Mr. President, I just wanted to thank you for having us to the White House today. It is truly an honor --
Thank you.
-- to be here and to do this with you.
Thank you.
Um, there is some breaking news today. The jobs numbers came out this morning. I guess they were lower than expected. Uh, but you've announced that you're firing your, um, uh, Biden appointee, the head of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, her name, Dr. Erika McEntarfer. Tell us about what was going on here.
Well, it's a Biden appointee, and we've had problems in the past, and, uh, we had problems even before the election. You remember those wonderful results that were put out just before the election, and everybody said, "Where did they come from?" Then, I think they adjusted it after the election. And, uh, we had some difficulties with her, and there had been a lotta questions, and we fired her 'cause we didn't believe the numbers today, even though interest rates are too high.
We have a terrible head of the Fed. He keeps interest rates too high. Uh, and, uh, I could understand that, but, uh, I don't believe those numbers, I think, uh, 'cause we're doing so well, and we fired her. We had -- This is not something from just now. This was before the election where, uh, she got, meaning Kamala, we thought it was Biden, but turned out being Kamala, where they got very, very, uh, strong numbers.
I said, "What's this all about?"
Hmm.
And they adjusted them, and then later on they adjust them, I guess, downward. But, uh, we don't want that. We want straight numbers. I was thinking this morning when I saw the numbers, I said, "Who makes these numbers anyway?" I never gave it much thought other than before the election. But it didn't work out too well, uh, you know, for them.
I won the election, so maybe people don't believe it or whatever. But, uh, I was saying to myself, "I wonder who does this?" And when I checked, I said, "This person is very suspect to me." So we thought --
So, the accusation is this person was essentially cooking the books, and the numbers are not accurate.
Well --
The job numbers are not accurate.
-- I think there's some strange things going on because --
Yeah.
-- just before -- same person, just before the election, you know, they came out with these great numbers, and I said, "I don't believe those numbers." They weren't good. And then I believe they had to do some correcting a little bit after the election. But, uh, no, uh, we don't want that. We don't wanna take any chances.
We don't wanna play any games.
I want to ask you about, uh, Jerome Powell. And you posted this on Truth Social, sir, just recently. Uh, "Jerome Powell, too late Powell has done it again. He's too late, too angry, too stupid, too political to have a job as Fed chair." Uh, why don't you remove him?
They say it would disturb the market. I would remove him in a heartbeat, but they say it would disturb the market, and he gets out in seven or eight months, and I'll put somebody else in. But, uh --
Is it a possibility that you'll remove him? Because --
Yeah.
-- we have cause. To me, that's $700 million disaster down the road at the Fed headquarters is cause to remove somebody.
He's, he's building a building for $2.9 billion, a renovation for 2.9 billion, the Fed. And it's not that intricate inside to start off with. I do a lot of that.
Right.
I built a very successful hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, is a renovation, the old post office. I know more about renovating buildings than -- or building buildings than, like, anybody maybe. And I will tell you, uh, he's got $2.9 billion that they're spending on this thing and really more than that if you include the whole project, and it's way over budget by hundreds of millions of dollars.
And he shouldn't be doing that. It's like -- it -- it's almost like he's building a palace for himself, but he's not gonna be there much longer anyway. That's the good news. He'll never get to use it. Uh, no, the Fed rate is too high. Interest rates are too high. And despite that, we have a great economy.
We do, but Jerome Powell stays in place for now?
Well, uh, it's very disruptive if you fire, so I would --
Yeah.
-- say most likely yeah.
Okay. Um, the markets today are up and down. Today's tariff day. Today was a -- an important day, but you've had another incredible, uh, week that doesn't get the attention it probably should. There were several A-list events this week. The GDP numbers were great.
Right.
We had a surplus in June. Inflation is, I think, 2.4%. What's your message to Americans who might be concerned about paying more, perhaps even in the short term, for things that they need?
Well, before the message, I have to say that, uh, I think that these numbers were incorrect today, uh, not that they were horrible. I've seen much worse numbers than this.
Right.
But I think that these numbers were incorrect today because nobody saw this coming. Nobody saw the, uh, the smaller numbers not only announced but going back and restating her numbers 'cause she made a mistake. You know, that was the bigger numbers. So, I think they're wrong. Uh, very importantly, we have prices down.
We have energy way down. Uh, inflation is almost non-existent. It's way down from what it was. Uh, they had the highest inflation. I really, essentially in the history of our country, they say 48 years. I would say it's much beyond 48 years. The place --
Yeah.
-- was a mess.
June of 2022, it was over 9%.
Right, right. So, uh, they --
You left office, it was 1.4%.
That's correct, and now we have it down again. We brought it down. Uh, but prices are down. You know, when I hear the Democrats, they come out with sound bites. They say, "Prices are up under Trump." No, they're way down. I brought 'em way down, even eggs. You remember the first week, Rob, I went in, and they said, "Eggs are up four or five times." It was, like, crazy what was happening with eggs.
Don't buy eggs. Uh, I fixed that, and I fixed it rapidly before Easter and so many other things. But prices are actually way down. Prices are down for groceries. They're down for energy, oil. You see what's happening with oil. We have some states where it's $1.99 a gallon --
Mm-hmm.
-- uh, more typically 2.33 a gallon.
Mm-hmm.
And they were at 3.90. They were re- -- really much higher than that during terms of the Biden administration. He took our energy policy, which was unbelievable. He ended it. And then he tried to bring it back as fast as he could 'cause you were gonna go up to seven or $8 a gallon.
Right.
So, they brought it back, but that didn't work out too well. Uh, no, we're doing a great job.
The national average for gas under Joe Biden set an all-time record and it was at $5 a gallon.
Yeah.
That had never happened --
Yeah.
-- before.
Yeah.
Um, I want to --
That's true.
-- ask you about the, the Chuck Grassley and Russiagate and, and some of the information that we got yesterday.
Sure.
My monologue last night was all about this. Um, these new emails, Mr. President, suggest essentially that Hillary Clinton personally approved the Russia hoax.
With Obama.
With Barack Obama. And, and my question is, is she finally going to pay for what she did, or does she get a pass again?
So, you know, we had her and I had her right under the sights, and I told the people, "Look, you can't do this to a president's wife, an ex-president."
Secretary of State.
And she was Secretary of State.
Right.
But you can't do this to the wife of a president. And if you remember --
Do you still feel that way?
-- if you -- Well, [Laughs] I'll tell you how I feel about it in a sec. If you remember, I was at a rally and it was after the election, and they said, "Lock her up, lock her up." And I said, "No, no, no. Look, we won, just relax." And, uh, I didn't do what other people would have done, what they would have done.
And then they went after me and they meant it. I said, "You know, it's amazing. I felt, always felt that you shouldn't be doing this stuff, and I let Hillary off the hook." I totally left her off the hook and then I let her off the hook for, you know, for what? And then I come in and they did the same thing to me. The difference is, they actually meant it, and they drove -- they, they hurt a lot of people, a lot of people, and it was all a hoax.
And now they have it in black and white. No, I think they should pay a price.
How directly --
By the way, it's a very big price. It could be the biggest scandal in the history of our country. But it continues onward, and that continues onward. You know, that scandal has continued from the beginning. They have every -- everything they do is a hoax. They're no good at anything, other than some forms of nasty politics.
I think how much it hurt you, um, in your first term, and I think about these names, uh, Brennan, Comey, Clapper --
The worst.
-- um, Hillary Clinton --
All bad.
-- um --
They're all bad.
-- how directly do you think Barack Obama was involved --
Totally, he knew about it.
-- in this?
We have it cold. He has it in writing. It's all, he said, he -- you could almost say that he was almost more of the mastermind. He heard what she was doing and then he approved it. And when you ta- -- and not only approved it, he approved it and pushed it, and they knew it was fake. They knew the Russia thing was fake.
I'm not great with Russia. I was tougher in Russia, don't forget the pipeline. Uh, I was the one that ended the Russian pipeline. Nobody ever even knew they were building a pipeline, I ended it. So, uh, and when Biden came in, by the way, one of the first thing he did was approve it. I had it ended. Now, that was the biggest economic development job they've ever done, that was going to all over Europe, and I ended it. No, I was the opposite.
And I'll tell you what, for that to have gone on, it's one of the great scandals I think in the history of our country. I know it is.
Are, are you willing to take this all the way to indictments?
Well, it's up to Pam --
Okay.
-- Bondi, who's doing a terrific job. And, uh, she'll have to work with law enforcement to see what she wants to do, and I'm not giving her advice one way or the other.
Okay.
I can tell you though, I read like you read, and I read things that are unbelievable, that just came out yesterday.
Yeah. Um, a lot going on.
Now, they've been coming out --
Right.
-- over the last number of months --
Right.
-- but what came out over the last few days is incredible.
Let me ask you, Mr. President, just about pardons. Um, I've got three names for you. And the first one -- look, the media didn't care about this story when Joe Biden was in office.
Mm-hmm.
Suddenly they care about this story again.
Right.
Um, Ghislaine Maxwell serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking, se- -- for sex trafficking, is clemency on the table for her in exchange for testimony?
I'm allowed to do it, but nobody's asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons. I've given pardons to people before.
Yeah.
But nobody's even asked me to do it.
Sean Diddy Combs?
Right.
Would you consider pardoning him?
Well, he was essentially, uh, I guess sort of half innocent.
Yes.
I don't know what they did [Laughs]. He's still in jail or something.
Yeah.
Uh, he was, uh, celebrating a victory but it seems, I guess it wasn't as good as a victory. Uh, probably, oh -- you know, I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great. Uh, and, uh, he seemed like a nice guy. I didn't know him well. But when I ran for office, he was very hostile.
He said some not so nice things about you --
Yeah.
-- sir. Yeah.
And it's hard, you know, um, like you, we're human beings.
Right.
It's, and we don't like to have things cloud our judgment, right? But when you knew someone and you were fine, and then you run for office and he made some terrible statements. So, I don't know, it's, it's more difficult. Makes it more, I'm being honest.
Yeah.
It makes it more difficult to do.
But more likely a no for Combs, it sounds like.
I would say so.
Okay. And what about George Santos?
Uh, boy.
He just went away, seven years.
You know, he was, uh, he lied like hell. I mean, I have to tell you.
Yeah.
And I didn't know him, but he was a hundred percent for Trump. Uh, but I didn't, you know, I didn't, I don't, I might have met him maybe, maybe not, I don't know.
Right.
But, uh, he was a congressman and his vote was solid. It sounds like a lot. He got in, you know, you could blame the other side for not checking him out.
Yeah.
He didn't do all those things that he said.
Yeah, local news missed it. Everybody missed it.
Well, you could say the, the media missed it. Everybody missed it.
Right.
They found out about this stuff after the election was won. So nobody's talked to me about it. So they really, you know, they haven't talked to me about the two. They have talked to me about Sean, but they haven't talked to me about the two. But again, with him, I have the right to do it. Uh, nobody's asked me, but it's interesting.
He, is it seven years?
Seven years, he just went away.
It's a long time.
Um, your Deputy Attorney General sat down with Ghislaine Maxwell for nine hours. I'm just wondering when the American people get to hear what she said during that interview.
Well, I don't know because I haven't spoken about it. But he is a very talented guy, Todd Blanch and, and a very straight shooter.
Yeah.
And I think he probably wanted to know, you know, just to get a feeling of it, because we'd like to release everything, but we don't want people to get hurt, that shouldn't be hurt.
Yeah.
And I would assume that was why he was there. We, I wanna release everything, I just don't want people to get hurt. You can't have a people associated, first of all, the files were run by some very bad people and very sick people like Comey and, uh, Lisa, the whole group, you know, all those people in that office, they ran those files for four years.
And if they were gonna use the files, they would've used it before my election.
Right.
Because un- -- unless they're stupid, which to a certain extent they are stupid.
You're saying they would've released the information before the election.
Well, they had the files, they control the files.
Yes.
I didn't control the files. They control the files for four years. So if they had something, they would've released it before the election because they are, uh, not geniuses, but you know, they're evil.
Right.
They're a lot of evil people. Uh, so, uh, I, I can't really, uh, tell you much other than Todd went in and I think he just wants to make sure that innocent people aren't hurt. But you'd have to speak to him about it.
Okay. Um, I want to ask you about the situation with Russia Mr. president.
Sure.
You have tried for the last six months to end this debacle in Ukraine, that's now in calendar year number four. Today, just moments ago on truth social, you announced that you ordered two nuclear submarines, um, to undisclosed locations, um, because of something provocative that was said by one of the Russians.
Yeah.
Um, can you tell us how concerned you are about a possible escalation right now?
Well, a former president of Russia who's now in charge of one of the most important councils, Medvedev said some things that were very bad talking about nuclear. And when you mention the word nuclear, I say, you know, my eyes light up and I say, we better be careful because it's the ultimate threat. He shouldn't have said it. He's got a fresh mouth, he said things in the past too.
And so we always wanna be ready. And so I have sent to the region, two nuclear submarines. I just wanna make sure that, um, his words are only words and nothing more than that.
And they're closer to Russia, I assume?
They're closer to Russia. Yeah, they're closer to Russia.
Hmm.
Uh, that's a terrible situation going on over there. Do you know this, uh, last, since the beginning of the year, they've lost 20,000 Russians in this ridiculous war. Uh, they've lost 8,000 Ukrainians soldiers, and they've also lost people in cities and towns. A lot but not nearly numbers like that because, uh, missiles are being shot into Kiev and other places.
Uh, this is Biden's war, this is not my war. This war would've never happened. It didn't happen for four years. Was never even talked about other than anything. I had conversations with Putin, it was the apple of his eye but he wasn't gonna go into Ukraine.
Yes.
And I will say this, uh, that's a war that should end. That's a terrible war.
Uh, the bloodiest and deadliest in Europe since the Second World War. Uh, Reagan said peace through strength. I now call it peace through Trump. I think that deterrent is, is --
Well, you know, we've settled a lot of wars. Uh, you take a look at what's happened just over the last little while. We've settled a lot of, a lot of very beautiful wars have been settled.
That don't get a lot of attention from the media.
No, they don't talk about it.
Can I just ask you? Your 10-day deadline?
You know, one of the wars, think of it.
Sorry.
India, Pakistan, nuclear. Uh, you look at, look at Cambodia. Just recently --
Just this week.
-- it looked like that was gonna be another big war. It was gonna be a war. I settled that up and I settled it up with trade. I settled a lot, a lot of 'em with trade. I said, "Listen, you guys are gonna fight. You can fight all you want. I mean, just fight your hearts out, but we're not doing a trade deal." All, all of a sudden --
Mm-hmm.
-- they end up not doing a war. I settled in the Congo. Uh, we settled a big one with Rwanda. It's going on for 31 years. Eight million people dead, killed. It looked like it was gonna go on for another 31 years. And, and we settled that one. Uh, Kosovo, you know about that. With Serbia, that was gonna break out.
I, I mean, I settled a lot of wars. I think I settled it, it averaging about a war a month. But you know we're saving millions of lives. Uh, look what we did with the nuclear threat of Iran, that was totally obliterated as now has been confirmed. You know, they like to say, "Well, maybe it wasn't really that well.
It was obliterated." It turned out, they just reported today. It was totally obliterated. Those pilots did some job, but we wiped out that nuclear threat. Uh, we've done a lot for peace.
Just quickly, you gave Russia, I think it was like a 50-day deadline, and then you lowered that --
Yeah.
-- to between 10 and 12 days. That would expire next Friday.
Yeah.
What happens if there's no deal?
Uh, we'll put sanctions on, and he's pretty good with sanctions. He knows how to avoid sanctions.
Does Putin know how serious you appear to be now?
I just want people to stop dying.
Yeah.
You know, this was Biden's war. This was not my war, Rob. This was Biden's war. Uh, it would've never happened. This was -- And it didn't happen. For four years, it didn't happen. There was no discussion of it. It wasn't gonna happen. I told Putin, can't do it. It wasn't gonna happen. And I get along with him very well.
And the sad thing is, uh, when I come in, I, I wanna put this fire out and this is the one flame, but I wanna put the fire out. And I talk to Putin a lot, and I think we had a great conversation. Then I go home and I feel like, I, I see that a bomb was dropped in, uh, Kiev.
Yeah.
And some of the various cities are killing people. I say, you know, I just had this great conversation with him and it looked like we were gonna -- I thought we had it worked out three different times, and maybe he wants to try and take the whole thing. I think it's gonna be very hard for me.
Yeah. Has your opinion of Putin changed just in dealing with him? You know --
I'm surprised.
-- You knew him, but --
I don't want to say that. Look, he was, he's obviously a tough cookie, but -- So it hasn't changed in that way. But I'm surprised we had numerous good conversations where we could have ended this thing.
Yeah.
And all of a sudden bombs start flying, so.
Mr. President, there was a report this week that Pete Hegseth, uh, is thinking about possibly running for governor of Tennessee. Do you think he'd make a good governor?
Yeah, I think he's a great guy. I'd be disappointed though. I think he's doing a good job where he is.
Um, you're not on the ballot this cycle, 2026. Historically, Republicans have struggled --
I know.
-- when Donald Trump's name's not on the ballot. How are you gonna make sure Republican voters turn out in 2026, just 15 months away?
It's a great compliment. Right. When I'm not on the ballot, we don't do well.
It's the truth. It's the truth.
But, uh, I'm gonna be out campaigning and working very hard. We have great candidates. And you know, they're saying we had the greatest six months in the history of the presidency. We have done so much, uh, the big beautiful bill, the whole thing. I mean, everything. And that's the biggest tax cuts ever.
Uh, the biggest regulation cuts ever lets people -- The wait till you see the boom that this country goes through in five or six months from now with all of the things that are happening, car plants are getting ready to start, uh, built.
Mm-hmm.
They're gonna be built --
Mm-hmm.
-- by record numbers. The AI stuff is, is crazy. What, what's going on there? Billions and billions, trillions of dollars is being there. And it's all gonna start very shortly now. It's amazing. We've taken in 17, almost $17 trillion of investments in this country. And when you see what happens, we're gonna have a successful country like I think we've never had before.
Your administration has been very open about the fact that American women are not having enough babies. Um, we know that you have addressed this. There was an ad this week. Sydney Sweeney, an actress was in an ad for blue jeans.
Yeah.
Um, the ad is doing very well. It's very popular. The jeans are sold out. Does America need to see more ads like that and maybe fewer ads with people like Dylan Mulvaney on the cover?
Well, I, I think that Dylan Mulvaney ad was perhaps the most unsuccessful ad in history. It knocked $35 billion off the value of a certain company --
Right.
-- if you know what I'm talking about?
Mm-hmm.
That was one of the great disasters of all time. I would say it was probably the most unsuccessful ad, worst ad ever. Uh, you know, advertising's a very funny thing. I've done ads where I thought they were lousy and they turned out to be iconic. And then I've done some that I thought were beauties they were gonna be fantastic and they weren't so good.
Yeah.
So to each his own. But the Dylan Mulvaney ad was a total disaster.
Um, you've been very open about wanting an expedited deposition from Rupert Murdoch. This is somebody that you were close with. Uh, and this is the Wall Street Journal, Epstein case. Um, do you think, maybe the better question is why do you think the Journal is attacking you like that?
Well, it's funny 'cause the New York Post has been terrific. He's a, have a really good man.
Yeah.
Keith Poole runs it and they've been great. Uh, The Wall Street Journal has been terrible. They've been so bad. It's like a gossip page. It's like, it's not The Wall Street Journal. It's gossip. And when they write things wrong, I feel I have to protect myself. I have to protect my voters. I have to protect MAGA.
And if I don't do it, I wouldn't be here with you. I wouldn't be, frankly, I wouldn't be president. I wouldn't, who knows what would've happened if I didn't fight --
Right.
-- back.
Right.
I mean, they were, it turned out to be a whole phony thing. The Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, and many other hoaxes too. That was just an offshoot but, uh, many other hoaxes. And so I feel I have to protect myself. Uh, Wall Street Journal, I find to be very, uh, very dishonest as it pertains to me.
Final question, sir. Um, and I've never seen you do something like this, uh, but I want to name, if I could, a few members of your team and then if you will just assign a word or two to each of them.
Okay.
Uh, you can say whatever you'd like.
Go ahead.
Um, first name Linda McMahon.
Um, great.
Okay.
And, and I, I'll tell you a little bit surprising, 'cause you know, Linda's sort of a quiet person and everything else.
Right.
She turns out to be great. She is, what she's doing, and you know what she's really doing. It's not just the Harvard stuff. The more important is that she's bringing education back to the states. The states are gonna take education. She's done a great job.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
So, Chris is one of the most successful people in the entire world of energy. And I was told, "You'll never get him. You'll never get him." And Doug Burgum is the one that recommended, I was gonna use Doug. Uh, I would say for Chris, just great expertise, great talent.
Marco Rubio.
Um, born for this job. He was born for the job. Uh, you know, we had a really nasty campaign and the 2016 campaign, this was, --
Yeah.
-- uh, on the nasty side. And yet I respected him. I thought he was a great debater. I thought he was very smart. He had a lot of, lot of things. But you know, you're fighting somebody. Uh, he's just a great guy. He, and he did something else that's amazing. He got essentially a 100 votes, got 99, but you know, the vice president votes too if you, if you do the vice president.
But he got unanimous on both sides.
Right.
So he was able to get along with the radical left and you could say the radical right. He was able to get along with everybody. Uh, he's a, he's a very talented guy, Marco, and we're really happy. But I think he was born for that job.
Scott Bessent.
Um, has a soothing way that's unbelievable. He gets, he'll talk like a market like today where I really believe the numbers are false, but that's okay.
Yeah.
But Scott probably wouldn't say that. He'd just get up and he'd say something, and he's got a great way about him and very highly respected.
Kristi Noem.
She is, uh, I mean, look at the border now. She worked with Tom Homan, so that's a big advantage. But she's done a fantastic job. She's been great.
RFK Jr.
One of the most popular people. I don't know. I, if I did a poll, he might be one of the most popular. He's, uh, he wants to make our could -- It's very simple with him. He wants to make America healthy again. You know, when you look at some of the things that are childhood diseases and all sorts of things that didn't exist 25 years ago or certainly not in the numbers.
No. He, he's working very hard to make our country healthy again. And I did something and gave it to him and Oz and his group, Marty Makary, who's fantastic. And, uh, you know, I want to get the drug prices down by 1,000%, 1,200%. You know what I mean by that?
Right.
I wanna get 'em down. So like, we pay the same as other countries because we pay sometimes 10 times more than, uh, Germany and France and other countries and it's not fair. And, uh, we've gone to war with the drug companies and frankly, other countries on it. And, and I think we're gonna be very successful fairly soon.
We'll have drug prices coming down by 500, 600, 800, even 1,200%.
If you don't want to answer this, I didn't realize she'd be in the room, but she's on my list. Karoline Leavitt.
She's become a star. It's that face, it's that brain. It's those lips. The way they move, they move like she's a machine gun. Is she in the room?
She's in the room.
She's a star. And she's great. She's a great person actually. But she, she's, uh, I don't think anybody has ever had a better press secretary then Karoline. She's been amazing.
Mr. President, thank you so much for all of your time this afternoon. I appreciate it.
Thank you very much. It was good. Your show was great.
Thank you Mr. President. I appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.