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Get up with the sun, show up for CAMH, and rise up for mental health. Register today at SunriseChallenge CA. That's SunriseChallenge CA. This Sunday, my exclusive interview with President Trump as he marks 100 days in office.
When does it become the Trump economy? It partially is right now, I think the good parts of the Trump economy and the bad parts of the Biden economy. On his handling of the economy economy and what his tariffs will mean for consumers. I'm just saying they don't need to have $30.
I can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils. I can have five. How his immigration policy plans are clashing with the courts.
Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States? I don't know. And his vision to expand U.S. territory.
Would you allow military force to take Canada? Well, I think we're not going to ever get to that point. It could happen. Something could happen with Wayland.
I'll be honest. Plus, a behind the scenes look inside Mar A Lago and how he wants to bring the feel of his private club to the White House. It'll be a world class beautiful ballroom. Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander, NBC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons, Simone Sanders Townsend, former chief spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris, and Mark Short, former director of legislative affairs for President Trump.
Welcome to Sunday and a special edition of Meet the Press from NBC News in Washington, the longest running show in television history. This is a special edition of Meet the Press with Kristen Welker. Good Sunday morning. In his first 100 days in office, President Trump has signed more than 140 executive orders and has focused on everything from the border to tariffs to foreign policy.
He has pushed the limits of his executive power, clashed with the courts and disrupted the global world order. I sat down with President Trump on Friday at his private club in Florida, Mar a Lago, for a wide ranging interview. We started our conversation on one of the top issues on the minds of Americans. I want to start on the economy, sir, which obviously the biggest issue for voters.
We got new numbers today, better than expected. Job numbers, much better. At the same time, the economy shrank in the first quarter. You've been arguing all week that this is President Biden's economy.
Is this now your economy, sir? Well, I think certain aspects of it are. Costs are. I was able to get down the cost, but even that, it takes a while to get them down, but we got them down good.
We lost five to six billion dollars a day with Biden. Five to six billion. And I've got that down to a great number right now in a very record time. You know, we're talking about 100 days, but just think what that is.
$5 billion a day we're losing on trade. And we were very tough with China, as you know, we've got 145% tariff. Nobody's ever heard of such a thing. And we've essentially cut off trade relationships by putting that much of a tariff on.
And that's okay. We've gone cold turkey. That means that we're not losing, you know, we lost a trillion dollars to China. A trillion dollars.
That means we're not losing a trillion dollars when we go cold turkey because we're not doing business with them right now. And they want to make a deal. They want to make a deal very badly. We'll see how that all turns out.
But it's going to be a fair deal. When does it become the Trump economy? It partially is right now. And I really mean this.
I think the good parts of the Trump economy and the bad parts of the Biden economy, because he's done a terrible job. He did a terrible job and everything from his oil pan, which I'm sure he knew nothing about some of the things he was supposedly signing. But, sir, you acknowledge when you announced your tariffs, for example, the stock market dropped. It's been volatile.
It has since gone up. Do you take responsibility for that? Yeah. Do you take responsibility?
Ultimately, I take responsibility for everything, but I've only just been here for a little more than three months. But the stock market, look at what's happened in the last short period of time. It didn't have nine or 10 days in a row or 11 days where it's gone up and the tariffs have just started kicking in. And we're doing really well psychologically.
I mean, the fake News was giving me such press on the tariffs. The tariffs are going to make us rich. We're going to be a very rich country. So let's talk about the tariffs.
I want to ask you about something you said this week got a lot of attention. You were at your cabinet meeting. You said, quote, and I quote, you said, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. Are you saying that your tariffs will cause some prices to go up?
No, I think your tariffs are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich. You said some dollars are going to cost more. Isn't that acknowledgeable that some prices will go up? I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs.
It's 11 years old, needs to have $30. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls, because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China. When you say they could have $3 instead of $30, are you saying you're gonna need Americans could see empty store shelves.
No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying they don't need to have $30. I can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils.
I can have five. But you're basically saying there could be some supply chain waste money on a trade deficit with China for things we don't need, for junk that we don't need. Well, prices are already going up on some popular tires, strollers. This is such a dishonest interview already.
Prices are down on groceries. Prices are down for oil. Prices are down for oil. Energy prices are down at tremendous numbers for gasoline.
And let me tell you, when you have the big thing, what he did, he spen which he was, but he spent like a very stupid person. And that was bad for inflation. But what really killed us with inflation was the price of energy. It went up to $3.90, even $4.
And in California, five and six dollars. Right. Okay. I have it down to $1.98 in many states right now.
When you go that much lower on energy, which is ahead of my prediction because I really thought I could get it down into the $2 50s. We have it down at $1.98 in numerous places. But when you say costs are going up, even mortgage rates are going down. Well, let me give you some examples.
These are actual examples. So you're saying the prices are going down, some prices are going up. Tires, strollers, some clothing. In the weight of your tariffs, that's peanuts compared to energy.
Energy is 60% of the cost. Energy is a big. You campaign on prompts to bring prices down on day one. I don't know what you say strollers are going up.
I'm saying that gasoline is going down. Gasoline is thousands of times more important than a stroller or something. But what do you say to Americans who say they voted for you because they want and they need relief right now, and they're getting it right now. What about those mortgage rates are going down despite the fact that we have a stubborn Fed.
But you said dolls. Even dolls could cost a couple bucks more. Maybe they might. But you don't need to have, as I said, $35.
You can have 2, 3, 4, and save a lot of money. We don't need to feed the beast. I guess you're talking about this transition cost. How long should people expect that transition to last?
Mr. President, I can't tell you that. I can tell you that we're making a lot of money. We're doing great again.
We're losing more than $5 billion a day. $5 billion a day. You don't talk about that. And right now we're gonna be at a point very soon where we're making money every day.
Look how soon we were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China. Now we're essentially not doing business with China, therefore, we're saving hundreds of billions of dollars. Very simple. You take it to my next question, which is about China.
They've been making a number of public statements, very positive statements, the last 24 hours. Well, most recently, they said before talks could happen, the US Would need to remove unilateral tariffs. Would you consider dropping the tariffs to get China to negotiate? No.
First of all, you're giving me a statement that was said a week ago. You're not giving the statement that was said today. I have May 2nd Chinese Commerce Ministry. You know what they said today?
The US Wants to negotiate. It should show sincerity by preparing to take actions in correcting its mistakes and canceling the unilateral tariffs. They made no. First of all, they made numerous statements.
Yes, they've made numeration. I can give you a statement for any occasion. Y. They said today they want to talk.
Look, China and I don't like this. I'm not happy about this. China's getting killed right now. They're getting absolutely destroyed.
Their factories are closing. Their unemployment is going through the roof. I'm not looking to do that to China. Now, at the same time, I'm not looking to have China make hundreds of billions of dollars and build more ships and more army tanks and more airplanes.
So you're not, just to be fair, you're not dropping the tariffs against China to get them to negotiate. Those tariffs are staying on. What do I do? You lower them.
At some point, I'm going to lower them because otherwise you could never do business with them. And they want to do business very much. Look, their economy is really doing badly. Their economy is collapsing.
So small businesses say they are being hurt by the Chinese tariffs and some could be forced to shut down. Many businesses have been helped. Are you considering tariff relief for small businesses? Why do you always mention that?
You know, you pick up a couple of little businesses. What about the car business? They're going to make a fortune because of the tariffs. Do you know that the union, the head of the union, who was no fan of mine.
Fain, Sean Fain, I guess his name is right. He didn't endorse me. The Teamsters did. A lot of people did.
A lot of unions did. But he didn't. He couldn't stand me. Now he's saying, wow, what's Trump's done for the automobile?
I can't believe it. I assume he's going to probably now say, the next thing he can say is, I endorse this guy. He's the greatest I've ever seen. He can't believe it's happened.
He said, we've been waiting 40 years for somebody to do what Trump is doing. So why don't you mention the big car industry instead of mentioning somebody that's doing strollers? Well, I'm just asking about small businesses. Are there any discussions about giving any relief to small businesses?
They're not going to need it. Okay, are these. They're going to make so much money. Are these tariffs if you build your product here?
Remember, there are no tariffs if you build your product here. It's very easy. It's very simple. Are these tariffs permanent, Mr.
President? Depends on what you're talking about. One of the things that is going to bring and has brought. So I think we probably have close to $9 trillion of investments coming into this country.
If you look at other presidents, it doesn't have anything like that. This is over a period of two months. You got to give me a little break in the one month because we're three months. But, you know, let's say we had to get started with a lot of fake news at the beginning.
So we had to beat that down. But so let's say in two months. So in just a short period of time, a matter of a couple of months, we have the largest number ever in history invested in the United States and committed. We have between guaranteed, spoken for and people that are going to make a decision and announce a pretty soon close to $9 trillion.
We've never had anything. Plus, now that's Apple building $500 billion worth of plants. They always built their plants in China. Now they're building their plants over here.
That's the biggest computer company, the biggest chip company in the world. You know, the chip company from Taiwan, which is the biggest in the world, is committed for 500 billion. Another one's committed for 300 billion. We have companies.
Nobody's ever seen anything like it. Let me tell you the other thing. Very importantly, automobile companies, plant after plant after plant. Toyota, Honda, Ford, General Motors, Stellantis.
I mean, nobody's ever seen anything like it. And I don't like this. But it happens to be. They're stopping work in Mexico and they're stopping work in Canada and they're all moving here.
This is important though. You're not taking the possibility that these tariffs could be printed off the table. Some of them. I wouldn't do that.
Because if somebody thought they were going to come off the table, why would they build in the United States? Let me ask you about some of what Wall street has said. Some people on Wall street have expressed concerns that the possibility of a recession is increasing. I want to know what you think about that.
Are you comfortable with the country potentially dipping into a recession for a period of time if you are able to achieve your long term goals? Well, you know, you say some people on Wall street say. Well, I tell you something else. Some people on Wall street say that we're going to have the greatest economy in history.
Why don't you talk about them? Because some people on Wall street say this is, that's getting at. That's what I'm getting at. People on Wall street say this is going to be the greatest windfall ever.
And that's my question. Long term, is it okay in the short term to have a recession? Look, yes, everything's okay. What we are.
I said this is a transition period. I think we're going to do fantastically. Are you worried about a recession? No.
Okay. No, I think we're going to have the greatest economic. Are you worried it could happen? Do you think it could happen?
Anything can happen. But I think we're going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think we're going to have the greatest economic boom in history. Today's strong jobs report likely means not clear, but likely means the Fed is less likely to lower interest rates.
Well, he should lower them. And at some point he will. He'd rather not because he's not a fan of mine, just doesn't like me because I think he's a total stiff and, you know, it's just one of those things. He should lower them, and I wish the people that are on that board would get him to lower because we are at a perfect time.
It's already late. But he should lower interest rates. You rule out removing Fed Chair Jerome Powell. You know, I get to change him very quickly anyway.
You know, in very short period of time. In 2026, you're not going to remove. You don't have plans to remove him before 2026, when it's time's up. That was a total.
Why would I do that? I'd get to replace the person in another short period of time. And when we come back, President Trump's deportation plans have been clashing with the courts. Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States?
I don't. Welcome back. President Trump vowed during the campaign to carry out the largest deportation operation in US History. But in his first few months in office, President Trump is clashing with the courts as he executes his plans.
Let's talk about the border. Let's talk about deportations. Border crossings are at their lowest level ever recorded. Is the border, Is the border now secure?
Yeah, it's really secure. It's absolutely. When you say that, doesn't that just sound good? After being abused for years by an incompetent president that allowed people to pour through an open border, Criminals from all over the world, murderers and insane people from mental institutions and insane asylums.
Isn't it a beautiful thing when you say it's the most secure it's ever been in the history of our country? Isn't that a nice statement? Well, I'm curious to know what it means. You declared a national emergency on the southern border.
The order is still in place. Even though you're saying means we have the most secure border we've ever had. And I guess the question becomes, when will you know that the emergency is over? You're planning to lift it at some point.
Is it necessary? Because obviously the military is involved. Will you lift that emergency? Well, the biggest emergency is the courts aren't allowing us to take really we're going to talk about that.
But talk to me first about this. Talk to me first about this. The border is not the emergency. The border is.
It's all part of the same thing, though. The big emergency right now is that we have thousands of people that we want to take out and we have some judges that want everybody to go to. Some of them you appointed, sir, including three on the Supreme Court. I mean, it's unbelievable.
It's unbelievable how that happens, but they do change. Just to button this up, though, are you planning to lift that emergency order anytime soon now that the border support? We have emergency. We have a massive emergency overall.
It's an overall emergency on immigration. And if the courts don't allow us to take people out, if we had to have a court case, every single. Think of it, every single person. We had millions of people, we had millions of court cases.
Figure 2 Weeks of court case, it would be 300 years. So let's talk about this because obviously you had back and forth with the supreme court. In a 9 to 0 decision, the Supreme Court directed your administration to facilitate the return. You've talked about this in the past of Gilmar Rigo Garcia from a president El Salvador, whose deportation your administration called administrative error.
You said in a recent interview you could bring him back, but you won't. Are you defying the Supreme Court? No, I'm relying on the attorney general of the United States. Pam Bondi is very capable of doing a great job because I'm not involved in the legality or the illegality.
I have lawyers who do that. And that's why I have a great doj. We have a great one. We had a very corrupt one before.
Now we have a great one. And they're not viewing the decision the way you said it. They don't view it that way at all. They think it's a totally different decision.
Well, you say you have the power to bring back, though. Your attorney general says, quote, that's up to El Salvador. Just to put a fine point on this. Do you have the power to bring Abrego Garcia back as the Supreme Court?
Well, I have the power to ask for him to come back if I'm instructed by the attorney general that it's legal to do so. But the decision as to whether or not he should come back will be the head of El Salvador. He's a very capable man. Well, you know, your attorney general has said the issues with that word facilitate.
Will you seek clarification from the Supreme Court? Do you need to go back to The Supreme Court. We may do that. I was asking about that.
We may do that. Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. I don't know.
I'm not, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know. Well, the Fifth Amendment, I don't know. It seems, it seems, it might say that.
But if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials. We have thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on earth, some of the worst, most dangerous people on earth. And I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it. But even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?
I don't know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.
Is anyone in your administration right now in contact with El Salvador about returning Abrego Garcia? I don't know. You'd have to ask the attorney general that question. Let's talk about some of the other actions you've taken over the past 100 days.
Last month you directed your attorney general, Cam Bondi, to review two people who you perceive to be your political adversaries. And yet you told me in December that you would not direct the Justice Department to investigate your political thoughts. What changed? Well, no, I just look at people and I'm not directing anybody.
They looked at these two people. They might have known it or they might have heard it from. Two years ago, one person said he knew me so well. He was, I think on CNN or msdnc, but they're both failing networks here.
Happy to know, even though one of my guesses related to you in one form or another, although they tried to cut him loose as fast as possible, but it was well known that this one person, it was almost like he was my brother. I don't even know who he is. Maybe he was there. Maybe he was in the Oval Office a few times as a surrogate for, you know, somebody in some form of government, along with 25 other people that sat in the back of the room or stood in the back of the room.
I have no idea who this guy is. And he's out there. And then he did a book called Anonym Difficult. Anonymous I think that's really subversion.
I think it's spying. It's something. It's something really bad. You pass an executive order calling for a long time.
And the other one said that the election was so wonderful. It was such a. Well, it turned out it wasn't a wonderful election. It was a corrupt election.
You said you wanted to unify the country. Just going after political foes undercut that goal. No, not at all. No.
We want honest people. Okay, I think you have to do that. We want honest people. Let me ask you a big picture.
People who have lived in countries like the Philippines, Hungary, Russia, they look at some of your actions. Going after civil service, going after universities, law firms, the media. They say it's out of an authoritarian playbook. What do you say to those who believe you are taking the country down an authoritarian path?
Well, there you go again. Why don't you ask it a different way? Many people wanted to come into our country. Many people love Trump.
I won the election. They didn't win the election. I got a lot more votes than they did. I won the popular vote.
I won all seven swing states by a lot. A lot of people were surprised. I said, I think you could win four, maybe five. No, I won all seven.
And I won by a lot. And I won. Actually, I think there was a lot of hanky panky going on, but it was too big to rig. That's the good news.
It's too big to rig. But let me just say so when you make these statements about people say this, well, you know, they had their chance at the election and they lost big. So you should ask the question differently. You should say, what about the people that want to be in this country?
What about the people that love this country? What are you saying? I'm asking on behalf of those people to give you a chance to respond to them. What do you say to those people?
Sir, those people are going to be very happy. They're going to have to see some results. And I think we had a great 100 days. There are a lot of people that say it was unprecedented.
It was an Absolutely unprecedented 100 days. And, and I hope that they're going to be right. Do you see dissent as an essential part of democracy? It's a part of democracy.
It is an important part of democracy. You're always going to have Christian, you're always going to have dissent. There's nothing you can do about that. Am I going to get 100% unified?
It would be a strange place I can't even imagine it where 100%. Look, you have people that are good people, they're very smart people, and they honestly believe we should have open borders and the entire world should be allowed to pour into our country. I think it's a 95.5 issue, but they believe it. They're not even bad people.
Some of them are bad. You have people that honestly believe that men should be allowed to play in women's sports. Some of these people, I really actually, I don't know any. I mean, they will find any, but they exist.
They say it's an 80, 20 issue. I don't believe that. I think it's a 97 to 3 issue. Do you think people should have the right to criticize you without fear of reprisals?
Absolutely, I do that. I do. And how do you square that happens? How do you square that with the fact that you have passed these executive orders asking the Attorney General to look into some of the people who've criticized you, who've been harshest?
I have been investigated more than any person in the history of the United States of America. I've been investigated more than the late, great, as I say at my rallies, Alphonse Capone. Alphonse Capone was a nasty man. He was a highest level gangster.
And I have been investigated more than Al Capone, more than anybody. These people are evil people. And I won. And I'll tell you what, all I want to happen is for the Department of Justice and the FBI.
Pam is great and Cash is great. I think they're two great people, but they're their own people. They want to do a fantastic job. And all I want to do and all I want to ask for is that they be allowed to do their job.
I'm not telling them to do anything. And I believe I have the right to do it. I'm in theory the top law enforcement officer as the president. We went over this once before and it turned out I was right.
But I'm not looking to use that. We have two great people and we have many, many incredible people under them. And I just want them to do their job and do it well. When we come back, will President Trump step down at the end of his time in office?
The Trump Organization is selling hats that say Trump 2028. Are you seriously considering a third term? Welcome back on the world stage. President Trump is still working to achieve his promise and the war in Ukraine, while also doubling down on his plans to expand US Influence across the globe.
Let's talk about foreign Policy. Sir, you just signed a minerals deal with Ukraine. It's a sign. It seems that the United States is invested in Ukraine's future.
The Secretary of State told me this is a very critical week. Are you any closer to reaching the peace of the room between Ukraine and Russia? I hope so. How would you?
I do believe we're closer with one party and maybe not as close with the other, but I will have to say. I'd like to not say which one we're closer to, but we did do a deal for the American people that was good. We were able to get rare earth. You know, the Europeans are getting paid back.
They have a loan. Biden just gave him $350 billion. He has no idea where the money is, what happened. And at least we'll, in one form or another, get.
I don't feel so foolish. And remember, this is Biden's war. This was a war that was never going to happen if I were President. This is a horrible, horrible war.
And I get to see shots of soldiers through, you know, satellite that are so, just so terrible. 5,000 soldiers. Look, 5,000 soldiers a week on average are dying. They're not American soldiers, but I want to solve the problem.
They're Russian soldiers and they're Ukrainian soldiers. And if I can save 5,000 souls, I just love doing it. How long do you give both countries before you're going to walk away? Well, there'll be a time when I will say, okay, keep going, keep being stupid.
When does that come? Are you close to it? Sometimes I get close to it and then positive things happen. Okay, what's the red line for you?
At what point do you say, that's it, we're walking away? Well, you know, I mean, there'll be a time when I may say that, and if I'm not there, there may be something I can't do. Maybe it's not possible to do. There's tremendous hatred.
Just so you understand, Kristen, we're talking tremendous hatred between these two men and between, you know, some of the soldiers, frankly, between the generals. They've been fighting hard for three years. I think we have a very good chance of doing it very quickly. If you do walk away, would that mean that you would pull military and intelligence?
I don't want to say that now. It's too early to say that. I don't want to get into that. Let's move on to Canada.
You have long talked about making Canada the 51st state. There's obviously a new Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, who you spoke to after his victory, he says that you didn't talk to him in that call about making Canada a 51st state? No, he called me. He was very nice, and I congratulated him.
He had a victory. It's a very close victory. You know, there's no majority or anything. So that's going to make things a little bit difficult, I think, for him to run.
But he nevertheless had a victory. And he's a very nice man, I think. Do you plan to talk to him about making Canada? If he wants to come and see me, he's going to come this week or next week.
So you've talked to him about making Canada a 51st state annex in Canada. Hello, sir. About that. You know why we subsidize Canada to the tune of $200 billion a year?
We don't need their cars. In fact, we don't want their cars. We don't need their energy. We don't even want their energy.
We have more than they do. We don't want their lumber. We have great lumber. We'll have to do is free it up from the environmental lunatics.
We don't need anything that they have. We're giving them. I asked Mr. Trudeau, who I call Governor Trudeau, I said, you know, not Prime Minister.
Governor. I said, governor Trudeau, can I ask you one question? Why are we giving you 200 billion? Why are we subsidizing Canada?
If Canada was a state, it wouldn't cost us. It would be great. It would be such a great. It would be a cherished state.
And if you look at our map, if you look at the Jaguar emerald, say, guy in hart. When I look down at that, without that artificial line that was drawn with a ruler many years ago, it was just an artificial line, goes straight across. You don't even realize what a beautiful country it would be. It would be great.
But I don't think the American public wants me to pay $200 billion a year to subsidize Canada again. Remember this. We don't need the cars. We don't need the lumber.
We don't need their energy. We don't need anything. We do very little business with Canada. They do all of their business practically with us.
They need us. We don't need that. You and I talked and I asked you if you would rule out military force to take Greenland. And you said no, you don't rule out anything.
Would you rule out military force to take Canada? Well, I think we're not going to ever get to that point. It could happen. Something could happen with Greenland.
I'll be honest. We need that for national and international security. I think it's highly unlikely. I don't see it with Canada.
I just don't see it. I have to be honest with you. Okay, but you don't rule it out for Greenland. And by the way, Canada, they spend less money on military than practically any nation in the world.
They pay NATO less than any nation. They. They think we're subsidized. They think we are going to protect them, and really we are.
But the truth is they don't carry their full share and it's unfair to the United States and our taxpayer. You are not ruling out military force to take Greenland? I don't rule it out. I don't say I'm going to do it, but I don't rule out anything.
No, I'm not there, Greeny. Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people which we'll take care of and we'll cherish them and all of that, but we need that for international security. The Trump Organization is selling hats that say Trump 2028.
Yeah. Are you seriously considering a third term, Mr. President, even though it's prohibited by the Constitution, or is this about staying politically violent? I will say this.
So many people want me to do it. I have never had requests so strong as that. But it's something that, to the best of my knowledge, you're not allowed to do. I don't know if that's constitutional, that they're not allowing you to do it or anything else.
But there are many people selling the 2028 hat. But this is not something I'm looking to do. I'm looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican. A great Republican to carry it forward.
But I think we'll have four years, and I think four years is plenty of time to do something really spectacular. The Constitution does prohibit it. Some of your allies are pretty serious about this, though, Mr. President.
I've spoken to them. They say they are coming up with potential ways. Obviously, the case won't be constitutional amendment. That's because I like the job I'm doing, and it's a compliment.
Has anyone in an official capacity presented you with, sir, here are some ideas by which you could actually get a Constitution and capacity of being a big supporter of. Many people have said different things, but I'm not looking at that. You have built a political movement that has transformed the Republican Party. It's transformed the country, quite frankly.
The political movement in history. MAGA Make America Great Again. When you look to the future, Mr. President, do you think the MAGA movement can survive without you as its leader?
Yes, I do. What could you. I think it's so strong and I think we have tremendous people. I think we have a tremendous group of people.
We talked about a number of them. You look at Marco, you look at J.D. vance, who's fantastic. You look at.
I could name 10, 15, 20 people right now just sitting here. No, I think we have a tremendous party. And you know, I can't name, I can't name one Democrat. I mean, I look at the Democrats, they're in total disarray.
They have a new person named Crockett. I watched her speak the other day. She's definitely a low IQ person. And they said she's the future of the party.
I said, you have to be kidding. I don't know what they're going to do. And I really believe in a two party system because it's good to be challenged. It's really good to have two party.
You know, it's good. Being challenged is okay. It keeps you short. I don't know what they're going to do.
They have nobody. Bernie's 87 years old or something. And you know, Biden is the worst thing that ever happened to old people because he was grossly incompetent. And I think maybe for artificial reasons, you know, he had operations, I think so maybe that's an artificial.
But I know people that are unbelievably sharp and they're older than 87. But I watch Bernie Sanders. He's in that job, but he's still sharp. He's sharp as.
He's the same guy he was. He hasn't gone down. But Biden is really. He's the worst thing to happen to old people.
I know that you are only 100 days in, but as we sit here today, who do you see as your successor? Mr. President? Well, it's far too early to say that, but you know, I do have a vice president and typically we.
And JD is doing a fantastic job. He would be at the top of the list. Could very well be. I don't want to get involved in that.
I think he's a fantastic, brilliant guy. Marco is great. There's a lot of them that are great. I also see tremendous unity, but certainly would say that somebody's the vp if that person is outstanding, I guess that person would have an advantage.
But I think the other people would all stay in unbelievably high positions. But you know, it could be that he'd be challenged by somebody. We have a lot of good people in this party. And when we come back, President Trump talks about his legislative agenda, plans for a military parade, and reveals how he wants to build a ballroom at the White House.
Welcome back. After our interview, President Trump gave us a rare inside look into his ornate Florida home and private club, Mar a Lago. He shared new details with us about his grand plans for the White House, his legislative agenda and his vision for a military parade. Next month we will.
Huh. President Trump greeting supporters at an RNC fundraiser at Mar a Lago, showing us the main ballroom at his private club and sharing new details about the one he plans to build at the White House. We're going to make and build a ballroom which they've wanted for probably 100 years at the White House. And it'll be a world class beautiful ballroom, a ballroom that could cost millions of dollars.
He says he will pay for it himself. You will fund it. I'm not going to ask the government for money. I'll fund it and I'm sure we'll have some donations to it, but it's not an inexpensive thing.
It'll cost a lot of money. The president also told me that next month he's planning a military parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. army that also falls on his 79th birthday. We're going to have a big beautiful parade, military parade.
We have the greatest military parade people. Peanuts compared to the value of doing it. We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world.
We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we're going to celebrate it. As supporters snapped photos, we spoke about about the future of TikTok.
The president telling me he's willing to extend the deadline for the Chinese owned app that was banned in the U.S. would you extend that deadline if there's still no deal. You already. So you're going to.
You want to see a deep. I'd like to see it done. I have a little sweet spot in my heart because as you know, I won young people by 36 points. That's a lot.
No Republican ever won Young People and I won it by 36 points and I focused on TikTok. So perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok. TikTok is, it's very interesting, but it'll be protected. Finally, as we toured the club.
I pressed the president on his tax cut package making its way through Congress. What happens if it comes to your desk, has the tax cuts but also cuts to Medicaid? Would you veto that? We're not doing that.
No veto. I would if they were cutting it, but they're not cutting it. They're looking at fraud, waste and abuse. And nobody minds that if illegal immigrants are in the mix, if people that aren't supposed to be there, people that are non citizens are in the mix.
Nobody minds that. Waste, fraud and abuse. But we're not cutting Medicaid, we're not cutting Medicare and we're not cutting Social Security. And you can watch my full interview with President [email protected] when we come back.
The panel is next. Welcome back. The panel is here, NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander NBC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons Simone Sanders Townsend, former chief spokesperson for Vice President Harris and co host of the Weeknight on msnbc and Mark Short, former director of legislative affairs for President Trump. Thanks to all of you for being here.
So congratulations on the new show. Let's start with the chiefs. Peter, let me start with you. Here you are at the White House.
You're always questioning President Trump about the economy. He yet again doubled down on this message. It's okay if there's short term pain, if there's long term gain. Going further though, by saying, yeah, there might be a short recession.
What do you make of what we heard from him? Just think about the fundamental promise of the Trump campaign. I'm bringing down, as you asked him, I'm going to bring down prices on day one. And now consider the evolution since day one where he said during his joint address, there's going to be a little disturbance.
He then said, hang tough, it may not be easy. This week he said there's going to be a transition period. He claims that he told Americans there'll be a transition period. We look back, he never referred to a transition period during the course of his campaign.
In fact, he said there is not going to be a cost to you. Now he's saying you may not be able to get all the dolls you want. And if you do want some, they're going to cost a little bit more. So to be clear here, he's talking about pencils.
Today. He says he's been okay with the recession, the bottom of the line. It's gonna be hard to sell to Americans what he promised in what they're seeing right now. I heard it from Americans.
I was in Michigan this week from him where he spent his 100 days. A first time voter voted for Donald Trump said, I have some regrets about my voting promise. Prices would come down and already I'm seeing him come up. And even a Trump voter, lifelong Democrat, came around for Donald Trump.
An auto worker, union auto worker said, you know what, for me I'm worried about the short term impact. I know you do in the end but in the short term I am concerned about what's impact would be on car prices here. Consumers saying they need relief right now here, as Peter is saying. And one of the biggest flashpoints in this is this trade standoff with China.
He did not seem like he was significantly backing down or at least that he made any type of decision. China's saying you got to lower at least these tariffs. If he wants to come to the negotiating table. It's crunch time.
It's crunch time in capitals around the world, not least in the batt Beijing. And I think to Peter's point, what the president is saying when he talks about dolls and pencils is that this fight is America's fight. Now Beijing is betting that America will not be able to significantly reduce its dependence on cheap goods from China. And it's crunch time on that question of whether America has wasted its wealth on war because it's crunched time with President Putin, President Trump.
Susie Wells have a term sheet on their desk from the Europeans and Ukrainians, a 30 day ceasefire. The question is whether Steve Wickoff is going to be able to deliver President Putin with all of his inexperience. Here's the point. You know, the president talks about doing deals.
Everybody else wants a deal too. They want their deal. Yeah, it's such a great point here. And Mark, it is crunch time for all of these deals right now.
What was your takeaway from what we heard for President Trump on a range of different topics, whether it's the economy or saying he's not sure that he has to follow the Constitution. Well, I think that smile and I talked to backstays. There's a sister interview at CNBC this week with the director of Los Angeles port and he walks through the fact that this week is really forcing a 35% reduction in amount of goods coming in the United States. It's a matter of this week probably when you'll begin to see port workers laid off.
Truckers be having about half a delivery load in a couple weeks, will have no delivery loads. Truckers laid off. And it's probably about four to five weeks before shelves are going to get empty as retailers have gone through their inventory. That is a whole different site.