -- as a middle child?
No, I wasn't. It's sort of the opposite of neglected.
Yeah.
But -- but it was -- um, I was fourth in a good family. I had great parents, great brothers and sisters. I mean, I had -- really it was a good family. It was -- there was nothing unusual other than if you call good because I had a great mother and a great father.
Yeah.
My -- my brothers and sisters were terrific. There's not a lot of excitement in that answer, but -- but I really was lucky.
But your -- your older brother, I guess he -- he was incredibly handsome, very athletic, very promising.
Yeah.
Um, and he ended up having an issue with alcohol.
He did. He had a big issue. And he used to tell me, never ever drink. Never ever smoke. He smoked too.
Hmm.
He was a very handsome guy. Very -- he was -- he had an unbelievable personality. But uh, the -- the booze got to him. And he'd always say don't drink, don't smoke. Now those days there were no drugs.
Um-hum.
You know, drugs or I guess there were, but you didn't know about it. But he would have added drugs in there. But he said, don't ever smoke and don't ever drink, but drinking in particular.
It must -- it must have broken your dad's heart, didn't it?
Well, he was a great guy. You know, he was, um, he was terrific. Could have done anything. He could fly airplanes unbelievably well. He had a great talent for that. But alcohol was a -- was a killer for him.
Hmm. And did you sort of learn from his mistakes?
Yeah, I've never had a drink of alcohol.
And then, also you knuckle down. You were a hard worker from early on.
And I don't smoke. I don't smoke.
You don't, no.
And I'm a hard worker. Well, he worked, but he -- um, he just had the curse. You know, it's a curse.
Hmm.
And it was tough. It was a tough period of time.
And was your dad a tough father?
He was tough, but good. He was a good person, but he was tough.
Hmm.
You know, he was a strong man, but he was, uh, he was -- he was a really good person. He had a big heart. One would walk outside -- I remember we'd walk outside. If he saw somebody looking for money like they would call them panhandlers, they call them a lot of different things.
Yeah.
But he'd always, always give money.
Hmm. And your kids, you have, um, great relationships with your kids, your grandkids. What is your sort of, um, formula for good parenting?
Well, I always said the same thing. I said no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes. I also would say don't get tattoos. [Laughter] But I don't say it too strongly because a lot of people have gotten tattoos. And that's what they chose to do. But I would say if you can avoid it, avoid it. But I'd say no drugs, no cigarettes and no alcohol.
And you -- but you must have --
And -- and like Ivanka would say, dad, give me a break. How many times do you have to tell me. I said I'm going to keep saying it. I would say it for their whole life.
Yeah.
I said it all the time. I still say it.
And did you spend time with them? Like what -- what -- why are they all so I guess well-adjusted and --
Well, they had a very good -- look, they --
And they enjoy you.
They're just very good kids. And they're smart. And they were good students. All of them were good students. But they're, uh, just I think they're special. But everybody thinks their child is special.
Yeah.
But they're hard workers, too. But they're very smart. They were --
They're quite down to earth, aren't they? Although being --
Yeah. But they were -- they were born smart.
Right.
And sometimes you have children and you love them just as much but you know, they're not particularly smart. A lot of people have that.
Yeah.
But they -- they work hard, too. And they're good to people.
Do you think John Jr's got a future in politics? Do you think he might run for president?
I don't know. I mean, I don't know. It's like -- I think all of them probably have a future in politics, frankly.
Hmm.
Don is very good, a good guy. He's an outdoorsman.
Hmm.
Eric has done a fantastic job.
Hmm.
Barron is great. He's very tall and good. Ivanka, you know, Ivanka very well.
Yes.
She's so great. And Tiffany has done really well. She went to a great law school and did very well, always a good student.
And Barron's -- how's he going at NYU?
He's doing good. He goes to a --
Did -- did you warn him about all those lefty professors?
Yeah, no, they are a little bit, but -- but he just wanted to be there. He wanted to be there because his grandmother was going to stay and wait for him in an apartment near the school.
Oh.
And she passed away.
Yes.
She was fantastic. Melania's mother was a fantastic woman. And Melania is a fantastic mother, by the way. She loves Barron.
Yeah. You must be --
He's very tall and he's --
Good-looking.
A good looking guy, yeah.
Yeah. You must be incredibly proud of Melania of the First Lady, um, of what she's been through.
Yeah.
I mean, was it hard to talk her into coming back to the White House after the way she was treated, you know, quite badly last time by the media?
Well, she was, in a way, treated badly. But in another way, the people love her. They love her.
Hmm. The New York Post, we just love her.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
The New York Post has been great. Actually, the New York Post is -- they really do a fantastic job.
Thank you.
And I appreciate it. And you're a big part of that. You know, you really -- people don't know that are watching, this is your first podcast, but you are a tremendous success.
Awe.
And what you do for The New York Post is amazing, great writer.
Thank you.
There aren't many of them. It's a -- it's a tremendous talent. But uh, Melania is very respected and loved by the people.
Yeah.
But she doesn't get treated fairly, I would say by the press.
No. I mean, she seemed, you know, she -- she dressed much, um, sort of more fiercely this time, I felt, during the, um, it was almost like she was sending a signal like, you know, you're not messing with me this time.
Yeah. She loves the country. She loves the people of the country.
Yeah.
The media is the media. You know, if -- now if she were a Democrat, if she were married to a Democrat, she'd be the --
Oh, on Vogue 20 times.
A different -- it would be a different thing.
Yeah. And but -- does she care? She doesn't care about not being on the cover of Vogue.
No. She doesn't seem to.
No.
Well, she's been on the cover of Vogue. And she's been on the cover of a lot of them.
By herself. Yeah.
But she -- I don't -- she's -- she's a very confident person. Now if you weren't confident you'd care.
Yes.
But she's been there. She's done so well. And uh, as a First Lady, they love her.
Yeah.
There's a great elegance and coolness that she's got.
Yeah.
The people really love her. And so many people say, like when I make speeches, they have pictures, we love our First Lady. [Laughter]
Yeah.
And they do. They really do. They -- they admire her.
Now I wanted to ask you about drones. Um, you know, we had the issue in New Jersey before the election where there are all these people thought UFOs or an attack of the killer drones. Um, and I believe you're doing something about it.
Yeah.
What are you doing?
I had -- well, I know who -- I can't tell you what -- who it was and what it was, but I can't really tell you.
Yeah.
I'd love to tell you actually, but it's not a -- it's not a big deal.
It's not -- not -- not something frightening?
No. But I just, you know, so obviously it's some -- something that I know about. And it's not a problem at all.
It was legal?
Oh, yeah, it was legal.
Yeah. And are you going to do anything about drones? Are you --
Well, drones is the new thing. It's a new weapon.
Yeah.
It's a weapon of choice. If you look at the war, this horrible war with Russia, Ukraine that we're trying to get over, um, it's all drone warfare. It's amazing.
Hmm.
Drones are -- you wouldn't believe how quick and how fast, how smart they are. I mean, what they're able to do with these drones.
It's a new threat, a national security threat.
Yeah, it's a -- it's a real -- well, three years ago, nobody had any idea that there would be so good.
No. So are you thinking of banning them?
No, I don't think you can ban them. But there are things you can do. You've going to be very careful with airplanes coming in.
Hmm.
Uh, you know, they're very fast. I mean, the good drones, they really are weapons for warfare.
Hmm.
Warfare, now if you -- if people are studying the war that's going on. And they're using -- both sides are using drones to a level that nobody ever thought possible.
Yeah. Yeah, it's frightening really.
Yeah, it's not good.
Yeah, what can you do about it?
Buy more drones than they have, I guess. [Laughter]
Right. That's right.
And better.
Yeah, yeah. And you've got the drone.
Just a new thing. I mean, who would think that a drone turns out to be such a powerful weapon? But it's replacing a lot of other weapons. Even airplanes, it's replacing.
Hmm. And you spoke to Vladimir Putin for quite a long time last week.
A long time.
Yeah. What do you talk about when you talk? I mean, do you --
Well, mostly about the war and getting it over with. But we talk. Look, I had a great relationship with him.
Hmm.
And this war would have -- with Ukraine, would have never happened if I were president. If the election weren't rigged, because it was a rigged election, if it weren't rigged, there would be no war. Think of it. You'd have no inflation. You'd have no war there.
Hmm.
You'd have no war with Israel. You wouldn't have had a problem because Iran had no money. They were broke.
Yeah.
They weren't giving money to Hamas or Hezbollah. You wouldn't have had that embarrassment of Afghanistan, which was one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of our country.
Yeah. It was disastrous.
None of that stuff.
Yeah.
None of that would have happened.
Yeah.
It would have been a different country. But it did happen. And interestingly, because it happened, this is somehow a much more consequential presidency than it would have been if we just went on for another four years. It's much more. I mean, it's not me saying it, it's everybody saying it. And I'm able to do things now that I wouldn't have been able to do because the previous president and presidency was so bad that anybody looks good.
What sort of things can you do now that you couldn't do?
Well, as an example, I can be stronger on an attack on Los Angeles.
Yes.
OK. I think bringing in the National Guard four years ago or eight years ago would have been more difficult. But they see what happens. You know, and I didn't do that, I would -- I would let the governors run it.
Hmm.
And I always said that they're not running it right. They're not doing it right. I mean, what they're doing is so bad. I mean, they're doing such a bad job. And I said, if I ever have a crack at it, if I ever have a shot at it again, and I won the election by a landslide. I mean, we have a crack -- and we have a big mandate because of that.
Hmm.
When you win all seven swing states, you win the popular vote, you won everything, you win all the districts by 2750 to 500.
Yeah.
You know, you -- you sort of have a mandate.
Yeah.
But I said I wouldn't let that happen again. If you look at Minnesota, Minneapolis where they had the, you know, the riots.
Yeah.
You look all over the place.
The police precinct.
Portland is so bad.
Yes.
Portland is just terrible.
Yeah. So Camp David, you were just there. Um, and you were with the generals and the admirals and Marco Rubio.
Right.
What were you talking about?
Well, I can't tell you exactly, but it wasn't pleasure.
Iran?
Without discussing anything, look, we just had -- we had a meeting, a very important meeting and really talked about many subjects.
Hmm. Iran, Ukraine, Russia.
But one of them were -- yeah, all of that. That's all big topics, especially when you have generals and admirals.
Do you think -- do you think you're going to be able to stop Iran from enriching its nuclear?
I don't know. I did think so.
Hmm.
And I'm -- I'm getting more and more less confident about it. They seem to be delaying. And I think that's a shame. But they -- I'm less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago.
Hmm.
Something happened to them. But I am much less confident of a deal being made. I would have said a deal would be made.
Something happened to them like --
No, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe really --
Like China talked them out of it?
You know, I have instincts about things.
Do you think China talked them out of it?
No, I don't think China has anything to do with it.
No.
I just think maybe that -- maybe they don't want to make a deal. What can I say. But -- and maybe they do. It's that --
Hmm. So what does that mean?
There's nothing final.
What happens then?
Um, well, if they don't make a deal, they're not going to have a nuclear weapon.
Right.
If they do make a deal, they're not going to have a nuclear weapon, too, you know. But they're not going to have a nuclear weapon, so it's not going to matter from that standpoint. But it would be nicer to do it without warfare, without people dying.
Yeah.
It would be so much nicer to do it. But I don't think I see the same level of enthusiasm for them to make a deal. I think they'd make -- I think they would make a mistake, but we'll see. I guess time will tell.
I guess it's like Russia as well. I mean, what -- what cards do you have really to force these two warring parties to stop?
Well, yeah, I mean, look, they're losing 5000 soldiers every single week.
But they don't care.
5000. Well, maybe he doesn't. I mean, I'm starting to think maybe he doesn't. He's losing a lot of soldiers. And so are they, so is Ukraine.
Hmm.
But you know, we're going to see what happens. Where we make progress and then all of a sudden something gets bombed that shouldn't be bombed and --
Yeah.
That's the end of the progress. We'd like to see if we can. You know, it doesn't affect us from the standpoint of money. It's a lot of money, but I brought back $5.1 trillion from the Middle East in four days.
Yes.
So it's not the money.
Yeah.
What it is, is that, you know, humanity, it's like 5000, more than five -- much more than 5000 people a week are being killed in that war. That's a vicious war. There's not been anything like it since the Second World War.
So did Putin say what he wanted from you? What does he want?
Yeah, he talked about what he wanted and talked about what he didn't want. We had a good conversation, but so far nothing has come of it.
Hmm. And lastly, your legacy. What do you hope at the end of your four years that you've left America and the world with?
Well, you know it's interesting, I always felt you had to be a two term president to be great. I don't know if that's true necessarily. There are a couple that were pretty great one term. But I always felt being two term was somehow -- does that make sense, somehow psychologically important. And I became --
Yeah. Especially doing two terms the way you did.
Yeah, well, especially the way I did it. And -- and yeah, especially skipping.
Yeah.
Skipping one. But we did great in 2020. By the way, I won that election by so much. It was a rigged deal.
Yeah.
And then I had to do it again. If I didn't win that I would have never run again because that's like the ultimate pull.
Right.
But I won it by a lot. I mean, and everybody knows that now. I think that's one thing that's come out of the last few months is people are seeing that. And look at the damage he's done to the country by doing that. Look -- that they've done. It was --
Well, the censorship for one thing. I mean, the laptop, his corruption.
The laptop. Well, you wrote the Laptop from Hell.
The CIA. Yeah.
Which was a great book. But you wrote that. And you look at the damage that he caused to this country. It's -- it's not even believable. But the good news, we're going to make the country better than ever. It's going to be better than ever. It's going to be stronger, smarter. We learned from this man what you can't have.
And -- and people don't miss him, and they don't miss what he did to the country. And again, it's -- it was people that surrounded that desk that operated the -- the Autopen.
Hmm.
They surrounded the beautiful resolute desk. It's a beautiful desk in the beautiful -- most beautiful, most powerful office in the world, the Oval Office. They're criminals. And what they did to our country is -- is should never be forgotten. And hopefully, as criminals, they'll pay a price for what they did.
That's not going to be up to me. That's going to be up to other people. But hopefully, they're going to pay a price.
And do you hope you leave the world at peace?
Oh, yeah.
And a country.
I would much rather have peace. And I had it for four years. Remember, I took out ISIS.
Yeah. Yeah.
And after that I just didn't have to use the military. I was able to just peace through strength, I say. And I certainly hope that you know, we're building an additional -- I had -- I rebuilt the entire military and it was great. But we have now a situation, they gave a lot of it away to Afghanistan, which is the craziest thing I've ever seen.
Yeah. Yeah.
But again, it's a lot, but it's not that much relative to the size of what we have.
Is a woke-a-fide it.
I have to update it. And I have to redo it. And we have to drone it out. You know, we got to drone it.
Yeah, yeah.
But then we're in the process. We're really in the process of doing that. Um, we have a great military. There's no woke in our military. I got rid of that.
Yeah.
Getting rid of woke in our schools, our military and just in our society was very important. That's one of the things I did. People you're not seeing woke anymore.
No.
You're seeing it -- it's almost -- it almost became illegal.
Yes.
It's -- it was horrible for this country. It was -- it was a curse on our country.
And all it took was for you to just say it's -- It's rubbish.
Yeah, that's it. It was rubbish. It was garbage. It was sick.
Yeah.
Uh, transgender for everyone. All of this stuff. And it was killing our country. No, our country's back. We're really back. You know, we have the hottest country in the world right now. When I went over to Saudi Arabia and I went to Qatar and UAE. And everybody, all the leadership there, they have great leaders, all of that leadership said, you know, the United States is the hottest country in the world right now.
And six months ago, it was -- it was absolutely cold as ice. It was nothing. It was dying. But we're the hottest --
It was embarrassing.
We're the hottest country anywhere in the world. They don't talk about any other country anymore.
So in the scheme of all the presidents, you live among their ghosts here, how do you want to be seen?
Just a great -- I'd just like to be a great president. You know, things take weird turns. You end up in a war when you never thought you were going to. You've got to win the war. But you end up in wars. And you end up in peace. And you end up in lots of different circumstances that you didn't know was -- were going to happen.
I'd just like to be a great president, do a great job for the people and the country.
Terrific. Thank you so much, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. Good luck.