Donald Trump on the Brian Kilmeade Show

Joining us now, President Donald J. Trump. Mr. President, welcome back.

Well, thank you very much, Brian. Big rally last night, I will say. I know, it was good. I thought it was significant that you had the vice president, kind of a home, excuse me, a vice presidential finalist, Marco Rubio, introduce you.

It makes sense because it's a Florida congressman. But what did you think of his speech? What did you think of, what do you think about him now, knowing that it's only going to be days away from making an announcement? Well, he's very good. And we have some great people that we're looking at.

We have, as they say, a deep bench. But Marco was great last night, very popular. And he's certainly one of the people that we're looking at out, you know, over the next week or so I'll announce. I'd love to do it during the convention.

You know, the old days, they did it during the convention and it kept the convention very exciting, actually. So we'll see about that. But pretty soon we'll be announcing. We have some great people, as you know, you know, all of them. Right. You got J.D. Vance with Governor Burgum in North Dakota. And then you have Tim Scott.

Those are the four finalists. Should I expand that at all if I'm thinking comprehensively about what's on your mind? Well, you could.

You know, I think I'm pretty well set in my own mind, but, you know, you got some good people and I have changed a little bit. But they're all great. Anyone would be fantastic. Anyone would be a lot better than Laff and Kamala. She's terrible. Kamala is just terrible. You know, she was in charge of the border.

She never went there. And she was in charge of trying to get a little peace action going for Ukraine. That didn't work out too well. He went to war instead of peace. There was war instead of peace.

I wouldn't say she did too well on that. No, the whole group is a disaster. Biden is a disaster. Not a good guy either, because he weaponized government and he's a bad guy. He's a crook and he weaponized government. And, you know, somebody told me, I feel sorry for him because at the debate he was so pathetic. They said, I feel sorry for him.

I said, don't feel sorry for him. He's a bad guy. He's absolutely bad guy. And he's destroyed this country.

He's absolutely destroyed this country. So I said, don't feel badly for him. Mr. President, also, when you talk about finalists for this, I'm wondering if it factors in that Joe Biden might not be the nominee. And does that factor in who you pick?

Because a lot of people think it's got to be Kamala to be number one. She goes and picks a battleground state governor like Shapiro or Whitmer. Does that change your thinking? Maybe you need Virginia and you might want to go get a youngkin.

I don't think it does. You know, I ask that question a lot. Am I waiting for that, you know, for the axis to fall? And frankly, you know, I'm amazed that I you know, I hope he can carry it on. I just assume we planned for him.

But whether we plan for him or anyone else, the planning, I think is the same. It's a policy that the Democrats have open borders, high taxes, high interest rates, being weak on foreign. I mean, look at how bad they're left at by everybody. This guy is walking around being laughed at by the leaders.

I know all these leaders. He's being laughed at by the leaders of foreign countries. It's ridiculous that he's our president, but he'll probably stick it out.

He looks like he's going to stick it out. And it's an incredible phenomenon. Nobody's ever seen like it. He can't put two sentences together.

It's a pretty incredible phenomenon. Mr. President, is it in your interest? Is it easier? Is that a better opponent for you than anybody else? Joe Biden, is it? I'll give you a quote from David Axelrod. He said Trump's not talking anything about Biden's bad debate. He's not running blitzing campaign ads about the bad debate. Larry Trump last week said that it would be an affront to democracy if Biden were not the nominee.

Why is he doing that? His conclusion is that you want Biden to be your opponent. Is that the right conclusion?

No, I don't care if it's him or somebody else. It's also policy. It's more about policy than anything else. And these radical Democrats are all radical. Everyone that they're talking about is a radical left lunatic.

And whether it's Biden or whether it's somebody else, I think it's the same. They want open borders. They want all the things we just discussed and much more. No, no more gasoline powered cars. They want you to go all electric. Don't go far and made in China.

Very expensive. You know, they want, you know, as an example, I say it, it's almost embarrassing to even say it. They want men playing in women's sports. And I want the opposite. So, you know, I mean, it's so it's policy is not an opposite philosophy. It's actually Brian, an opposite philosophy.

What's good and true and right. They almost wanted to. In all cases, they want the opposite. The green new scam is is costing us trillions of dollars. It's ridiculous. They're wasting money. And they've caused tremendous inflation. And we're going to stop all that.

So I'm Ian Bremmer. I think, you know, for the president, Eurasia Group said NATO allies and other countries are very concerned about what it would mean if Donald Trump were to become president, given his stated policies on Russia, Ukraine and NATO and the EU. Should they be concerned? No, they should be happy because you wouldn't have had Ukraine attacked if I were president.

You wouldn't have had it. I had a very good relationship with President Putin. We got along very well. That's a good thing. Not a bad thing, by the way. The fake news says, oh, that's terrible. Don't forget, I was the one to stop the pipeline. That was the biggest thing that ever happened economically to Russia.

I stopped it. Biden came in and he approved it. I mean, you tell me who was tougher on Russia. And now they stopped sanctions. I had sanctions that he never had.

I had what I did with Russia was very tough, but I got along with Putin. You wouldn't have had you wouldn't have had Ukraine attacked by Russia if I were president. You wouldn't have had Israel attacked on October 7th if I were president. You wouldn't have inflation if I were president. We would have had a much different company. This would be a much different country because right now we're a failing country. We're a mess. But Mr. President, in terms of NATO, there's people that believe that you want to get out of NATO.

Is that what you want to do? I just want them to pay their bills. We're protecting Europe. They take advantage of us very badly.

Not so much worse. I tell you what, very badly. You look at China. It's your China is terrible.

But I straighten them out. And then we had covered and I had to focus on other things. And we did an incredible job.

We got it back. We saved the country. This country got into a massive depression if I weren't president.

And I gave him a stock market that was higher than pre-Covid when Covid first came in. And what he's done to the economy is horrible because of inflation. The costs have gone up at a level. I think it's close to 50 percent, not 20 percent or 25 percent.

So you're not looking to get out of NATO. They don't they don't implode. You know, they don't include the real cause.

OK. When something really goes haywire like interest rates, they don't include that in their cost of inflation. But what they've done with inflation and what they've done to this country by allowing millions of people, I think 20 million people will be the number by the time this guy gets out.

Hopefully November 5th is going to be the biggest, most important day in the history of our country. But you're talking about 20 million people, many coming from institutions, mental institutions, insane asylums coming from jails and prisons all over the world. Do you know that other countries have the best crime numbers they've ever had because they're sending all their criminals into the United States, not just South America. They're sending all of their criminals, Brian, into the United States. We're going to have a problem and we're going to get them out.

Yeah, but this is what they're doing. And I think that there's a lot more sentiment now to get rid of sanctuary cities than there were in 2016 when you ran because we got sixty seven thousand in New York. I want you to hear what President Biden said about NATO last night. He says allies are paying cut 31. In the year 2020, the year I was elected president, only nine NATO allies were spending two percent of their defense, GDP on defense. This year, 23 will spend at least two percent.

And some will spend more than that. So he's taking credit for that. Should he?

Of course, he shouldn't. They're under attack. With me, there was no attack.

Everybody felt comfortable. And I took in billions and hundreds of billions of dollars. Stoltenberg, the secretary general, said Trump did something I didn't think was possible. I took in the money that he's spending right now. If I didn't take it in, they wouldn't even have a NATO to fight Russia. It was me that took in all the money, but they felt comfortable because, frankly, they weren't going to be attacked.

They knew Russia would never attack as long as I was president when he became president. Of course, they're paying right now. They're under attack.

If they didn't pay right now, the United States, if they were smart, would say, well, I'm sorry, we can't protect you because they have the money to pay. But he makes a big deal out of it. Think of it. They're under attack. He is such a dumb president.

It's not even believable. Of course they're paying. They don't want to be attacked. They want to make sure Russia, the United States stays right behind them. Russia doesn't attack them. But it's real easy to get money when you're at war with Russia.

Understood. So they have sanctions on Russia. And the people that are going around those sanctions are India, who, Modi is a friend of yours. Yesterday, the day that Vladimir Putin rockets a children's hospital, he gives him a bear hug. Does that bother you?

Well, who knows what he knew. And frankly, I do get along very well with Modi. I get along with most of the people. And that's a good thing, by the way, not a bad thing. It's a very good thing because we want to stay out of wars.

You know, this this fool we have as a president, he's a fool. He got us into Ukraine because of him. Israel was attacked. Now the Middle East is blowing up like it like you haven't seen it in a long time. I took everyone out. I got out of the Middle East. I wiped out ISIS. I rebuilt our military. I wiped out ISIS in four weeks. It was supposed to take five years. I knocked out ISIS in four weeks, got rid of the worst terrorists in the world.

Right. And did a job. This this country was safe and the whole world was safe. Look, if you look at Viktor Orban, who is the big chief, the big boss over there, you know that Hungary. He said the only way the world is going to be safe is if Trump comes back as president.

Said when Trump was back, as he used a different word, I wouldn't use it, but that's OK. He said China was afraid of him. Russia was afraid of him.

Everyone was afraid of him. There was no war at all. We had no war. We didn't have Russia and Ukraine. They weren't even thinking about it.

We didn't have. Take a look at Taiwan. That's going to be next. Take a look at what President Xi of China is doing with Taiwan. Right.

We are we are really in very we're very close to World War Three, all because we have an idiot president. That is the sound of an expensive car repair about to happen. And to prevent breaking the bank with your out of warranty vehicle, you should call Car Shield, America's number one automotive protection company. Car Shield has helped save drivers big dollars on car repairs.

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That's 800-2040-239. So let's look at the Middle East. If Iran has a new president, they are supposedly very in a very short time about to get a nuclear weapon. Does Donald Trump, President Trump, if you take over in January and you hope to, does he allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon?

What would you do at this point? Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. They should have never been in a position where they could have had. If I were president, they wouldn't even be thinking about a nuclear weapon. And now they're months away from getting one because Biden doesn't have any idea what he's doing.

He's grossly incompetent and he has no idea. Iran should never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. And Biden should never have allowed them to get this far.

They're way advanced now. They would have never even been thinking about nuclear weapons if I were president. That's the one thing. And I would have made a deal with Iran. We would have made a deal with Iran within one week after the election. But after the election, why would they make a deal? They said, oh, we're going to deal with somebody else.

We're going to start dealing now with a stupid person. And that's what they're dealing with. They're very close to having a nuclear weapon. Would you be holding back weapons from Israel like President Biden is doing now? Israel's got to finish the job.

The answer is no. But Israel's got to finish the job. Which means getting Sinwar and wiping out Hamas? They've got to let them go and do the job.

They've got to finish the job. And Biden knows that, too. But Biden doesn't know. You know, Biden, if you look at the Palestinians, they can't stand Biden. He's being hit by every side. Nobody likes him. Israel doesn't like him and the Palestinians don't like him.

Understood. He has no idea where he is. Nobody has any idea. He doesn't have any idea where he is.

Did you see a big difference? You're dealing with a very low IQ individual. You do know that. Well, you hadn't seen him in three and a half years. And you saw him in 2020. He had two debates.

What was the difference between the 2020 Joe Biden and the 2024 Joe Biden? Well, I thought he wasn't good at the debates. I thought I beat him badly in both debates. Some people said I was too aggressive in the first one and should have let him talk more, which I probably would agree with that. But I beat I beat him in both debates easily by every standard. And second debate, he was saying things that were crazy. He talked about energy.

Remember the last question? I said, it's Perry Mason time. You know, meaning he said he admitted something that he should have never said. But no, I think I mean, he was worse than this one, but I don't know.

Do you think he was maybe something's wrong, maybe something. Look, he has the delegates. He's allowed to run. They're not going to stop him. He's allowed to run if he wants to. The only thing that can stop him if he decides he he can't do the job.

Couple of things. That's a big admit. You know, if he decides he can't do the job.

That's a very big that's a very big statement. He shouldn't have been doing it anyway. Look, he's done a horrible job. We're in wars all over the place. We have inflation, the likes of which no one's ever seen before. We're not respected on the world stage. We had the most embarrassing event in the history of our country, Afghanistan.

Not that we got out because I was getting out, but I was getting out with strength and dignity. The way he got out was so embarrassing to our country. You know, that was one of the major reasons Putin went in when Putin saw how incompetent Millie and all these guys were. He said, this is a great time to go in and take Ukraine, which is, by the way, the apple of his eye.

So a couple of things. Just looking at Nikki Haley yesterday, she said, I'm giving I recommend all my delegates go to President Trump. And they said, are you are you going to the Republican convention? And she says, I have not been invited. Is from your understanding, are you have you not invited her and would you want to invite her?

Is that an oversight or intentional? Well, I'll take a look at that. I mean, I have heard that this morning, so I'll take a look at that. So you would like to see her go? I don't know.

I'm going to take a look at it. I want to say I know she gave her delegates over. You know, there was a lot of bad blood there. She stayed too long. She was being soundly defeated at every place, but she just wouldn't leave. And so we had to continue onward for two extra months, which was ridiculous. And she was doing badly.

She was losing badly. But I mean, her mistake was she continued on. She just, you know, keep going.

I had that the first time, too. You know, I had a gentleman from Ohio continued on. He just wouldn't, you know, just kept going. He wasn't getting anything. He wasn't doing anything. He wasn't getting any votes.

But he continued on. There's a time to which you leave. You know, Rhonda Sanders left right after Iowa. She should have left right after Iowa. She came in third. She didn't come in second.

Iran came in second. But he left after Iowa because he said there was no way. So you're still a little angry that she stayed in third. There was no way. So I just say this.

You know, I wish you didn't stay so long. Right. But do you think she helps you with moderates that she had a group of people that maybe are hard for you to get? No, they're not going to vote for Biden. Biden is a low IQ president, but they're not going to vote for him. They're going to vote for Trump. And, you know, all the polls are showing that we have very big numbers. I think bigger than the polls. I mean, I, I watch Fox.

I watched yesterday a classic. John Roberts, except, you know, Fox always tells me you can't use Rasmussen. I sent him these great polls. My people do.

And they won't use them. And then John Roberts said, oh, the Democrats sent us a poll. This is a poll. And it had me like leading Biden by one. We're leading by huge numbers. But, you know, they put on John Roberts puts on a poll. I guess it was John Roberts. He puts on a poll where it was given to them leaked by the Democrats.

Of course. What does he think? What does he think they're going to leak him? Well, it wasn't even a real poll.

Nobody ever heard of it. But we both think John Roberts by the Democrats. Well, we he just shared it, but we both love John Roberts. The biggest poll shift in the in the in this election cycle just happened yesterday. All going your direction. And now the Politico says that New York is in play. So you have Minnesota now in play. You have New Hampshire now in play. Virginia now in play.

And now they're saying New York's in play. Well, I think the whole country is in play. We have a low IQ president and they don't like it. We had a great country four years ago. We were respected all over the world. I beat ISIS and there were no wars that no war started. There were no wars contemplated. We weren't going to have any wars in the world. We weren't going to. What Victor Orban said is he said that he's talking about the world.

He said the world is going to blow up unless Trump is. Well, people did respect me. No, I respected our country. So now you looked at this platform. I know Michael Waltz and Marcia Blackburn worked on it, too, and you simplified it. And for the first time, no nationwide ban on abortion for the first time in 40 years.

IVF is OK with you. No mention of traditional marriage because I guess we're pulling you're pulling back on that a little. It seems as though this is something that's targeting moderates.

What was your approach to this platform? Well, it's not targeting moderates. It's common sense. They basically had in some cases gay bans.

I don't want that. So what we're about. They had other things that are ridiculous. The abortion issue is much simplified right now because I brought it out, you know, by getting rid of Roe v. Wade. That was an incredible thing, because after 52 years and everybody wanted this, Democrats, Republicans and all legal scholars wanted it. They didn't want it to be in the federal government. They said it's a state's issue.

And I was able to bring it back into the states. And now the states are voting. And honestly, in some cases, the votes liberal and in some cases it's more conservative. But the states are now voting and it's the people that are voting.

But, you know, Ryan, the people are voting and it's the way it was supposed to be. If you remember, for 52 years, they've been trying to get it. So it's states. It's in the states. But it got stuck in the federal government with Roe v. Wade. I was able to get that out.

That was a great service. Now, and it's turning out very liberal. Look at Ohio. Ohio went for something that's much more, I will call it, liberal than people would have thought.

But yet that's firmly in your column by about nine points. It's now a vote of the people. Real quick, on your vice president's candidate, word is that you won't pick J.D.

Vance because of his facial hair. Is that is that true? No, I've never heard that one.

Number two, Doug Burgum, the thing that hurts. He looks like a young Abraham Lincoln. Right. He's a handsome man. Doug Burgum, on abortion in North Dakota, he signed something the legislature handed him. Does that hurt him? Well, it's a little bit of an issue. It's a pretty strong ban. You know, I think Doug is great, but it is a strong he's taken a very strong stance or the state has. I don't know if it's Doug, but the state has. It's so it's it's an issue.

And lastly, Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio and being from Florida. Would that stop you from from picking him? No, but it does make it more complicated. You know, you do that and it makes it more complicated. There are people that don't have that complication. Now, it's fairly easily fixed, but you have to do something with delegates or there has to be a resignation, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

So it's not like picking some people where it's very easy, where there is none of that. Florida, meaning two people can't be running on the same ticket. You actually can, but they take delegates and taking delegates is a very risky thing to do. So you Milwaukee, Mr. President, thanks so much for the quality time for our audience and thanks so much for the insight. Do you think you'll make your pick tomorrow, Vice President?

No, not tomorrow. I'll make it close to the convention. I would love to do it. You know, it used to be picked during the convention, Brian. It made the convention, frankly, more interesting. The pick used to be during the convention. That's what I'd like to do. But, you know, with modern technologies, you can believe it.

It's like everything else. Like voting used to be better with all paper ballots. I mean, modern technologies is a lot of things and it makes it easier if you pick before the convention. Mr. President, thanks.

I'd love to be the old fashioned way and do it during the convention. All right. You do make the final pick there. You'll make that choice. Mr. President, thanks so much. Have a great day.