Former President Trump joined me this morning:

Audio:

05-15hhs-trump

Transcript:

HH: We are now joined by former President Donald Trump. Mr. President, welcome back. Good to have you.

DJT: Good morning.

HH: The CPI number just came out at .3%. That means 3.6% year over year. It’s still too high. What’s your reaction to that number, Mr. President?

DJT: Well, it’s way too high, but if you go back two years, you see that was where it was just so bad, and nothing’s happening. Either you’re still way up in the stratosphere, close to 30%, the real number. Remember, they leave a lot of numbers out. You know, this crazy Biden administration, everything’s a game. And they leave a lot of numbers out. They leave the highest numbers, the worst numbers often times. They’ll leave rentals out. They’ll leave a certain food type out. The whole thing is rigged. They are the worst. He is the worst president. Hey, Hugh, this is, and you don’t have to say it. I will. This is the worst president in the history of the United States, and it’s not even close. And you can take the ten worst and add them up and they’re not as bad as this guy. And look, the inflation is bad, and the number today is bad. They want to try for the, you know, this is like using the Strategic Reserves for gasoline. They want to try and play around with the interest rates with the Federal Reserve, but you can’t lower them, because of the fact that you have the inflation. It’s a lot of inflation when added to the inflation that we’ve suffered that’s been so bad. It’s got to come down much more. That’s a lot of inflation, their number they announced.

HH: Combined with blue state taxes, it’s an incredible burden. People are fleeing California, for example. Hey, quick question, LeBron James can leave California, go back to Ohio if he wants. Given the taxes and the inflation in California, should he do that, Mr. President?

DJT: Well, I’m not a fan of LeBron James. I have a lot of players that I like better than LeBron, although he’s an excellent basketball player. But I don’t like his politics one bit. This nation would be destroyed if you went by his politics. If you remember, he endorsed the great Hillary Clinton, and that endorsement was a disaster. She got on stage, she walked up to him, and she came up to his belt buckle. I said that’s not a good look. That is not a good look for our president. But…

HH: But shouldn’t he flee California taxes like I did, like everyone else did?

DJT: Hugh, is he thinking about leaving California, going back to Ohio?

HH: Yeah, he was, he showed up at Cavaliers Rocket Mortgage two nights ago for the Cavs’ fourth game. So there’s some speculation he might come back to Ohio.

DJT: Well, Dan Gilbert’s a good guy, and he’s a smart owner, and that’ll be interesting. Certainly, it’s good to have LeBron James as a player.

HH: Yeah. Now let me talk to you about the debate challenge. President Biden just issued you a debate challenge for June and September with the Veeps talking in July. Do you accept?

DJT: Oh, absolutely. I’ve been trying to get, you know, he’s issuing it. I wonder whether or not he shows up, because you know, he also challenged me to golf. So I’m a very good golfer. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards. He said I’ll give him three a side, but he knows he’ll never play. This is sort of like that, I think. But I hope not, because I really think he has to debate. He might as well get it over with, probably should do it early so that he can, you know, because he’s not going to get any better. Every day…

HH: But June and September is great.

DJT: Every day is a down factor for him.

HH: June and September would be great if you could agree on the size of the table and the moderator.

DJT: Well, I’ve already, I just, why don’t you look at the statement? I just put out a statement. You should have it on your hot wires. You get everything. I notice you get things very quickly. I put it out on Truth, and Truth is the hottest thing right now by far.

HH: I will look that up. Let me move on.

DJT: And take a look.

HH: If President Biden…

DJT: You want to read that? You want to read it? Do you want to read it?

HH: Yes, I do. I’ll look and see if Jason sent it to me on the back wire here.

DJT: Oh, I see. Okay.

HH: I’ll look for a second. Do you think if his infirmity increases, they will dump him, Mr. President, at the convention, replace him with Kamala or Gavin or someone like that?

DJT: I do. I do.

HH: And…

DJT: I don’t think they’ll have a choice.

HH: Will it be Gavin? Will it be Kamala or somebody else?

DJT: I don’t know. I mean, Gavin’s a terrible governor, Gavin Newscum, he’s a terrible governor. I think he does a terrible job. I have things out in California, and you know, it’s so beautiful, everything. The weather is the best. Everything is so good, but he just does a terrible job. You know, water, I had a deal for water to come down from the north. They have so much water, and they don’t do it, because they’re trying to protect a tiny, tiny little fish that hasn’t made it. And millions and millions of gallons of water is sent into the Pacific Ocean, routed right into the Pacific instead of coming down throughout California. It’s so…

HH: All right, I’ve got your statement. I’m ready to go. The dates that are proposed are fine. Anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Let’s see if Joe can make it to the stand-up podium. I think they ought to go at least two hours. Do you think the President can stand up for two hours?

DJT: I think we should go two hours, yeah. I think we should go two.

HH: Okay.

DJT: And a stand-up podium is important. If he wants to sit down, you know, he wants to do things like he wants to sit down, I think a debate should be standing up. Don’t you agree with that?

HH: Well, I’ve done them both ways. The best debate in modern history was Lieberman and Cheney when they were sitting down, but that was a good moderator and it went a long time, and I don’t think you’re going to find a good moderator very easily. I really don’t. I think you should have a liberal…

DJT: Did you think my debates with Hillary were better? Didn’t you think my debates with Hillary were…

HH: Yes, I did. Yes, I did, and I…I don’t want Chris Wallace. I don’t want Candy Crowley. I want someone who’s fair, Mr. President. I just don’t want…

DJT: But let me ask you this. I’d like that, too, but I’d be willing to take anybody. You know, what difference does it make? I’d be willing to take anybody. But you know, the Commission got caught cheating with me. You know that.

HH: Yes.

DJT: They turned down my sound, remember?

HH: And they also cancelled a debate without talking to you. I, they’re so bad, they should have been exiled years ago. Now, they’re out of it. Let’s talk about Israel, Mr. President. Last time you were on this show a couple months ago, you said they’ve got to finish the job. They need a victory. At that massive rally on Saturday, you said the same thing. Victory, victory, victory. What do you make of President Biden’s arms embargo on offensive weapons declared last week?

DJT: It is not believable to me that he made the statement. All that does is prolong a war, because, and it gives the other side tremendous energy when that happens. You know, it gives them a psychological energy. That was such a bad statement. And how a person that’s Jewish can vote for this guy who’s obviously mentally impaired, how a Jewish person can vote for him is beyond belief. I have friends that are Democrats. You know, they’re good people. They’re Jewish, and they’re Democrats. And that’s just fine being a Democrat. But I say how do you vote for this guy, and many of them say we won’t. But some say we will, it’s almost like they’re in a rut. They can’t get out of the rut. But he is so bad for Israel, and I’ve been the best President with Golan Heights and moving the capital, Jerusalem, getting the embassy built. You know, we, not only did I give the embassy, I got it built.

HH: And you bankrupted Iran, or nearly bankrupted Iran. President Biden has refunded Iran.

DJT: Yeah.

HH: Will you put snapback sanctions in place if you’re elected?

DJT: When I was president, Iran was broke. They were broke. Stone cold broke. And you did a story, I remember once, but everybody was, there was no money for terrors. Hamas, Hezbollah had no terror, because they had no money. They had no cash. And Iran was broke. They had less than a billion dollars. They were at $600 million dollars. They wanted to make a deal with me, and then the election was rigged. And we had a different, a little problem came up with the COVID and with all of the different things that took place in that horrible election. That election was the worst election in the history of our country. We’re going to have the best election in the history of our country. And it’s going to be a beauty, November 5th. You know, the one thing, you know, you can’t really say November 5th anymore. In the old days, you could have a date. But here, you have all these early dates – September 22nd, September 29th. You have dates all over the place. We used to have Election Day. Now, we have election period, unfortunately. It was so much better the other way, but what are you going to do? They screwed that up, too.

HH: President Biden seems to me to be afraid of everything – afraid of China, afraid of Russia, afraid of Iran. I don’t think you are afraid of anything. Do you think he’s afraid of, like Xi and Putin, because this is the most tremulous administration I remember, and I remember Jimmy Carter.

DJT: So I think, well, he’s far worse than Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter is like a brilliant president if you compare him to Biden. Jimmy Carter never let 18 million people into our country, many from jails and prisons and insane asylums, okay? He never let, he never had anything like this. Jimmy Carter’s a happy man now, because his presidency was considered brilliant by comparison to this guy. This guy’s the worst. No, he’s afraid because of a different reason. He’s a thief, a total thief, and he’s taken millions and millions of dollars from China and Russia. Remember when he got $3.5 million dollars from the mayor of Moscow’s wife? And I brought it up with Chris Wallace, and Chris Wallace said you can’t bring that up? That doesn’t belong here? I said it’s a big story, and two months later, it turned out to be a big story. He didn’t want me to question him, and I said how come you got $3.5 million dollars from the mayor of Moscow’s wife? Remember that? It was a big deal. And Chris Wallace, how’s he doing, by the way? Chris Wallace wouldn’t let me bring it up, and I said well, I’m debating two people then, which is usual. By the way, it’s usually the case.

HH: You were. That’s why I’m afraid about moderators. But Mr. President, do you think Joe Biden is afraid of Xi Jinping? And do you think Xi is like a Mao or a Napoleon or a Caesar? Is he on the march everywhere?

DJT: Yeah, the answer is yes and yes. He’s definitely afraid, but he’s also afraid because Joe Biden is a Manchurian candidate in the truest sense of the word. He is being paid off by China, and he’s being paid off by Russia. And he’s being paid off and was paid off by Ukraine. You take a look at that. Just look at it. I mean, the money’s coming from every different angle. So he’s worried that if he is nice, is tough like I was with China, I took in $500 billion dollars in tariffs. Not one president, and it was going up, not one president has ever taken in anything from China. Now, he puts a tariff, finally, it should have taken place three and a half years ago. He puts it on the electric vehicle, but that’s going to destroy other vehicles. You’ve got to put it on everything. He just put a tariff on China, the first time he’s ever done this. And the only reason he did it is because the election’s coming up, and he wants to sell this ridiculous EV mandate, the all-electric car that people don’t want. 5% want it, and certain people want it, and you know, it doesn’t go far, it costs too much, and they’re all going to be made in China. But he really is, he’s a Manchurian candidate, and I believe he’s weak on China, because they know how much money they’ve paid him and his family.

HH: Now Mr. President, I’m going to take a break here and send some folks away and keep other folks, but I switch out stations, as you know. At this point, we leave some, and I want to give them that signal. I’ve got to ask you about the Washington Post story last week that said the Biden administration is holding back intelligence on where Sinwar is on the tunnels. He’s surrounded by hostages, probably American hostages.

DJT: Right.

HH: You brought back like 60 hostages with Ambassador O’Brien. What do you think of our holding back intel from the Israelis on where Sinwar and the hostages must be?

DJT: It’s not even believable, and it’s not believable that they’re trying to get, look, we don’t want Austin and these guys telling our ally, and a very important ally, by the way, how to fight their war. They’ve got to get that war over with, and they’ve got to do it very fast. You know, people are now starting to say October 7th didn’t exist. You know, here goes the misinformation machine. They’re saying the way, that never took place, October 7th never took place. It’s the same way, the same people that say the Holocaust never took place. And that’s starting to hurt Israel, because there are a lot of people that believe it. I was watching the other night, and these kids are saying, you know, these kids that are protesting, when they accepted an interview, a little interview, they said oh, October 7th never happened. That never happened. I never heard about that. It’s like incredible. Israel has to finish this off quickly. And I wouldn’t listen to the people that gave us Afghanistan, and the people that gave us all these failures, these military failures that we’re involved in. I would listen to the people that wiped out ISIS.

HH: You know, Mr. President…

DJT: You know who wiped out ISIS? Donald Trump.

HH: You know, when you ran in 2016, you surprised me. You surprised everyone when you won. I think one of the keys was you put out a list of possible Supreme Court justices. Would you consider putting out a list of your national security team possibles – I mean, people like Ric Grenell and Robert O’Brien and Mike Pompeo and John Ratcliffe? I mean, they’re all going to be there somewhere. You don’t have to name where they’re going – Tom Cotton, Michael Waltz…

DJT: Yeah, that’s an interesting, that’s an interesting question. And the answer is yes, I think it’s a great idea. Nobody’s suggested that but you. See, you’re a step above. Nobody has suggested that but you. It’s a very good idea. I will be putting out a Supreme Court list.

HH: Oh, good.

DJT: That’s a very interesting idea. Yeah.

HH: Well, if you just listed a half dozen people, and I know Grenell, and I know O’Brien. These are my friends. And I know Waltz is on your list. And I’ve seen the vice president list. By the way, does Doug Burgum have this locked up?

DJT: No, but he’s very good. I’ll tell you, he’s really good. He’s an expert. You know, he made his money, made a lot of money in technology, and yet he’s, to me, I think he’s more of an expert on energy. He’s an very talented guy. He has a great wife and family. He’s run, and it’s so beautiful…

HH: You know, they don’t give out Stanford MBA’s. It’s like Penn. He knows what he’s doing. He is very smart. I wouldn’t let him just run Energy, Mr. President, whatever he ends up doing. But we’re going to need a massive overhaul at DOD. You know how wasteful it is.

DJT: Right.

HH: We need a Waltz. We need a Pompeo. We need a Cotton over there. I’d love to know who’s on your list just so we could assure people that there will be reforms at DOD.

DJT: Well, all of the people you mentioned are real candidates. I mean, everybody you’ve mentioned, I mean, generally speaking, the people you like are the people I like, I mean, to be honest with you, all right? You’re not going to see some of the clowns you have right now. That, I can tell you. The people that we have right now, the Afghanistan, what they did with Afghanistan, and to have nobody fired, you know, I was a firer, not that I want to be. I don’t want to fire, but I would get rid of people if they did something where, which was, how about not one person was fired, and Afghanistan was the most incompetently, Afghanistan gave us Russia going into Ukraine. That’s for sure. And it gave us China getting frisky. It was so badly handled, I mean, grossly incompetent. To move the soldiers out first, you know, that was, that was 90%. They should have used Bagram. And by the way, we had not lost Bagram.

HH: You know, Mr. President, you just reminded me. Former President Nixon, with whom I was close and you were a good friend…

DJT: Right.

HH: …said his big mistake was he didn’t fire people fast enough. We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of his resignation. At the Saturday rally, your 100,000 people rally…

DJT: Right.

HH: You used the term the great silent majority of Americans, which Nixon first used in ’69. Did you know that, that he had used that term before? Or was that…

DJT: Yes. No, I knew very well, and I love the term, because I have a big silent majority, the biggest, I think the biggest ever. We had 107,000 people at that rally. The final count just came out from, I think, the town or the fire department. 107,000 people. I expected 40-45 thousand. We had, and by the way, if Biden went down to do a rally, he wouldn’t get 50 people in that same location. He wouldn’t get 50 people, and you know it. And by the way, nobody else would get more than two or three hundred. We had 107,000 people at that rally. That was, you had to see, it was a wave of people, and the town did a great job. They did a great job at Wildwood.

HH: Well, when Nixon brought up the great silent majority on TV, he got hundreds of thousands of responses, because it struck a chord. Are you looking for those same voters, people who love America but don’t necessarily say much?

DJT: Yes. So Nixon used the term silent majority. I added the word great to it. I have a great silent majority. I didn’t, you know, the term was very, very powerfully associated with Nixon. And I didn’t want to be copying the term, actually, so it’s the great silent majority. And I did use it pretty much, I haven’t used it much, pretty much for the first time in an important location in a speech.

HH: Oh, it’s a great phrase. I think it’s…

DJT: And it got a tremendous response. Yeah.

HH: When you became friends with Nixon in New York, did you ever talk presidential politics, how he ended up resigning, how he won so big in ’72? Did you ever discuss it with him?

DJT: His life, to me, was very sad. It was a very sad life. You know, I got to know him, really, more when he was out. He watched me on the, his wife watched me on the Phil Donahue show, and she wrote a letter, which I have. She wrote a letter, which he gave to me, saying that, he wrote me a letter saying that my wife, Pat, who he really loved, by the way, really loved, but that you know, he sort of had very few friends. You know, she was his friend. But he wrote a letter, my wife, Pat, said that someday, if you wanted to be, you’ll be president of the United States. It’s become somewhat of a famous letter. It’s from him explaining she watched me on the Phil Donahue show. Remember that one?

HH: Oh, I know the story well, and it’s absolutely true.

DJT: Yeah.

HH: But let me ask you about this.

DJT: It was very cute.

HH: Nixon had people who hated him reflexively for 50 years. You’ve got people who in this country, who hate you more than they hate Xi and Putin and Khamenei, these dictators, these torturers, these human rights criminals. What do you put that down to? Why do they hate, they’re deranged. And I don’t want you to get in trouble with the Judge. Don’t mention the Judge. He’s got an unconstitutional gag order on you. I think it’s loathsome what he’s done.

DJT: 100%

HH: But don’t talk about it, because…

DJT: By the way, totally unconstitutional.

HH: I don’t want you to get fined because of me.

DJT: No, I don’t get, I’m not getting in trouble. I know exactly how to talk. You know, we have a gag order that’s like the likes of which nobody’s ever seen. We’re doing very well on our case, but we have a judge who I say is corrupt and conflicted. He’s a corrupt judge, and he’s conflicted. And nobody can believe the gag order. That’s never happened in this country before.

HH: Oh, this is banana republic stuff. But to go back to that, why do people hate you more? The people who are cheering on this judge, and this judge, I think, and certainly Alvin Bragg, why do they hate you more than Xi and Putin and Khamenei?

DJT: Because I won an election against somebody that was supposed to win. It broke up their game rather drastically, in all fairness. If you remember before that election, they thought they had it made. They took the convention center. They built the most beautiful, they built the most beautiful venue I’ve ever seen. They spent millions. They spent $28 million dollars building that thing. It was beautiful. They built a, it was like a picture. It was a beautiful picture of the United States. I’ve never seen anything like it. And then, they lost. You know, the glass ceiling, it had a glass ceiling at the convention center. I actually was involved with it. It has a glass ceiling. They were going to break the glass ceiling. It was an election that they had in the bag, they thought, and they lost. And it’s been, you know, they’ve been very nasty. And you know, when you say, though, people that dislike me, I also have more people that like me.

HH: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

DJT: We just passed 95%…

HH: Nixon won a landslide. You could win a landslide. But what about a media burying the Hur Report?

DJT: And by the way, hey Hugh, I just got a 95% approval rating in the Republican Party. That’s higher than ’86 that Ronald Reagan had. You know, I’m very popular in the Republican Party. I mean, hey, we got more votes than any president in history, the last election. At 75 million, that was more votes than any president has ever gotten, sitting president has ever gotten by like 8. And you know, that’s pretty good.

HH: You know, the New York Times/Siena poll this weekend said you’re 12 points up in Nevada.

DJT: Yeah.

HH: What is going, are you getting overconfident?

DJT: No, I’m not overconfident, because they, I’m not overconfident, because they cheat. You know, they cheat. Look, I have people saying well, you know, you have to expect they’re going to cheat 6, 7, 8 points. I said I’m not expecting that at all. We have that covered. But they find new ways of cheating every time. It’s, they’re professional cheaters. And I say it like it is, and you know it, and you shouldn’t say it, because why should you get yourself in trouble? But you know, it’s just one of those things, but anyway…

HH: I like to say they buried the Hur Report. Special Counsel Hur should have charged Joe Biden if there was one rule, the same rule that Jack Smith has used against you. But there are two sets of rules here. Does that drive you to distraction that the media has buried what Hur said and explained it away?

DJT: Well, I think it’s a ridiculous thing. I also think that it’s almost worse than if he said convict. They said he’s grossly incompetent, and this is who we have running for president. You don’t think that’s going to be brought up? He got out only based on the fact that he’s incompetent. I mean, think of it.

HH: Yeah.

DJT: I said you know, I don’t think I want to get out that way. I think I’d rather have to win it in trial, because that is a disaster. It’s very sad, actually, in a way. It’s a very sad report.

HH: Okay, I have to close with, your people are going to be mad at me, but I want to close with a couple of very important questions.

DJT: Go ahead.

HH: When Iran attacked Israel, we helped them. But then, Israel was held back in their response. Should Israel have hit Iran harder in their response to the attack on Israel from Iran?

DJT: Well, I think they probably had a little side thing. You know, when I hit Iran, I hit them very hard, and then they had to hit back. And they called me, we’re not going to hurt anybody. We’re not going to hurt anybody. That was on the military base, you remember?

HH: Oh, my son was on that base at that time, Mr. President.

DJT: Okay, good. Well, say, then, tell him to thank me for his life, okay? He’ll thank me for his life. But you know, we knew that those missiles were not going to do any harm, but they had to send a signal. I have a feeling there was a little bit of a signal sent, because that was a strange situation where they knocked down every one, and then Israel went in and attacked in a certain way. And you know, and everybody was happy. So I think it was, I think it wasn’t so bad. That could have been catastrophic. But the bigger problem is what are you going to do with Iran trying to get, you know, they’re going to have a nuclear weapon soon. And when they have a nuclear, if you allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, you’re going to have problems like never before, because they are very difficult people to negotiate with. I did very well with Kim Jung Un, but he wasn’t a religious zealot. Iran should not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. They would never have had even close to a nuclear weapon. They are very close to getting a nuclear weapon. You cannot let that happen.

HH: Did you see Secretary Blinken playing the guitar in Kyiv last night? I just don’t know how he expects Khamenei to respect him.

DJT: It’s not the look you want. I said it this morning. I told people, I said this is not what we want. This is not central casting. And look, he’s done a very poor job. The world is blowing up. And I will say, Viktor Orban, and you know him and you respect him, he’s, you know, they say he’s a strong man or a tough guy and all that, and he is. He runs a tough, nobody came into his country other than he takes Ukrainians, I mean, he does take in Ukrainians. But he has nobody coming in, and they’re not blowing up his shopping centers, etc. He said the only way you’re going to solve the world problem, he was asked this question, and said Donald Trump has to become president of the United States. When he was president, we had no problems. He used the word afraid. I would never use that word, because I don’t want to use that, you know. And he said China was afraid of him. Russia was afraid of him. Kim Jung Un was afraid of him. Everybody was afraid of him. We had no problems. The whole word was peaceful. Now, the world is blowing up, because nobody respects Biden. Nobody.

HH: Well, you know what I say, Mr. President, is that President Biden and his team are afraid of everything. Their Biden is Never Don’t Retreat, and that Donald Trump wasn’t afraid of anything, and that that is what makes America strong. I have three more questions. You’ve seen the campuses. Your alma mater and my alma mater have failed terribly, Penn and Harvard. Should we cut off all federal funding to every college that has an endowment of more than a billion dollars or $5 billion dollars, because I don’t know why we’re giving these places money.

DJT: Maybe you should do it anyway, if you want to know the truth, because what they’re teaching and the way they’re teaching is ridiculous. But I’d probably recommend doing something. I think we should do something with endowments anyway. It’s ridiculous. And then we subsidize schools on top of the endowments. The whole thing is ridiculous when you look and see some of these things with $25 billion dollars, and then they’re coming to us for aid. Okay, the whole thing is ridiculous, and I’m going to look at the whole situation. It’s one of the great, it’s actually a tax scam in a very sophisticated way, and I think that whole thing should be looked at anyway.

HH: Now the great silent majority is with you on one issue that you occasionally bring up, so I want to ask you about it. The great silent majority rejects the idea of biological boys competing against biological girls in high school, and even in college, but especially in high school.

DJT: Right.

HH: And it’s not just the athletes. It’s their families, their friends, their coaches. The great silent majority is with you on this. Is it going to be a centerpiece of your campaign to keep boys in boys’ sports, and girls in girls’ sports?

DJT: Well, it is, but I’m embarrassed to say it’s a centerpiece, because who can imagine this is possible? You have to look at the weightlifting records. Have you ever seen…

HH: Yes.

DJT: You know, where one ounce stood for, one ounce, one ounce, stood for 12 years. And then some guy comes along and breaks it by, you know, by numbers that I can’t even tell you because I think they’re so ridiculous. But who can do this? When you look at the speed records, you look at the weightlifting and the weight records, you look at all this, and then you have the sports where it’s very dangerous when you’re competing. Now I understand they want to have football, they want to have girls playing on football teams. And they don’t want it. And it actually is very demeaning to women. It’s a very demeaning thing to women. It’s hard to believe. I mean, sure, a centerpiece, yes. But I’d hate to put it as a centerpiece, because it’s so ridiculous. It’s like open borders. I say there’s things that they do. I call them the no common sense things. Men should not be allowed to play in women’s sports, and women don’t want them. You know, I’ve yet to find people that really want this other than far left lunatics. I have yet…

HH: Well, there are a lot of far-left lunatics in the country.

DJT: Yeah, that’s true.

HH: Let’s wrap up by talking about the far-left lunatics at the United Nations. The very first time I interviewed you, we talked about the U.N. remodel because of your testimony years ago, which was hilarious and on point.

DJT: Right.

HH: The U.N. has completely fallen on its face in the Israel war.

DJT: Right.

HH: UNRWA, is it time to kick them out of New York, Mr. President?

DJT: Well, I wouldn’t want to see that from a country standpoint. I wouldn’t want to see that from the standpoint. They could, you know, I’ve always loved the potential of the U.N, but it’s never lived up to its potential. And it’s very much controlled by, I guess you’d say, radical left, but it’s even worse than radical left in many ways. It’s controlled by certain nations that shouldn’t be controlling. You see what’s happening. You see who’s going on security boards and boards. It’s like, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. But you know what? Just from the standpoint of, you know, I make my money in real estate. I made a lot of money. I’m good at real estate. Do you remember, I was going to, I offered to build it for one-fourth the price?

HH: Yes. Yes.

DJT: And it would have been, and they said well, what would be the difference? And I said it would be much better. You’d have marble floors instead of tile floors. Do you remember that? But I was willing to build it for 25%, because they spent so much money, it was so ridiculous what they did. And there were a lot of kickbacks.

HH: You warned them that they were going to get taken to the cleaners by the unions, and they did. It was very funny testimony. Let’s close here.

DJT: Oh, yeah.

HH: Are you going to negotiate…

DJT: They got taken to the cleaners.

HH: Are you going to negotiate personally the debates? Or are you going to send Susie and Chris to do that? And if so, are you going to give them a list of people you’ll accept as moderators and people you won’t?

DJT: Well, they’ll do it, but I’ll be, you know, I’ll be right on top of it. Look, I’d like to see more debates. I’ve accepted, I put out the letter. You’ll see the letter. You’ll read it afterwards. But I put out a letter. I think you’ll get a kick out of it. I’ve accepted the two debates. I’ve recommended they should have more. I hate to use this group that does the debates, because they cheated. They turned the sound off during one of my debates. And they go out of their way to help the Democrat, but that’s okay. You know, it doesn’t matter. Ultimately, you’re still up there with one person, so they can do whatever they want to do. But I think there should be more than two debates. I think, and I’ve accepted the two, 100%. But I think there should be more than two. And I think they should be in large venues. It’s just more exciting.

HH: Well, but it’s harder to hear. You know, I’ve been on the other side of you. It’s harder to hear when the people are cheering. And it’s not a conversation like this.

DJT: Well, that’s only because of the debate people. You know, you remember whenever I looked at Hillary Clinton, they turned down the sound so you know, she wouldn’t get spooked, I guess. I don’t know. But they turned down the sound, and we caught them. They sent me a letter of apology. They cheated on the debate. And I don’t care. Look, it’s two people standing on, we’ll have people back there that they can’t do that. But they’re very, very radical left debates. They’re really Clinton people, to be honest. More than anything else, they’re like Clinton people. But I don’t care about that. I think it’s important that we have debates. I think we should have more than two. But I’ve accepted the two. But I feel that the large venue is just, it’s a very exciting night. And when you don’t have that, it takes a lot of energy out of the debates.

HH: Very last question. I am surprised by the Siena/New York Times polls in Michigan, mostly in Nevada. You’re ahead in Arizona. You’re ahead in Georgia. Are you going to compete in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan? I mean, Pennsylvania, you’re ahead, but what about those three states in the Upper Midwest?

DJT: Well, I think I’m doing really well. We just had a poll come out, not that one in Michigan, where I’m up 9 points. We just had one come out in Minnesota where I think I’m up one. You saw that one yesterday. I’m up one point. You know, the Minnesota is amazing, because I go to Minnesota, and I say we’re going to win this state by a lot, and I thought we won it last time, actually. I really thought we won it. But it hasn’t been won since your friend, Richard Nixon, won in 1972. Who would think that, right? Minnesota.

HH: Well,

DJT: I thought we were going to win Minnesota.

HH: The last one I saw had you behind two, but within the margin of error, from KTSP yesterday. But I mean, that’s astonishing. It is Minnesota. It’s the Democratic Farm Labor. It’s a hard left state.

DJT: Yeah, I never viewed it that way, but it hasn’t been won by a Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972. And that’s amazing, to me. That’s really amazing. That’s the one. That’s the one, the longest, because they had, Reagan almost won everything. He almost won everything, but he didn’t win, he didn’t win, let’s say he did not win Minnesota. That’s right. Amazing.

HH: Are you going to bring the Senate with you and the House back with you and Republican majorities, Donald Trump?

DJT: I think we have a very good chance. We have some very interesting plans on the House, and we have some, and the Senate is, you know, if you listen to people like you, I think, the Senate would be looking a little bit stronger than the House in terms of winning. I think we’re going to take both. And I’m doing, I mean, were you surprised by how strong the New York Times poll was?

HH: Oh, yes. And I think most of the left is stunned, and they don’t know what to say. And they’re afraid, and therefore, you’re getting more and more heat in the New York trial, which is an absurdity. And I don’t want to get into it. It’s a circus. It’s a show trial. It’s a terrible scar on American judicial history.

DJT: It’s a disgrace. Well, it’s election interference. It’s their form of cheating this time. They always find a way to cheat, and they’re cheating with those trials, and they’re nothing, those trial. Those trials are absolutely…

HH: Well, they’re not letting you campaign four days a week. It’s just…

DJT: Right.

HH: Right there, you can’t go out four days a week.

DJT: But thank goodness, I can speak to you. Thank goodness, I can speak to you by telephone, unlike Joe Biden. Would he ever take your call? I don’t think so.

HH: No. (laughing) He doesn’t do any interviews.

DJT: You think he’d, can you imagine him doing an interview like this?

HH: You think Joe Biden could…no.

DJT: Can you imagine him doing an interview with you like this?

HH: He’s more than welcome. He will never show up. I’ve met him once. I’ve interviewed him once outside of an AIPAC convention. He’s turned his back on Israel. He’ll never come here.

DJT: And he may never show up to the debate. He may never show up to the debate. I know he accepted the debate, you know, accepted more or less. He sort of accepted it, but let’s see if he shows up. It’s all misinformation disinformation. Oh, sure, I’d love to debate. I want to debate. I want to debate. And then, you can’t make a deal with the guy. Let’s see if he shows up to a debate. But I’ve accepted. I’ll go anywhere, anytime, anyplace, and we’ll see where it is. You know, we’ll see.

HH: Bonus question. Your chief of staff in a second White House – is it going to be Ric Grenell or Mike Pompeo?

DJT: Well, they’re both good, and Ric has been really outstanding. I mean, he has been, he’s been something very, very special. And you talk about courage…

HH: Because you once told me the two most important jobs other than president were chief of staff and national security advisor. So those two matter a lot, and…

DJT: Well, and attorney general. I got attorney general wrong. That one, I got wrong. But attorney general is very important, too. Yeah, they’re all important. Honestly, every position is important. And we had a lot of great people. Lighthizer did a great job. We had so many great people. But sometimes, you get them wrong. And you know, the difference is I went there. I was not a Washington guy, and people were recommended. And for the most part, we had great people. But we had some people would never be there again, that I can tell you. I know the good, the bad, and the ugly.

HH: Well, you know, Senator Cotton would make a great AG, but you might want him at DOD. Once again, I want to close with, I hope you put out a list of your, AG is part of the national security team. I hope you put out a list.

DJT: By the way, Cotton is a, Cotton is a very good man. You’re right. More and more people are mentioning his name. More and more people are mentioning his name.

HH: Mr. President, keep coming back. Good luck in this campaign, and many more rallies. If you go to Ohio, by the way, you’ll get double the crowd that you got in New Jersey.

DJT: Well, it was a great honor to see that crowd. I mean, it was like, we expected 40-45 thousand. And the people just didn’t stop, because they’re looking for hope. It’s so bad, what’s happened to our country, they’re looking for hope. They want hope. And we’re going to give them more than hope. We’re going to give them fact. We’re going to give it to them, and we’re going to bring back our country. And you know, to use our greatest expression of all time, we’re going to make America great again. That’s what we’re going to do. And thank you very much, Hugh.

HH: Thank you, Mr. President. Be well.

DJT: So long.

End of interview.