Donald Trump on the Brian Kilmeade Show - Full Interview

Let's welcome in President Donald Trump. Mr. President, welcome back to the show. Well, thank you, Brian.

Thank you very much. So, Mr. President, no one has better political instincts, I would argue, than you. Do you sense a red wave? I do. I think so. About six months ago, it felt phenomenal.

Then it got a little bit muddied up. Now I think we're going to do very well. I actually think we're going to do very well.

Maybe surprisingly well. Crime is a disaster for them. I mean, so, Democrat cities. But crime is just an absolute disaster for them.

And the economy and inflation is really bad. And then they put Afghanistan and the withdrawal in the back of their mind. The way they withdrew, not the withdrawal. The way they withdrew with the fact that it was really a surrender, not a withdrawal. It was the lowest day in the life of our country, in my opinion.

You know, you had all of these factors. We're not respected anymore. We're not. We have nothing.

We have nothing. The war with Ukraine and Russia would have never happened. Should have never happened. Would have never happened. Why do you think it wouldn't have happened if you were president? Because Putin respected me and we didn't play games and it wouldn't have happened. Plus, just another little factor is when oil went up to $114 a barrel, Putin was making a fortune no matter what the war cost.

When I had it, I had it at $40 a barrel. And at $40 a barrel, he couldn't have afforded the war. Right now, oil is so expensive that he can continue to go.

His money's not going to be the problem. The capability is, and certainly he's been somewhat embarrassed, but now if you notice, he's bringing out some pretty vicious weapons. From Iran. In fact, he's bringing him on from Iran. What would you do if Iran was supplying kamikaze drones to an ally with Ukraine is an ally of ours.

Yep. That's another thing that would have never happened. Iran would have never done that. They were in no position to do that, Brian. Iran was in absolutely no position to do that.

They would have, uh, you know, I was, I had them shut down. Iran would have made a deal with us within one week after I reassumed office. Now Iran is another one. They've aligned with China and Russia. So on top of everything else, you have these countries with a lot of weaponry lined up. You have China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea probably too. So Mr. President, it's obvious that Russia does not have a military that was hyped to have had. They are performing miserably in the field.

People are leaving the country rather than go for their draft. Obviously Putin's embarrassed. Did you know that Russia was actually this antiquated this week?

Well, nobody knew, you know, you don't know those things. Putin would talk a strong game, but it's been very embarrassing. But nevertheless, they have a strong, you know, they have a strong military and you look at what's happening now. They're knocking the hell out of, they're just knocking, just knocking Ukraine to their cities are being just pummeled and buildings are pouring down on top of people.

You know, this is something that should have never happened. This is something that with, look, when he saw, when Putin saw I was out, and he saw what happened in Afghanistan, I think he looked at himself, he said, he looked at this group, he said, here's our chance. They don't know what they're doing.

Because we looked worse than he ever looked with the way we got out of Afghanistan. So, you know, I think that, and also, they don't seem to be fighting with a lot of spirit. They had a fight with spirit, like Ukraine is fighting with spirit. But Ukraine is a much smaller military, you know, you have to remember. And now they're using tactics. And don't forget, those tactics can get a lot worse. And importantly, you know, the, I call it the N word, the nuclear word. People get a little angry when I say that. Don't get angry.

It's the biggest threat of the world today. Do you think he uses him? I think there's a story that Putin wanted to use him in his inner circle, stopped it. Do you think Putin would use nuclear weapons?

Well, I don't think he'll stand for losing. So in some form, maybe limited form, but to think we're even having this conversation. You know, you never mentioned the N word, either one, okay? You never mentioned the N word or the N word. The nuclear N word never was supposed to be mentioned. Now I'm reading every day, as an example today, I'm reading somewhere that there's at least a 40% chance that he'll use nuclear weapons.

How the hell did this happen? And it's because of the United States. The other thing is, you know, we're spending a lot of money and Europe is spending a tiny fraction of that money. You know, Europe is not spending the money.

We are, we're spending a lot of money. We're going for billions and billions and billions and every time he calls and I like him, don't forget, he came to my defense with the fake Russian folks. He said he didn't say anything wrong. He could have played it the other way. Oh, I was, you know, insulted or something.

He wasn't insulted and he was very honorable. So I like him, but it would be a great thing if we could negotiate a peace right now. Wouldn't that be great? But not if they, but if they take 15% of a country and then negotiate peace, they won. So that would be a bad, that would be a bad precedent. That's up to whoever it is negotiated. But we're very far away from the area. Europe is very close and Europe isn't paying money.

You know, they're paying very little. If I could pair, if I could pivot to Saudi Arabia, you mentioned oil. We, uh, they have decided to pull back OPEC plus 2 million barrels a day from the market, uh, causing prices to rise. The president says he's going to be held to pay for that essentially. And the Democrats are talking about stopping, uh, uh, arm sales and missile defense to them.

Do you think that's the right move? Well, I think Saudi Arabia has been treated badly by the United States, by this particular group of people. And I think they took them for granted. And, you know, in the meantime, Russia there, but right there, Russia and China are moving in and they can protect them just like we can, you know, they needed us for protection. When I was there, I gave them great protection. They would have done anything for us.

They would have done literally, they would have done anything for us, but I gave them great protection and we got along great. And when we had too much oil, you know, in my case, we, we produced so much that I got it down to a dollar 50 gasoline down to a dollar 50. That was too long because the oil companies are going to go bust. So I dealt with Russia specifically.

I dealt with Russia and I dealt with Saudi Arabia on a couple of phone calls and we got it up and we got the, uh, we got it up to $40 a barrel, which is great. And I gave us a dollar 87, you know, they keep saying it's $2 and 30. It wasn't 2030.

It was a dollar. You can't go from the day because as soon as the election was as I'll put a word in quotes one, one, okay. Which we got more votes than they did. We, we did a great job with that election that I can tell you. I got 12 million more votes than I got the first time. But as soon as the election was determined, uh, you had a big spike in oil, but that had nothing to do with me.

So if you go to before the election itself, you look at some of the prices during a period during a purely extended period of time, not, not fairly during my whole administration, but we had oil down to a dollar 87 a barrel. Right. So, so overall with judging what we're living with now, uh, you would not, uh, sanction, you would not withhold weapon sales or damage the relief or sanction the relationship because you were using them as a hedge against Iran anyway. Don't you have to make a choice in the middle East? I wouldn't do that.

Now we have first for two reasons. They give us billions and billions of dollars to make these weapons. And if we don't give it to them, they'll buy them from China and Russia. So, you know, I don't, I wouldn't do that at all.

No. So let's look at your candidates. I'd be friends with the Saudis and I don't like them going to China because they do control vast amounts of wealth. We have more than they do. That's the amazing thing. And Biden goes around begging Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and others for all. We have more than they do. A lot of people don't know that I got Anwar done in Alaska. Uh, that's the size potentially of Saudi Arabia in terms of, and he won't use it quantity.

And the first day, well, figure this, the biggest site, probably in the world. Okay. I got it done. Reagan couldn't get it done. Nobody could get it done. I got it done the first day in office. They ended it, but I'll get it back if I do something. So mr. President first day in office, they ended it. Think of that, Brian.

So the biggest site, the biggest, the most liquid gold anywhere in the world, probably, but very close. But you talked to people from Alaska. They're so frustrated.

They're very frustrated, uh, especially. So let's talk about the people that you have on the ballot. Some of the people you got behind, uh, and endorsed Blake masters, Dr. Oz, JD Vance, Kari Lake are doing very well.

Even Tudor Dixon, uh, is, uh, seems to be surging. Will the results of this election and the people you endorsed influence whether you run or not in 2024? Uh, yes and no. Uh, look, if we did badly, I'm not sure that that wouldn't make it even more imperative to run because I've done very well. Look, I won the first election by quarter. I won the second election by a lot, a lot. Yeah. Well, you got, you got more votes this time, but having, having said that you had 74 million places where you had more votes and you had people voting, right?

Look at Philadelphia, look at Detroit. Yeah. You're just going, just going forward, looking at the results, looking at results in 2022, you think whether, whether you, whether it's a big win for your candidates or a big loss, you feel it imperative to run. How do you think Herschel Walker has handled all the controversy, the allegations, uh, of, uh, abortions and things like that to this point? How do you think he's handled it?

Well, as good as he is, as good as he can. Look, I know Herschel for a long time. He's a high quality person.

Actually. He's never done this before. I think he's done a really good job and I think he's going to win. Uh, remember Herschel as an athlete and as a person, you know, they know him for a long time in that state, but he's probably a top three running back in history at Georgia is a big football deal. He went to a great football school.

He was a star Heisman trophy and everything, national championship. I think when people get into that voting booth and this, he's got a great way about a great look. He's kept himself in shape. He looks great.

He looks like he could play tomorrow. So maybe, maybe you should go play a little bit of football, right? You know, help the team out, but then they have a great team this year too, interestingly, but Herschel was the greatest. I mean, he was one of the two or three greatest athletes in the history of the state.

You have Hank Aaron, you have Herschel Walker, and you have a couple of others, I guess, but, but those two come to mind. I think when the voters get into that booth, which I, it would be nice if they all got into the booth by, by the way, not this mail and crap that gets, uh, you know, rigged and fixed, but, I mean, we should go to paper ballots, one day voting and voter ID. If you had that, you wouldn't have any problems anymore. Nobody would be complaining.

No, but I hear you. So you're optimistic. Yeah, you're optimistic. Herschel is going to pull it out.

You're optimistic. He's going to pull it out, I guess. And if he doesn't get over 50, they'll have a runoff again.

Yeah. I think when people in Georgia say vote against a guy who's got a lot of problems, Warnock has a lot of dirty stuff in his background. To me, he's got a lot of dirty, dirty stuff, really dirty stuff. And I, in my opinion, it hasn't come out yet, but I think that Herschel is going to do really well.

I think people are going to say, I'm going for Herschel. Hey, so Mr. President, what I'm wondering is I see Maggie Haberman sits down with you for hours as a best-selling book, Jonathan Karl, hours best-selling book, Bob Woodward now releasing tapes. Do you regret sitting down with them? They don't seem to be doing any favors and making a lot of money off, off the relationship. No. Well, it depends. I think Jonathan Karl, you know, look, I know Jonathan for a long time.

He's a sleazebag. And I knew what I was doing. I'm glad I did it because at least you get a little bit of say, but they don't write it anyway. In many ways, I like the tapes. I insist on tapes, but I also say the tapes belong to me. So that means Woodward has to get whatever deal he made. You know, we'll probably end up in litigation over it because we gave tapes for the written word, not tapes to sell.

And that's always made clear. I don't know if you've ever done an interview with you. I might not say it because I trust you.

You're a good man, Brian. Thank you. But with Bob Woodward, I said, no, no, these tapes are for the written word. These tapes are for your book.

These are not to be sold. These are tapes for your book to help you. And I like that because it's more accurate, you know, than somebody. So now he's selling an audio book, whatever you say. So now he makes an audio book out of it. So we'll sue him. And then, you know, we'll probably end up in litigation. And then, you know, we've already hired the lawyers to sue him because he's a, you know, Bob Woodward's a very sleazy guy. I know you got to get going.

You got to, to, uh, uh, we've got a couple of minutes. Twitter is bought by Elon Musk. They want you back. Will you go back on Twitter? I know you got Truth Social.

Would you do both? Well, Truth Social for the last four days has been number one. I don't know if you've seen that, but it's been number one. It's ahead of TikTok. It's ahead of Instagram. It's ahead of everything.

It's been number one. But I could verify this. Okay. Cause I like to verify things. So Truth is doing really well.

People love it. In fact, they say that was one of the worst decisions made in business. Yeah. I got it. Mr. President, you kind of faded out in that real quick. You're going in and out, uh, Twitter. Would you go back on Twitter? Uh, go back to Twitter. Yep. No, I love.

Yeah. We looks like we've just got out of range from the Fox news podcasts network. I'm Janice Dean, Fox news, senior meteorologist. Be sure to subscribe to the Janice Dean podcast at Fox news podcast.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

And don't forget to spread the sunshine. President dropped off at the end. So he rejoins us now, Mr. President, when will you decide if you're going to run in 2024 and how would you handle running against people in your cabinet like Pompeo, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence? Well, many of them have said they would never run if I run. So we'll see whether or not that turns out to be true.

I think it would be very disloyal if they did, but that's okay too. And the polls have been leading by 40, 50 points. I've been leading by a lot. Right.

Uh, the other thing is I'll probably decide in the not too distant future, we have to make this country great again. We had it great. We had energy independence. We were respected all over the world. We had low taxes, everything that's happened. We had no inflation. As you know, we had, we had this thing going like nobody's, like our country has never been before. When would you decide if you're going to run?

When would you decide if you want to try that again? We had the strongest border in history. We had all of the things.

It was so beautiful. And now look at our country. Our country is a failed country. We're really a nation in decline.

And that's a very sad thing. Mr. President, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Donald Trump. From the Fox News Podcasts Network, subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy Podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term US Congressman from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcasts.com.