December 8 — President-elect Donald Trump

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Conditions apply. Offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit Hyundai Canada.com or your local dealer for details. This Sunday, return to office.

My exclusive interview with President-elect Donald Trump. His plans for the economy and his promises for mass deportation. Is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years? Well, I think you have to do it.

And will he seek retribution against his political enemies? Are you going to go after Joe Biden? I'm really looking to make our country successful. I'm not looking to go back into the past.

Retribution will be through success. Plus, his vow to pardon those convicted of attacking the Capitol on January 6th. I'm going to be acting very quickly. Within your first 100 days, first day?

First day. And now that he's won the 2024 election, has he changed his mind about his 2020 loss? For the sake of unifying this country, well, you concede the 2020 election and turn the page on that chapter. Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News, managing Washington editor, Carol Lee, Politico, playbook, co-author, Eugene Daniels, Mark Short, former chief of staff, device president Mike Pence, and former White House press secretary, Jen Psaki.

Welcome to Sunday, and a special edition of Meet the Press. From NBC News and Washington, the longest running show in television history, this is a special edition of Meet the Press with Kristen Welker. Good Sunday morning. President-elect Donald Trump is the first president to win non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland, and we haven't heard from him extensively since his decisive victory until now.

I sat down with the president-elect at Trump Tower in New York on Friday for his first broadcast interview since winning the election. We spoke for nearly an hour and a half in a wide-ranging conversation about what these next four years will look like. He told me his first 100 days will focus on bringing down prices, addressing the border, and getting his cabinet picks confirmed. And I asked him what he'll do on his first day in office.

I understand that on day one you're going to be signing a flurry of executive orders. Can you give me just what are the top ones people should know about? I don't have to do with economics. A lot's going to have to do with energy.

A lot's going to do with having to do with the border. We're going to immediately strengthen up the border and do a real job. And some of the basics. I began the interview with one of the top issues for voters, the economy and the cost of living.

I want to delve into one of your signature promises on the campaign trail, which was to end inflation to lower prices. You are now proposing tariffs against the United States' three biggest trading partners. Economists of all stripes say that ultimately consumers pay the price of tariffs. Can you guarantee American families will pay more?

I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow. But I can say that if you look at my pre-COVID, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And I had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries, but in particular China, we took hundreds of billions of dollars and we had no inflation.

In fact, when I handed it over, they didn't have inflation for a year and a half. They went almost two years just based on what I had created. And then they created inflation with energy and with spending too much. So I think we will, I'm a big believer in tariffs.

I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they're beautiful. It's going to make us rich. We're subsidizing Canada to the tune of over $100 billion a year.

We're subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion. We shouldn't be subsidizing. Why are we subsidizing these countries? If we're going to subsidize them, let them become a state.

We're subsidizing Mexico and we're subsidizing Canada and we're subsidizing many countries all over the world. And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field. Sir, your previous tariffs during your first administration cost Americans some $80 billion. And now you have major companies from Walmart, Black and Decker, AutoZone, saying that any tariffs are going to force them to drive up prices for their consumers.

How do you make sure that these CEOs, that these companies don't, in fact, pass on the cost of tariffs to their consumers? They cost Americans nothing. They made a great economy for us. They also solve another problem.

And we were going to have problems having to do with wars and having to do with other things. Tariffs, I have stopped wars with tariffs by saying you guys want to fight. It's great. But both of you are going to pay tariffs to the United States at 100%.

And they have many purposes tariffs if properly used. I don't say you use them like a madman. I say properly used. But it didn't cost this country anything.

It made this country money. And we never really got the chance to go all out because we had it fight COVID in the last part. And we did it very successfully. And when I handed it over to Biden, the stock market was higher than what it was just previous to COVID coming in.

It was actually higher. Tariffs are a properly used, are a very powerful tool. Not only economically, but also for getting other things outside of economics. Are you actually going to impose these tariffs or are they a negotiating tactic?

Well, I'll give you an example. With Canada and in particular Mexico, we have millions of people pouring into our country. You agree with that? I spoke with Justin Trudeau.

In fact, he flew to Mar-a-Lago within about 15 seconds after the call in. It was at Mar-a-Lago we were having dinner talking about it. I said you have to close up your borders because they're coming in the northern border too a lot. Not like the southern border, but they're coming in the Canadian border a lot.

And drugs are pouring in almost as importantly, drugs are pouring in maybe more importantly. Drugs are pouring in at levels never seen before. If we're 10 times what we had, they're just pouring in. We can't have open borders.

And I said to the President of Mexico and to Justin Trudeau, if it doesn't stop, I'm going to put tariffs on your country at about 25%. The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said he will not leave his post even if you ask him to. Will you try to replace Jerome Powell? No, I don't think so.

I don't see it. But I think if I told him to, he would. But if I asked him to, he probably wouldn't. But if I told him to, he would.

You don't have plans to do that right now? No, I don't. Okay. Let's talk about mass deportation, one of your big agenda items.

You've talked about prioritizing people who have criminal histories. Correct. But is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years? Well, I think you have to do it.

And it's a very tough thing to do. But you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws, they came in illegally. You know, the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been online for 10 years that come into the country. And we're going to make it very easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test.

They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country. They can't come out of prisons.

We don't want people that are in for murder. It's 13,099. Murder is released into our country over the last three years. They're walking down the streets.

They're walking next to you and your family. And they're very dangerous. The 13,000 figure, I think, goes back about 40 years. No, it doesn't.

It's within the three-year period. It's during the Biden term. No, that was a fiction that they put that out. This was done by the Border Patrol.

It's 13,099. It's during the Biden period of time. And these are murderers. Many of whom murdered more than one person.

You don't want those people in this country. But you're saying something, sir, that's significant. I just want to make sure I'm clear, which is that you're saying, yes, you're going to focus on the people with criminal histories. But everyone who's here legally has to go.

I'm saying this. We have to get the criminals out of our country. We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institutions. No matter what country it is.

You know that Venezuela, their prisons are at the lowest point in terms of emptiness that they've ever been. They're taking their people out of those prisons by the thousands and they're drunk. And just to get back because I know exactly what you're getting at. Number one, we're doing criminals and we're going to do them really rapidly.

We're getting the worst gang probably with MS-13 and the Venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world. They're vicious, violent people. And you see what they've done in Colorado and other places. They're literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity.

They don't care. They just are. They're in the real estate. You know the local police say it's not the case in Colorado.

Oh, it's totally the case. You don't believe the local police. I used to play it at my rallies every single night. No.

They're breaking into doors. They're taking over the building. And by the way, the police are afraid to do anything. You raise the point that the logistics are complicated.

You set yourself. But everything's going to be good. You need 24 times more ICE detention capacity just to deport 1 million people per year, not to mention more agents, more judges, more planes. They're realistic to deport everyone.

You have no choice. First of all, they're crossing us a fortune. But we're starting with the criminals and we've got to do it. And then we're starting with others.

And we're going to see how it goes. Who are the others? Others are other people outside of criminals. We have convicted murders.

And we don't mean people that are even on trial. We have people that have murdered numerous people on our streets and in our farms. And we have to get them out of our country. What about dreamers?

So dreamers who are brought to this country illegally as children? You said once back in 2017, they quote, shouldn't be very worried about being deported. Should they be worried now? The dreamers are going to come later and we have to do something about the dreamers.

Because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age. And many of these are middle-aged people now. They don't even speak the language of their country. And yes, we're going to do something about the dreamers.

What does that mean? What are you going to do? I will work with the Democrats on a plan. And if we can come up with a plan, but the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything.

Republicans are very open to the dreamers. So dreamers, we're talking many years ago, they were brought into this country. Many years ago, some of them are no longer young people. And in many cases, they become successful.

They have great jobs. In some cases, they have small businesses. In some cases, they might have large businesses. And we're going to have to do something with them.

And you want them to be able to stay. That's what you're saying. I do. I want to be able to work something out.

And it should have been able to be worked out over the last three or four years. And it never got worked out. You know, Biden could have done it because he controlled Congress to a certain extent, right? He could have done something, but they didn't do it.

I never understood why, because they always seemed to want to do it. But then when it comes down to it, they don't... I think we can work with the Democrats and work something out. Let me ask about another group of people.

The estimated four million families in America who have mixed immigration status. So I'm talking about parents who might be here illegally, but the kids are here legally. Your borders are tough. You're talking about separation.

I mean, there are two aspects to this reporter. Sorry, Tom Holmes. They can be deported together. Is that the plan?

That way you keep the... Well, I don't want to be breaking up families. So the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back. Even kids who are here legally?

Well, what you're going to do is they want to stay with the father. We have to have a rules and regulations. You could always find something out like, you know, this doesn't work. That doesn't work.

I'll tell you what's going to be horrible. When we take a wonderful young woman who's with the criminal and they show the woman, and she could stay by the law, but they show the woman being taken out or they want her out. And your cameras are focused on her as she's crying as she's being taken out of our country. And then the public turns against us.

But we have to do our job. And you have to have a series of standards and a series of laws. And in the end, look, our country is a mess. Let me ask you about some of your other promises on this topic.

You promised to end birthright citizenship on day one. Is that still your plan? Yeah, absolutely. The Fourteenth Amendment, though, says that, quote, all persons born in the United States are citizens.

Can you get around the Fourteenth Amendment with a second- Well, we're not going to change. We'll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it with the only country that has it. You know, we're the only country that has it.

You know, if somebody sets a foot, just a foot, one foot. You don't need to, on our land. Congratulations. You are now a citizen of the United States of America.

Yes, we're going to end that because it's ridiculous. No, exactly. Well, if we can't do executive action, I was going to do it through executive action. But then we had to fix COVID first, to be honest with you.

We have to end it. Let's talk about health care. I've been talking to Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They say it's no longer feasible to repeal and replace Obamacare because it's so entrenched in the system.

Do you see it that way? Is that now off the table? When John McCain let us down by voting. And Marquesne Collins, whoever it was that voted against.

But they really let us down. They did us a great disservice because we had great others. Obamacare is lousy health care. It's very expensive health care for the people.

It's also expensive for the country, but for the people. It's lousy health care. When John McCain gave his thumbs down, after saying for ten years that he wants to repeal and replace, okay? And then he came out and put his now famous thumbs down and he became a hero to the left.

Just let me just tell you, if we find something better, I would love to do it. But unless we find, but one thing I have to say, I inherited Obamacare. Or anything else you want to go? It's got about 20 names.

But I inherited it. And I had a decision to make with health and human services. I had a big decision to make. Do I make it as good as we can make it?

Or do I let it rot? And a lot of political people said let it rot and let it be a failure. I said that's not the right thing to do. And I have very good people in the medical area that handle that.

And I said, what do you want to do? We really have an obligation to make it as good as we can. And we made it as good as we can make it. Instead of making it bad where everybody would be calling for its repeal, I made it so that it works.

But you did try to overturn it, sir. You did try to overturn it. You did have your Justice Department try to direct the Supreme Court. No, we got a little bit of a surprising opinion, to be honest with you.

If it would have been overturned, we would have had much better health care right now. But right now, we have something that I made the best of. I could have made the worst of it. And it would have fallen by the wayside.

I did the right thing from a human standpoint. But I'm sort of proud of my decision. At the same time, sometimes I regret it. I told the people, and I gave them the money to do it.

I said, fix it. Make it work because people would have suffered. But it's too bad that they voted no. I wish John McCain.

I wish he fought for 10 years on replacing Obamacare for 10 years. And then he voted against nobody understands it. Sir, you said during the campaign, you had concepts of a plan. Do you have an actual plan at this point for health care?

Yes. We have concepts of a plan that would be better. Still just concepts. Do you have a fully developed plan?

Let me explain. We have the biggest health care companies looking at. We have doctors. We're always looking because Obamacare stinks.

It's lousy. There are better answers. If we come up with a better answer, I would present that answer to Democrats and everybody else. And I do something about it.

Until we have that or until they can approve it. But we're not going to go through the big deal. I am the one that saved Obamacare. I will say.

And I did the right thing. I could have done the more political thing and killed it. And all I had to do is starve it to death. You do try to have your Justice Department effectively kill it, though, sir.

No, no. Kill it from a legal standpoint. But from a physical standpoint, I made it work. In your concepts of a plan, sir, will people with pre-existing conditions still have coverage?

And can you guarantee their prices will not know it? The answer is yes. They'll have coverage. You have to have it.

And what about their prices? What about their prices, sir? I want their prices to go down. I want to have better health care for less money.

You're doing it. I believe. Let's talk about abortion, sir. You have taken responsibility for overturning Roe v.

Wade. You've said that abortion is now a state issue. There are steps that you could take, though, as President, to restrict abortion through executive action without Congress. More than half of abortions in this country are medication abortions.

Will you restrict the availability of abortion pills when you're in office? Probably. I'll probably say with exactly what I've been saying for the last two years, and the answer is no. You commit to that.

Well, I commit. I mean, things change. I think they change. I hate to go on shows like Joe Biden.

I'm not going to give my son a pardon. I will not, under any circumstances, give him a pardon. I watch this. And I always knew he was going to give him a pardon.

And so, I don't like putting myself in a position like that. So, things do change, but I don't think it's going to change at all. And when we come back, will President-elect Trump direct his FBI director and Attorney General to go after his political enemies? Drive off in a new Hyundai launcher today, with $0 down during the Hyundai Advantage Sales event.

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Offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit HyundaiCanada.com or your local dealer for details. Welcome back. In our interview, President-elect Trump defended some of his Cabinet picks, including his embattled choice for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth, an Army veteran, is facing allegations of past sexual misconduct and excessive drinking, which he denies. Mr. Trump told me he has confidence in Hegseth. I also asked him about his choice for FBI director, Cash Patel, a hard-line critic of the very agency he's been tapped to leap.

He named Cash Patel to be the next FBI director. He has a list in his book of 60 people that he calls members of the so-called Deep State. It includes Democrats like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. It includes former members of your cabinet from Bill Bard, Christopher Ray.

You campaigned on destroying the Deep State. Do you want Cash Patel to launch investigations into people on that list? No, I mean, he's going to do what he thinks is right. Do you think that's right, sir?

If they think that somebody was dishonest or crooked or corrupt politician, I think he probably has an obligation to do it. But are you going to direct him to do it? No, not at all. We have two great people that we have him and we have Pam.

And Pam Bondi has been like a rocket ship. She's very popular and very good and very fair. And Cash Patel is very fair. I thought Cash may be difficult because he's, you know, a strong conservative voice.

And I don't know if anybody that's not singing his phrases. The other day I was watching and Trey Gowdy, who's a moderate person and very smart and very respected in the party, he's Cash's biggest fan. He said, this is the most misunderstood man in politics. He's great.

I guess they worked together on the Russia hoax or something. And Trey Gowdy became a fan. You know, Trey Gowdy, everybody respects him. And, you know, just like him, others also.

I don't know if one negative vote. I don't think he's going to have any negative votes. Is it your expectation, though, that Cash Patel will pursue investigations against your political enemies? No, I don't think so.

Do you want to see that happen? If they were crooked, if they did something wrong, if they have broken the law, probably, they wouldn't have to mean, you know, they wouldn't have to mean I did nothing wrong. Well, let me ask you this. You said President Biden, quote, you're going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden.

You said that during the campaign. Where? You said that on shoot social June 12th, 2023. I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States, Joe Biden and the entire Biden crime family.

Are you going to do that? Are you going to go after Joe Biden? I'm really looking to make our country successful. I'm not looking to go back into the past.

I'm looking to make our country successful. Retribution will be through success. If we can make this country successful, that would be my greatest. That would be such a great achievement.

Bring it back. We have a country now that's overridden with crime that has millions of people that shouldn't be here that should be in prisons and other countries that should be in mental institutions. We have drug lords being dropped into a country and told never go back to their country. I'm looking to make our country great.

I'm looking to bring prices down because, you know, I want unto things, the border. And more than immigration, you know, they like to say immigration. I bring it down more to the border, but I want on the border and I want on groceries. It's a very simple word, groceries.

Like, almost, you know, who uses the word? I started using the word the groceries when you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time. And I wanted an election based on that. We're going to bring those prices way down.

I want to pause here because what you're saying is significant because you wrote on true social in 2023 that you're going to point a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden. Now you're saying you're not going to do that. I will say this. No, I'm not doing that unless I find something that I think is reasonable.

But that's not going to be my decision. That's going to be Pam Bondi's decision. And to a different extent, Cash Patel, assuming they're both there. And I think they're both going to get approved.

But you know, while you ask me that what they've done to me with weaponization is a disgrace. We'll get to some of that. Sorry, wait, wait, wait. You can't do one without the other.

In the history of our country, nothing like this has ever happened. And I've won these cases. I've won everyone in the rest in the process of being one. Deranged Jack Smith is on his way back to the Hague where he can execute people.

This is where he should have stayed. I think he's dangerous even being there. But I'll tell you what, what they've done to me in terms of weaponization, indictments, impeachments and everything else. And in the end, it probably helped me because I got the biggest vote the most votes any Republicans ever got in history.

Pam Bondi talks about investigating the investigators. Do you want her to investigate Jack Smith? I want her to do what she wants to do. Do you want to see Jack Smith investigate?

I think he's very corrupt. But I want her to do whatever she wants to do. Are you going to direct her? No, I'm not.

She's a very smart person. She's a great attorney general in Florida. She's very experienced. I want her to do what she wants to do.

I'm not going to instruct her to do it now. Sir, are you going to fire the current FBI Director Christopher Ray who you appointed? Well, I can't say I'm thrilled with him. He invaded my home.

I'm suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. I'm very unhappy with the things he's done. And crime is at an all-time high.

Migrants are pouring into the country that are from prisons and from mental institutions, as we've discussed. I can't say I'm thrilled. I don't want to say, I don't want to, again, I don't want to be Joe Biden and give you an answer and then do the exact opposite. So I'm not going to do that.

What I'm going to say is I certainly cannot be happy with him. You take a look at what's happened. And then when I was shot in the year, he said, oh, maybe it was shrapnel. Where's the shrapnel coming from?

Is it coming from heaven? I don't think so. So we need somebody to straighten. You know, I have a lot of respect for the FBI, but the FBI's respect has gone way down over the last number of years.

Don't you have to fire him in order to make room for casualties, in fact, confirmed? Well, I mean, it would sort of seem pretty obvious that if cash gets in, he's going to be taking somebody's place, right? And somebody is the man that you're talking about. I asked you last time we sat down for an interview if you were going to pardon yourself.

You said no. But now that President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter. Are you reconsidering? Might you pardon yourself?

I didn't do anything wrong. I was given the option. I was going to who? But very high up in the administration said, sir, if you pardon yourself, you're going to look guilty and you did nothing wrong.

Oh, I had that option. I couldn't save myself a lot of legal fees, but it turned out that I was right. Look at what's going on. Everything's being dropped.

I still have a Fannie Willis, a Fannie, a total hoax. That's a total hoax. It's all being dropped. I also asked the president-elect about NBC News' reporting that President Biden is considering preemptive pardons for some of the people who have clashed with Mr.

Trump, including Senator elect Adam Schiff, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney. As part of his response, Mr. Trump lashed out at the January 6 committee, accusing of unfairly targeting him and even of destroying its records, which the committee denies.

And Cheney was behind it. It's always Benny Thompson and everybody on that committee. We're going to- For what they did. Yeah.

Honestly, they should go to jail. So you think Liz Cheney should go to jail? For what they did- Everyone on the committee. I think everybody on the- Anybody that voted in favor- Are you going to direct your FBI director and your attorney general to send them to jail?

No, I don't know. I think that they'll have to look at that, but I'm not going to- I'm going to focus on drill baby drill. And I asked the president-elect if he plans to follow through on his campaign promise to pardon those to attack the Capitol on January 6, including the more than 900 people who pleaded guilty to crimes. I'm going to look at everything.

We're going to look at it in different cases. Yeah. Okay. But I'm going to be acting very quickly.

Within your first 100 days? First day? First day? First day.

Yeah, I'm looking. First day. These people have been- how long was it? Three or four years?

Right. You know, by the way, they've been in there for years and they're in a filthy disgusting place that shouldn't even be allowed to be open. And when we come back, President-elect Trump's message to the people who didn't vote for him. And welcome back.

The Syrian government fell overnight, a stunning end to the more than 50-year rule of the Assad family as rebels claimed Damascus. I press the president-elect on a range of foreign policy issues, including U.S. support for Ukraine and NATO in his second administration. Should Ukraine prepare for less aid from the United States after your switching office?

Probably. Sure. You said you can end the war in 24 hours. You've even said you want to try to end it before you're- What?

I'm trying to- You're actively trying to- I am. Have you talked to President Putin? No, I haven't talked to President Putin. No, I haven't.

You haven't talked to President Putin? No, I haven't. I don't want to say that. I don't want to say anything about that because I don't want to do anything that could impede the negotiation.

But you've- They're talking about- Let me tell you what I have talked about. Okay. Okay. There are people being killed in that war at levels that nobody's ever seen before.

You have to go back to the Second World War, and even that, if you take a look, and you know what it is? It's a soldiers' largely. The cities have been emptied out and demolished. The country has been demolished.

If I won that election, which you know how I feel about it, I won't get into it because we don't need to start that argument. I think it's an easy argument. It was really proven even more conclusively by the wind that I had on this one. But- That's your opinion, but I disagree with it.

Had I assumed kept control, number one, Israel wouldn't have happened, number two, Ukraine would have never happened. It would have never happened, Ukraine, Russia. But the number of people that are being killed, soldiers, young, beautiful soldiers, hundreds of thousands of people are being killed. And you know, it's very interesting.

It's level. Totally level, the battlefields. Totally level. You know what's happening?

The only thing that stops a bullet, you know what it is, is a body, a human body. And the people that are being killed, hundreds of thousands on both sides, Russia's lost probably 500,000. Ukraine's lost higher than they say, probably 400,000. You're talking about hundreds of thousands of bodies laying all over the fields.

It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen and it should have never been allowed to happen. Biden should have been able to stop it. Sir, will the United States stay in NATO while you're in office? In where?

NATO. Do you commit that the United States will remain a member of NATO while you're in office? Again, they have to pay their bills. If they pay their bills, absolutely.

But not if they don't pay their bills. But NATO is taking advantage of us because we would go, look, two things. Number one, they take advantage of us on trade, meaning the European nations, okay, like terrible. They don't take our cars, they don't take our food products, they don't take anything.

They take, it's a disgrace. And on top of that, we defend them. So it's a double whammy. So let me just tell you, I was able to get hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO just by a tough attitude.

I said to the countries, I'm not going to protect you unless you pay, and they started paying. And that amounted to more than $600 billion. It's a big thing. Otherwise, they wouldn't even be fighting.

They wouldn't have any money to fight. If they're paying their bills, and if I think they're doing a fair, if they're treating us fairly, the interest, absolutely, I'd say with NATO. But if not, you would consider the possibility of NATO. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. The president-elect is tasking Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, to try to cut government spending along with one of Mr. Trump's former primary rivals, businessman Vivek Ramaswami, all of it putting a spotlight on what it could mean for entitlements and defense spending.

You've tapped Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswami, to head up this Department of Government efficiency, which proposes cuts to the federal government. I think a lot of people hear that, and they get concerned about Medicare and Social Security. And defend spending. You won't touch Medicare Social Security.

No, I said to be, we're not touching Social Security other than we make it more efficient, but the people are going to get what they're getting. Okay. So the entitlement's off the table. And we're not raising ages or any of that.

Off the table. So we'll do it. I asked the president-elect about this extraordinary moment in time. He is taking office against the backdrop of a country that is so sharply divided.

And when he has yet to concede the 2020 election, which he lost. Sir, I don't have to tell you this because you've talked about it. It comes at a time when the country is deeply divided. And now you're going to be leading this country for the next four years.

For the sake of unifying this country, well, you concede the 2020 election and turn the page on that chapter. No. Why would I do that? But let me just say, when you say the country is deeply divided, I'm not the president.

Joe Biden is the president. You're going to be the president. I'm not the president. So when you say it's deeply divided, I agree.

But Biden is the president. I'm not. And he has been a divider. And you know where he divided it more than anything else and it probably backfired on him.

I think definitely his weaponization when he weaponized the Justice Department and he went after his political opponent and me. He went after his political opponent violently because he knew he couldn't beat him. And I think it really was a bad thing. And it really divided our country.

Sir, Democrats have control of the White House now. They didn't in 2020. If they are going around stealing elections, why would they do it? When you say Democrats have control now?

Of the White House. Yeah. So why didn't they steal this election? Since they have more power now?

Because I think it was too big to rig. So you won't. Too big to rig. To the people who say that you're now directing your Justice Department to invest in 2020.

They want to move on. I'm very capable. And the pan is going to be gracious resources. Is that what you're going to do?

Just so you know, I have the right to do that. But I'm not interested in that. You're not. I'm not interested.

I'm the absolute right. I'm the chief law enforcement officer. You do know that. I'm the president.

I'm the president. But I'm not interested in that. You know what I'm interested in drilling and getting prices now and stopping people from pouring into our border that come from prisons and mental institutions. One of the things that made this campaign unprecedented and extraordinary were the horrific attempts against your life.

Two assassination attempts. Do you feel safe going into the White House for the next four years? Why? I have confidence in Secret Service.

I know the people. I got to know a lot of them. And I have confidence. It was a bad moment.

Something shouldn't have happened. But I have a lot of confidence and they've really stepped it up. They were restricted from giving the look, I do a rally and you work many of them and I have 50,000 people. Joe would have a rally and he'd have 30 people and he had more Secret Service than me.

My Secret Service was always asking for more manpower slash women power. They were asking for more and more and more and they couldn't get it. I'm not blaming them really because they were always fighting for more people and they wouldn't get it. Now, boy, do we have it.

I want to ask you, sir, one final question. What do you want to say to Americans who didn't support you in this campaign? I'm going to treat you everybody as well as I have treated the greatest MAGA supporters. There's never been anything like MAGA in the history of this country.

These people are so dedicated to making America great again. It's very simple. And I'm going to treat them just the same as I treat MAGA. We're going to treat everybody good.

We want success for our country. We want safety for our country. Our country is under threat as you know. We have tremendous threat militarily because of the power of weapons and weaponry.

It's tremendous threat. Nobody talks about it, but it's tremendous threat. I want to treat everybody the same. I want to treat them well.

And at the end of this four years, I have a big head start because I was there for four years fairly recently. A lot of bad things were done during the four years that I wasn't there. And mostly in what they've done in terms of our reputation overseas, our reputation is so bad, so shot. I've got to bring it back and I also have to bring back civilization to our country.

Our country is a crime pot and we have to get rid of crime. We have so many things to do. We have to do the prices. We have to get the criminals out of our country.

We have to bring down crime. People have to be able to walk across the street and buy a loaf of bread without being shot. And that's going to happen. But what I say to them is, I love you and we're going to all work together.

And we're going to bring it together. And you know what's going to bring it together, success. I saw that just prior to COVID coming in, I had polls that with the highest anyone, McLachlan and Fabrizio said, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, if they came back from the dead and they ran as president and vice president, couldn't beat you, sir. We were doing so well and I was getting along with the left.

Let's go with the left. We're just going to go. Getting along with people that you would consider liberal or progressive as they like to say. And levels that I never thought was possible and you know what it was, success was bringing the country together and that's what I want to do.

And when we come back, President Elect Trump gives us a preview of his inaugural address. Welcome back. When Mr. Trump is sworn in as president in January, he will be the oldest person ever to assume the office.

I asked Mr. Trump about what he will say in that inaugural address and whether he will release his medical records. Let me ask you, sir, as you think about your inauguration, I remember your first inaugural address. You talked about American carnage.

Have you thought about your message for your second inaugural address? I have. Did you give us a preview? We're going to have a message.

You'll make you happy unity. It's going to be a message of unity. And again, I think success brings unity. And I've experienced that.

I've experienced it in my first term, as I said, we're going to be talking about unity. We're going to be talking about success, making our country safe, keeping people that shouldn't be in our country. We have to do that. I know it doesn't sound nice.

We have to do that. But basically, it's going to be about bringing our country together. Sir, when you think about your time in office, you are making history for a range of reasons, including the fact you will be the oldest person to be sworn into office. Do you commit to releasing your medical records?

Sure. I do it all the time. I think I've released four of them. Not just a letter, though.

You're full medical report. I would. And I think anybody should. But according to all the reports, I don't want to wear his wood.

Is this a wood where I can not go to it? But my report's a very good verse wrong. So you plan to release it? Sure.

I have no problem with it. And you can watch our full interview with President-elect Donald Trump at NBCNews.com. And when we come back, the panel is here for reaction. Welcome back.

The panel is here. NBC News managing Washington editor, Carol Lee, Eugene Daniels, White House correspondent for Politico and co-author of Politico Playbook, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, host of Inside with Jen Psaki, and Mark Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. Thanks to all of you for being here on a very big Sunday. Carol, let me start with you.

You broke the news earlier this week that President Biden was going to pardon his son, Hunter. It's just one of the many topics we discussed. What were your key takeaways from this conversation? Well, a couple of things, Kristin.

You know, I was struck by how succinctly the president-elect summed up his mandate. He said, I want on the border and I want on groceries and how quickly he plans to move on both of those fronts. And then his posture on retribution against his perceived political adversaries, you know, he is suggesting that he'll keep some distance from the FBI and the Justice Department in a way where he didn't during his first term. So he's saying, you know, those decisions about investigations, they'll be left up to the people that I put in those agencies.

However, you know, some of these folks who probably be in jail. And so, you know, that that message just comes off as a little bit mixed and he's saying that knowing that the people that he's putting in these jobs are people who share his views on these issues. And so it'll be very interesting to see how that plays out. It will be Eugene.

And to hear him back away from what he had posted on Truth Social, that he did want to go after President Biden. He backed away from that. He said his success is going to be his retribution. But as Carol notes, there was some mixed messaging broadly speaking, he had some pretty strong language for the January 6th committee.

Yeah. I think one of the things I was most fascinating is he didn't seem very combative in this interview, right, including on those points where he said some names, you said, Billy Thompson, this should be in jail. Maybe not. That's someone else's decision.

But he didn't want to fight with you, right? And it's something that he often wants to do. So it shows you one that he feels emboldened. He won this election.

He feels ready to move on. And I thought what was most fascinating is the, there's no ideological purity with him and that popped up over and over again, right? It's a patchwork of different policy prescriptions for things that usually, if you're a public and you're just kind of, you know, this, this and this, and that's what we care about, that wasn't here with Donald Trump. And I think that kind of gives voters what they wanted, which was not exactly a Republican who's going to do all of the things that were publicly.

It's a fascinating way to put it, Mark, that there's no ideological purity that we heard, but he was very clear about what his agenda items were and he feels emboldened that he believes he has a mandate after his decisive win. Well, Hisha, and I thought he looked very relaxed and confident in your long interview covering a lot of topics. I do think that you're going to see a flurry of activity in the first 100 days in the executive branch. But I do think somebody that's being underappreciated here from a legislative agenda is what is a legislative agenda.

And the one item that's really there is going to be trying to renew the tax relief package from 2017. And when that was passed, 12 House Republicans defected. So we talked about the fact that there are 53 Republican senators, which should help them in his confirmations, but Speaker Johnson is going to have an enormous task next year and it's going to be a really hard job. And he believes to have a margin of one or two members at all to actually can lose.

And so getting legislation through the Congress is going to be very difficult and certainly if Trump isn't getting his way, he's going to blame Senate and House leadership for that. And those tax cuts are very unpopular across the country? Oh, come on. They are in every piece of data, Mark.

That's interesting. But it doesn't mean it's a difference in his priorities or his policies. Because even when you listen to what he had to say about retribution, retribution will be through success. That's not saying he's not going to go after his political enemies.