Hi, it's Kristen, and we're back in your podcast feed today with something extra from my interview with President Elect Trump. Many of you know that we publish full versions of our interviews at Meet the Press. It's important to us that you get to listen to the unedited discussion for yourself. I spoke with President Elect Trump in Trump Tower for nearly an hour and a half, and we could only cover so much of it on Meet the Press.
So here's the full, unedited audio for you. Thanks so much for listening. President Elect Donald Trump, welcome back to Meet the Press. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for being here. You are the first President since Rover Cleveland to win non-consecutive terms. Republicans now have control of the House and the Senate. What do you plan to accomplish in your first 100 days in office?
Well, we're going to do something with the border and very strong, very powerful. That'll be our first signal and a first signal to America that we're not playing games. We have people coming in by the millions, as you know, and a lot of people shouldn't be here. Most of them shouldn't be here, but we have jails being emptied into our country.
We have mental institutions from all over the world being emptied into our country. So we'll be doing that. We're going to be extending within that period, or as soon as we can, the Trump tax cuts, because you know, they're coming due, and they're very substantial for people, and it would be very, I think it will anger a lot of people, frankly, if we don't get an extension of that. That's what led us to one of the greatest economies ever, and those two things are going to be very vital, very important.
We're going to be focusing on crime in the cities, and we'll work with Democrat governors, most of them are, you know, if you look at the 25 worst places, they're just about all Democrat controlled cities and states, and we're going to be working with Democrat governors and Democrat mayors, and I look forward to doing it, but we have to do something about crime in the cities, mostly in our cities, and we're going to have a lot of other things. We'll be working on nominations, we're going to still be working on some nominations. I think they're going very well. We have, for the most part, I think they're going extremely well.
It looks like Pete is doing well now. I mean, people were a little bit concerned, he's a young guy with a tremendous track record, actually went to Princeton and went to Harvard, he was a good student at both, but he loves the military, and I think people are starting to see it, so we'll be working on his nomination along with a lot of others. We are going to delve into your nominations, but since you bring him up, do you still have confidence in Pete Hexas? Yes, I do.
I really do. He's been in the box, but I've known him for a long time, and he's basically a military guy. I mean, every time I talk to him, all he wants to talk about is the military guy. He's a military guy.
I used to kid him about it. I didn't think it would be in this position where he made me, hopefully will be secretary of defense, but every time I was with him, he was fighting for soldiers where he said some soldier was unjustly put in prison because they were really doing what they were taught to do, in some cases. So yeah, I think he's going to do fine. The fact that there are these allegations against him, misconduct, sexual misconduct, heavy drinking, the fact that he said to some senators reportedly, he'll stop drinking if he gets this job.
Does that worry you? No, I think that everybody has something that they can stop. Some people can stop eating. I'm lucky.
I'm not a drinker, but I can stop eating. And we all want to stop doing something. And if he said that, I mean, it's a nice thing to say. That's a good thing to say.
But he's very respected. I can tell you, I know a lot of the people at Fox, they think he's fantastic. And the people that work with him, really, they love him. So I think, I think you're going to have somebody that's really terrific.
And again, all he talked about with me, I said, you know, you're not really a television guy, even though he did very well as, you know, you're really a military guy. He said, I'm all about the military. And I told him, so he's making a lot of money at Fox. He's doing very well.
And I said, you know, if for some reason you don't get this thing, you're not going to be able to go back. And all that money you're making, you can kiss a goodbye. He said, this is all about America. You know, he didn't say, well, let me think about it.
Let me discuss it. That was, that's a very big risky thing he's doing. When he goes and he, he says, I'm going to give up, you know, millions of dollars in order to possibly become the secretary of defense. A lot of people would say it's a great position.
It's probably almost no greater position. But a lot of people would say, I don't know. I think about it. He said, I don't have to think about it.
All right. We're going to delve into your cabinet a little bit later. But I want to delve into one of your signature promises on the campaign trial, 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.
I don't believe it. Can you guarantee American families won't pay more? I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow.
But I can say that if you look at my just pre-COVID, we're the greatest economy in the history of our country. I had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries. But in particular, China, we took in 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 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. We're subsidizing these countries. If we're going to subsidize it, let it 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 it 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. If 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.
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. Well, again, prices did go up on some goods in your first administration, washing machines, tires.
Will you punish CEOs? Let me just explain to you. No. You mentioned washing machines.
So you look at Whirlpool in Ohio. I got a call from Jim Jordan, one of the greats, congressman from Ohio. And he said, they're going out of business because South Korea and China are dumping washing machines into our country. And I put a 50% tariff on the washing machines coming in from China and South Korea and Whirlpool and the companies that made washing machines, which are largely based in Ohio, went through the roof.
We saved thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs. They were all going out of business because they were dumping washing machines. And when I put the tariffs on, they became successful businesses. No, it didn't.
Not only didn't it cost people, it made our country stronger and more powerful and it kept jobs. But how do you make sure that consumers don't wind up paying work? Will you punish CEOs who try to pass the cost of tariffs on to their customers? Well, the market's going to take care of it.
I mean, actually, the market takes care of it. And if it doesn't, we adjust it somewhat. But in the case of Whirlpool or, let's say, companies that made washing machines, they were all being put out of business by the dumping from, in particular, South Korea and China. And when I put the tariffs on, very substantial tariffs, although peanuts compared to what people do to us, what countries do to us, it became a very, very powerful, successful company.
Now, let's say I didn't do the tariffs. It would have gone out of business. You would have lost tens of thousands of jobs and you don't include that in your equation. No, they make a lot of money.
I'll go a step further. Tariffs are going to make our country rich. Tariffs are going to help us pay off $35 trillion in debt. Tariffs are going to make our country safe because China, as an example, doesn't want to play games with us.
If we're going to do tariffs on them, they don't want to play games. And we have a lot of games being played on us right now. Well, I think, and that takes me to my next question. 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 the both. 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 drug-supporting in almost as importantly, drugs-supporting in maybe more importantly. Drugs-supporting in at levels never seen before, 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%. That's a very substantial tariff.
And in both cases, but in the case, it was really visible within 10 minutes after that phone call, we noticed that the people coming across the border, the southern border, having to do with Mexico, they were in a trickle. Just a trickle. In fact, I call the border. See, unlike my opponent, I do call the border a lot and I said, how's the border looking today?
They said, there's nobody here. They couldn't believe it. The military stopped these vast groups of people. We call them caravans, but they had caravans of people and they stopped, largely stopped them.
Now, they're going to have to continue that, but if they don't continue, and the other thing I told them is no more drugs. And I told that to China, too. I had to deal with President Xi. Had the election been different.
I'm going to be very nice because we don't have to get into an argument over 2020. But had the election been different, the result been different, we would have had China giving their maximum penalty, which is the penalty of death, to people that sent fentanyl into this country. But Biden didn't, unfortunately, finish that discussion up. I had an agreement with President Xi, who I got along with very well.
We've had communication as recently as this week, and I had communication with him with him with him. We're going to give the death penalty to anybody sending drugs into the United States. Not that conversation, but I had other conversations, but in the past, I've had that conversation. Let me ask you about another aspect of the economy, sir, the minimum wage.
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25, since 2009. There are 20 states that still have the federal minimum wage at $7.25, and I actually have a map. 19 of these states actually voted for you, sir. And you can see it.
Right here. I don't know if you remember this, but during the debate in 2020, I asked you if you would raise the minimum wage you said you would consider it. And so my question for you is now that you are going back to the White House, for these 19 states that voted for you. Are you going to raise the federal...
Very long number. I will agree. It's a very long number. Let me give you the downside, though.
In California, they raise it up to a very high number. And your restaurants are going out of business all over the place. The population is shrinking. It's had a very negative impact.
But there is a level at which you could do it absolutely again. What does that level do? I don't know. I mean, I really don't know.
I can say this. You have a lot of businesses that are open and thriving because of the lower minimum wage. If you raise it too much, and you understand this, if California went crazy, they went crazy. And people, the restaurants are closing all over.
Many more people are hurt. So I hear you saying similarly to what you said in 2020, will you consider this something you're going to look at? I'd want to speak to the governors. And the other thing that's very complicated about minimum wages is places are so different.
Mississippi and Alabama and great places are very different than New York or California. I mean, in terms of the cost of living and other things. So it would be nice to have just a minimum wage for the whole country, but it wouldn't work. Because you have places where it's very inexpensive to live, where a minimum wage, which is eight or nine dollars, might have very little effect because the cost of living in certain places is really low.
Before we move on to immigration, which I do want to talk about, 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. 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. 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 statute 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. So we had 11,000 and 13,000 different estimates, 13,099 murders 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 four years. No, it doesn't. No, it's within every period. It's during the Biden term.
No, that was a friction that they put that out. This was done by the Border Patrol. It's 13,099 and 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, they'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 institution no matter what country it is. You know, the Venezuelans, 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.
It's not the case in Colorado. It's totally the case. You don't leave the local courts. You don't leave the local courts.
I play it. 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 raised the point that the logistics are complicated. You said yourself.
But everything's complicated. Yeah. You need 24 times more ICE detention capacity just to deport 1 million people per year not to mention where agents, where judges, more planes. Is it realistic to deport everyone?
You have no choice. First of all, they're costing 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. The other's 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 were brought to this country illegally as children.
You said one 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? We have 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. The 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. Because he controlled Congress to a certain extent.
He could have done something, but they didn't do it. I never understood why. Because they always seem 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 you 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 aren't home. You're talking about separation. Well, I mean, there are two aspects to this. Your border is our home.
It's our home. It's that they can be deported together. Is that the plan? That way you keep the...
Well, I don't want to be breaking up families. 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 if they want to stay with a father, but we have to have a rules and regulations.
You can 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 a 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 camera is a focus 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. We have the highest crime rate. And during the debate, a man whose ratings have gone way down, David Muir said to me, no, crime is because I had to debate three people, not one. Debating one was easy.
Debating three was actually pretty easy, too, if you want another to. But David Muir said, the crime rates have gone down. I said, no, they've gone up. And then the following day they released the crime rates and they will way up.
Yeah. The FBI statistics. You're talking about those FBI statistics. He gave the wrong answer.
He's confusing based on what you're looking at. But a lot of that is migrant crime. Let me ask you about another aspect of this. Because you know a lot of it's migrant crime.
Well, let me ask you about another aspect of this that I think a lot of people are really curious about. I mean, 3% of people who are here illegally have criminal histories. But in your first administration, you had the zero tolerance policy, where we did see family separation. You ended it.
The purpose of that, though, to some extent, you talked about this in the time of the story. But you also had it with Obama. You didn't know that. He didn't have a zero tolerance policy.
And you also know he built the jails for children. He didn't have a zero tolerance policy. But in 2014, he built the jails. You know that.
I want to ask you about the zero tolerance policy. He didn't have a systemic, we're going to separate families. Families were separated when parents were affected. The kids.
So we don't have to separate a family. Excuse me, Kristin. We don't have to separate families. We'll send the whole family very humanely back to the country where they came.
That way the family's not separated. So no more family separations. You're not providing a zero tolerance policy. The family may decide to say, I'd rather that they'd go, but in which case they have that option.
But you're not going to revive your zero tolerance policy, which was put in place as a deterrent. Is there any universe where you would bring that back, sir? We need deterrence. Look, ready?
When somebody comes here illegally, they're going out. It's very simple. When they come here illegally, they're going out. Now, if they come here illegally, but their family is illegally, then the family has a choice.
The person that came in illegally can go out, or they can all go out together. And that was made very clear by Tom Holman. So you're not at this point in time planning to revive that zero tolerance policy where kids are severing? I'm doing what I just told you.
I'm going to do. I don't want to send the family out. I don't want to send anybody out. But I'll tell you, we have to, because otherwise we have no country.
If we don't have borders, and if we don't have voting, good voting, fair voting, do you know they're still counting votes in San Diego, California? Listen, they're still counting the votes. This is almost four weeks. They're still counting the votes.
If we don't have fair elections and honest voting and machines that work quickly, you know, if you had paper ballots, every election will be over by 10 o'clock in the evening. Let me ask you. You want to say what I'm saying? Let me get a much more accurate count.
Before we get all of that, 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 14th Amendment, though, says that, quote, all persons born in the United States are citizens. Can you get around the 14th Amendment with a second of action? Well, we're not going to change. You would 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.
Second action? Well, if we can through 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. It's ridiculous.
You know, we're the only country in the world that has it. You know that? Well, what about the legal challenges? We have thousands of judges.
Somebody walks onto our land and we have to now say, welcome to the United States. They could be a criminal or not a criminal. We release them into our country. It's called catch and release.
We release them into our country. Wait, just one second. And now they get employers and the lawyers are good lawyers and everybody has a lawyer. And you know how many judges?
We have thousands. Thousands. Now, here's what other countries do. They come into the land and they say, I'm sorry, you have to go.
And they take them out. Okay. With us, once they touch our land, we're into litigation that lasts for years, costs us hundreds of billions of dollars. We have judges.
And I'm sure they're all honest, but I don't know that for a fact. You can imagine what's going on with the judges. And just so you, because I have a lot of judges, I tell you what, I know more about judges than any human being in history. Look, we have judges.
Every time somebody puts two feet or even one foot on a piece of our land, it's welcome to long-term litigation. Other countries, every other country, when somebody walks on and they see that they're here illegally, they welcome off, they take them back to where they came from, we have to get rid of the system. It's killing our country. Let's talk about healthcare.
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, repealing and releasing?
So when John McCain let us down by voting, and Marquesne Collins, and whoever it was it voted against, but they really let us down. They did us a great disservice because we went out great. Obamacare is lousy healthcare. It's very expensive healthcare for the people.
It's also expensive for the country, but for the people. It's lousy healthcare. When John McCain gave his thumbs down, after saying for 10 years that he wants to repeal and replace, okay, and then he came out, he put his 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 had very good people in the medical area that handled 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 did. 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 now. But you did try to overturn it, sir. Well, it's loud. 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. 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. 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 did try to have your Justice Department effectively kill it, though, sir.
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 no one? The answer is yes.
They'll have coverage. You have to have it. What about their prices? What about their prices, sir?
I want the prices to go down. I want to have better health care for less money. I believe. I have the smartest people in that world.
You know, that's a separate world unto itself. I have the smartest people in that world looking at it and trying. And if they come up with something, I will present it. Now, maybe you won't be able to sell it.
But if we get better health care for less money, I believe it's very simple. Just very quickly. When will we see your fully developed plan? When are you going to show it?
I don't know that you'll see it at all. I can only say that we have some of the best health care people. I've always tinkered with it. I think it's a little hard to explain.
Obamacare, when I took it over, was a disaster. I made it work for 20 million people. Yeah, because of me. Because of me.
If you look at what I did. I made it good. You tried to deal in place. You tried to deal in place.
You tried to deal in place. Because I repealed it and replaced it. We would have had a better system because we wouldn't have had health care. And the Democrats would have been forced to do something.
If we wouldn't have had it, the Democrats would have been forced to do something that they wouldn't do if we have it. Let me ask you about another aspect of health care. You talked about this on the campaign trail IVF. You promised free IVF for all who want it, either through the government or through mandates with insurance companies.
I've been hearing from Republican senators, some of them, who say they're not going to support that plan. How are you going to get that passed? Well, we're going to see. Ideally, the insurance companies to pay for it.
The fertilization. I came out very early for a Republican, especially, and I think they were looking for my guidance, my great wisdom, right? They were looking for it. And I got a call from Katie Britt, who's a terrific person, Senator from Alabama.
And she said, sir, we just had a really negative ruling from a judge in Alabama, conservative judge, that all of these clinics had to be closed. And she went into great detail, and she said people had devastated over it. And after literally speaking to her for five minutes, I issued an order, really an order, in a sense. It was a statement from the Republican Party that we are all for IVF and fertilization.
Okay. The Alabama legislature met the following day and passed it. It was a beautiful thing to see. And I consider myself to be the father of IVF in a certain way, and the Republicans were very strong in the issue.
But, sir, I want to understand where it falls in your list of priorities. I mean, is this something we can expect to see you try to move on in the future days? We're going to be talking about it, and we're going to be seeing. We have a lot of other things.
I have tax cuts. You know, we'll be submitting in either the first or second package to Congress, the extension of the tax cuts, so that might very well be in there, or it'll come sometime after that. 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, where then 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, are things change? I think they change. I hate to go on shows like Joe Biden. 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 sort of 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.
Okay. Let's talk about some of your picks to fill out your administration. You 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 a 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? 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. Are you going to direct him to do it? No, not at all. Not at all.
We have two great people that we have. 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'll tell you. I thought Cash may be difficult because he's a strong conservative voice. And I don't know if anybody that's not singing his praises, the other day I was watching and 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 Trigaudy became a fan, Trigaudy, you know Trigaudy, 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 vote. 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 me. And I did nothing wrong. Well, let me ask you this.
You said President Biden, quote, that you're going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden. You said that. Where did I say that? The campaign.
You said that on 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 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 our success, this country successful, that would be my greatest, that would be such a great achievement.
Bring it back. Now that's overwritten with crime, that has millions of people that shouldn't be here that should be in prisons in 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 on two things, the border and more than immigration. You know, they like to say immigration. I break it down more to the border. But I want on the border and I want on groceries, 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 want 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 truth 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 Pambondi's decision and to a different extent, Cash Patel, assuming they're both there. 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.
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 of the in the process of being one.
Doreenj 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 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 gotten in history. Pambondi talks about investigating the investigators. Do you want her to investigate Jack Smith?
I wanted to do what she wants to do. Do you want to see Jack Smith? 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 Wray, 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.
Again, I don't want to be Joe Biden and give you an answer and then do the exact opposite. We're going to talk about that. 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? Because somebody is the man that you're talking about. Okay. Let's talk about Project 2025.
This is the conservative policy blueprint. You disavowed it during the campaign. You called it a product of the radical, right? You've said some of their ideas.
I said, some of it is. Some of it is very good. Some of it is very mainstream, actually. Frankly, the Democrats should use some of it because they went with all the transgender that they were doing with the men playing in women's sports.
If they wouldn't have done that, maybe they would have done better. So you take me to my question. You're now giving people involved in Project 2025 prominent roles in your administration. Are you changing your mind about Project 2025?
Is this now the policy blueprint for the second Trump administration? No. I take a look at the group, it was hundreds of people were involved. And I was actually, I reprimanded the whole group.
I said, you shouldn't have placed this document in front of the voters because I have nothing to do with it and I'm the one that's running. You had no right to do this where you put a thousand page document in front and many of those things I disagree with. Now, many of those things I happen to agree with, many of those things Democrats should have agreed to. And I think they would have done much better in the election because they got slaughtered.
Well, I guess people see the list. Russ Vogt, Brendan Carr, Peter Navarro, John Ratcliffe, Pete Hochtram, Monica Crowley. And they think these are all the people who are involved in writing Project 2025. This must be a blueprint for work requirements, eliminating the Head Start program, criminalizing pornography.
Is that what we can expect? I don't know. I never spoke to them actually about it. And I purposely, and I told you normally it would be just the opposite review every page.
I purposely didn't even want to see it because when somebody like you asked me a question about Project 2025, I can honestly say, I've never seen it. I have nothing to do with it. I didn't read it. But I did hear some things in there that I would totally disagree with.
And I said to the people that were really the people behind it, you know who those people are, I said, you really have no right doing this to me because they use it as a sound by the Democrats. I don't know. It couldn't have been too effective because they got slaughtered, but they did use it as a sound. But to people who see, oh, he's bringing in all of these people from Project 2025, he must know what it is.
Well, you know what? I don't know what it is. No, I don't know what it is. But I heard some things that I didn't like.
And by the way, I heard certain things that are phenomenal. Like what? Like, long order. We want a long order.
Okay. Little thing. Like, let's put prisoners in jail. Let's not let people come out and raid every drug store in Manhattan so that we have to put glass up and every store is going out of business.
Let me ask you about something you've referenced a couple of times in this interview. 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 and the lawyers told me very specifically I don't have to go into 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 say myself a lot of legal fees, but it turned out that I was right. Look at what's going on. Everything's being dropped.
They still have a Fannie Willis, a total hoax. That's a total hoax. It's all been dropped. It's all been discredited.
It's been dropped. There are those people that say, and this would be the first time in history, that all of those vacant, they were going after a political opponent. There are those that say that I actually did better in the election because of it. Now that would be a first, I think you would agree because normally that's like you go back to the microphone and you say, I'm leaving right now, I will leave office, I'm going back to my family and I will fight for my name.
Well, I had to fight for my name in public because I didn't leave office, but no, I didn't want to pardon myself. I had the option to pardon myself. And you don't want one now. You're not going to pardon myself now.
You're going to need one for it. First of all, I've won almost all of the cases. What if president Biden didn't win our own resuscitation, what if president Biden offered you a pardon? Would you accept it?
I've never even thought about it. I don't think he'll do it. Look, if he did, he's the one that started this whole thing. He got the Justice Department to go after me and the state cases are all being run by the Justice Department, which is illegal.
They had their people from the Justice Department work for Alvin Bragg in order to get something on. They worked for LaTisha James in the state. He had his people go from the federal government and take lesser jobs in the state in order to get down. No, you can't deny it.
You know why? Yeah. Because they were there. Wait a minute.
Wait, you have a tendency to sort of like slough over things. You just made a statement. His person, the top, maybe the third or second or third person, left the federal government, the DOJ, and went to work for LaTisha James. And then after they got that one started, went to work for the DA.
Let me ask you about some of this new reporting, NBC News is reporting that president Biden is considering giving preemptive pardons to the likes of Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, and Anthony Fauci. If president Biden doesn't issue those pardons, do you think they are going to wish that he had? I can tell you this about Cheney, and she's a so-called Republican. I think she hurt the Democrats terribly.