President Donald Trump on the Brian Kilmeade Show

Hi everyone, welcome back.

Brian Kilmeade Show. It's my privilege to bring in the 45th and the 47th President of the United States, the first time interviewing you in your second term. Mr. President, how does the first 30 days feel? Well, I have the best poll numbers I've ever had, so that feels good.

It's always nice. We won all seven swing states in addition, and we got the popular vote by millions of votes. But now I have much higher poll numbers than even the election, so I've never had such wonderful numbers. People have always said, well, I don't know, is he doing good, or don't we know, or whatever.

But I guess people did feel we did a great job in term one, and that's how we won. But right now, I just got the best poll numbers I've ever had, beating everybody. So that's nice. That's always nice, Brian. I know.

You always like to keep score. Mr. President, the one thing that you inherited, and that is Hamas, since October 7th, they've been at war, and the IDF has been at war with Hamas. Yesterday, we got four hostages back in caskets, two of which were children, nine months and four years old, and the mom that they gave back was not even the right body.

As we wait for six more hostages to be returned on Saturday, what do you think should happen with Benjamin Netanyahu, the IDF, and Hamas? Well, I speak to him, and he's actually not torn. I mean, you know where he stands, and he would like to go in. He just is so angry, and he should be. If he's not angry, then there'd be something wrong with him, frankly. He is very angry.

He's a very angry man at what happened, especially what happened yesterday with these kids. They were babies, and it's rough stuff. It's rough stuff, and it looked like they were celebrating as they were, bringing the bodies back. The seed is not even believable, Brian. When you see what's happening, it's sort of not even believable. It's so barbaric.

You wouldn't think that could happen in a modern age, but it happened. You dropped off 2,000-pound bombs to them that they had ordered a while ago. You said, basically, you're not going to tell them not to go into any province. What Joe Biden was saying, don't go into Rafah.

You better stop. Humanitarian aid here, threatening with sanctions. You have a different approach. It's prime minister, do what you have to do.

So he's got the decision to make. Do I worry about the 30-plus hostages that may still be alive, or do I finish off a terror organization that's trying to destroy you? Are you okay either way? I am.

I really am. When you see what's happening here, it's a hard thing to say. You just wonder the condition of the hostages that they have. One group came in so bad, looked like it was concentration camp in Germany. This was a terrible, terrible thing when I looked. And then the other day, a group came in which was not as bad, actually not really closely as bad. But I think really a lot of the people they have are in such bad shape. They're so violent and vicious. I think a lot of people, if you look, I think they're in really bad shape.

I really do. I think they're trying to give the best ones first, and if the best ones are the ones I'm seeing, they're in really bad shape. And sometimes you have to make a decision. You know, it's a decision that has to be made. It's a rough decision.

But the scene yesterday was really terrible because you're talking about babies. But Mr. President, there's no scenario where there's a two-state solution. This is really a low level. There's no scenario where there's a two-state solution anymore. I know Mike Waltz, your national security advisor, says there's no way Hamas is in charge there.

So this seems, it seems like we're the ultimate impasse. Your idea of taking over Gaza, making it more international, wasn't necessarily well received by Jordan or Egypt. So what's next, do you know?

Well, we paid Jordan and Egypt billions of dollars a year, and I was a little surprised they'd say that, but they did. And I'll tell you, the way to do it is my plan. I think that's the plan that really works, but I'm not forcing it.

I'm just going to sit back and recommend it. And then the U.S. would own the site. It'd be to own no Hamas, and it'd be developed, and then you start all over again with a clean plate. Right. Another way of doing it, but I don't think it would work, would be to do it with people there, but I just don't see that working. I mean, it's been so many years, so many decades of killing on that site. That is one dangerous place, and Hamas would be there, I guess, depending on what happens over the next little while. But the question is, can you wipe them all out? You know, they're so interspersed among people, and it's certainly not an easy thing to do. But I like my plan.

I thought my plan was good. You get them out, you move them, you build a beautiful community and a permanent community. And you then take the site, the Gaza Strip. You take Gaza, and it's really essentially leveled now.

You don't have too much to do other than remove debris. It's really that that place is not livable. And if you gave the people a choice between that and living in a nice community, I think I know where they'd go.

But we'll see what happens. I thought it was I thought it was great because the location is, you know, it's a great location. I don't know why Israel ever gave that up. Why did they give it up? I guess they look at us and say, Why did you give up the Panama Canal, right? Right. It's all connected. Ariel Sharon decided to do that. You look down on a map, they have the whole ocean.

And somebody from Israel, I guess, you know, I can tell you who, but who is well known, but he decided to give it up. Yeah. It's one of the sort of the bad real estate deals. I see a lot of bad real estate deals.

That's one of them right there. So, Mr. President, cover of every newspaper just about is your stance in Ukraine. I was looking up. I almost found no indications that you said anything bad about Zelensky up into the last few days. And it seems as though when he didn't take the mineral deal and was critical of you for having having a delegation talk in Saudi Arabia with Russia, that was a turning point for you, correct? I've been watching this man for years now, as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as the soldiers get decimated, where you have old, you have old men and young men, men that are too old to fight, men that are too young to fight.

I've been watching this for years. And it's a war that shouldn't have started. I know because I was there and I had it. It didn't. So it would have never started if if I won the election, which I did. It's a war that never ever would have started. So I've been watching for years and I've been watching him negotiate with no cards.

He has no cards. And you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I've had it. And he then made a deal with us for rare earth and things. And who knows what rare earth is worth, you know, but at least it's something. And who knows what it's worth.

Who knows if they even have it. But we made a deal with rare earth and Secretary of Treasury, a very good guy, actually went there and they couldn't even come close to getting a deal done. And frankly, I wish he didn't go there, waste all of his time like that. But they couldn't get close. They met.

Right. And then when he wanted to get it close, he was unable to meet him again. But so just a wasted trip, a dangerous trip to. I didn't like it that he was doing it because, you know, he's a good man.

I didn't want him to be put himself under danger because I had a feeling something like that would happen. But look what you have. You have a man who's led a country that had the most beautiful cities that they demolished, had the most beautiful domes. Those domes are the most beautiful in the world.

But that's Russia's fault, though, Mr. President. Russia demolished a thousand year old domes and everything's demolished. I mean, it's like a demolition site, though. It's sort of like Gaza. In fact, it's more at least Gaza has a couple of buildings standing in this place. You take a look at the demolition of so many of those cities and it and also those people are killed never to come back again. But Mr. President, that's all this. That's Vladimir Putin's fault. I get tired of listening to it. I'll tell you what.

I've seen it enough. And then he complains that he's not at a meeting that we're having with Saudi Arabia trying to intermediate a peace. Well, he's been at meetings for three years with a very with a president who didn't know what the hell he was doing. He's been in the meetings for three years and nothing got done. So I don't think it's very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you. He's been there for three years. He makes it very hard to make deals. But look what's happened to his country. It's been demolished. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gowdy podcast.

I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Fox News podcast dot com. But no, no, I hear you. Mr. President, you know who's to blame for that. Don't you think it's Vladimir Putin that did the invasion unwarranted to try to take back land he had no right to.

And don't you think fundamentally that's that. And if you could just now now both sides want to talk, it seems so we should just get to that point. They only want to talk because of me. If I wasn't involved, they wouldn't be talking to each other. And Russia would continue to go through Ukraine because they are going through.

Brian, they've taken a lot of land and Russia would continue the march through Ukraine. If it wasn't for me, they wouldn't be talking at all. I'm the only reason they're talking.

No, no, I think that everybody agrees with that. We have Macron coming to see you for France and then Stormer for the UK this week to move forward. But they didn't do anything either. The war is going on. There are no meetings with Russia, no nothing. Right. You know, they haven't done anything.

And if you know, Macron is a friend of mine and I've met with the prime minister and you know, he's a very nice guy, but nobody's done anything. And I've been watching this going for years and I'm doing it for one reason. I hate the killings. I hate to see those young people killed. They're not Americans. They're Russians and Ukrainians. I hate to see the killings. So I just saw the Polish president just tweeted and he essentially he essentially told Zelensky to go back and do a deal with you and try to get to get to peace.

And he just put that out a short while ago. So do you believe that the Russians want a deal? And even though they're the aggressors in this situation, they want a deal because they've had that seven hundred thousand casualties.

They're losing forty six thousand a month, too. So do you believe they're since they were sincere in in Saudi Arabia? Look, Russia and who is the Polish you talking about? Yeah. Was it due to put it out? Yes. Because you have different leaders in Poland.

It's very interesting. But no. Look, you ready? Russia did not attack during my administration, but I will say he hates Zelensky. He hates him with a tremendous passion. You're lucky you don't hate people, Brian. You don't hate anybody. You've never. But it's mutual.

I'll give you the exact read. He said, I suggested President Zelensky remained committed to the course of calm, constructive cooperation with Donald Trump. I trust that goodwill and honesty from a former foundation of the U.S. negotiation strategy.

I have no doubt that President Trump is guided by a deep sense of responsibility for global stability and peace. And he said he just spoke to Zelensky. So are you expecting a call from would you accept a call from Zelensky today? Yeah, of course. I'm not playing games. I don't accept or not accept calls. Of course, I'll take a call from him.

But he's been negotiating for three years. And just so you know, when you say Russia was the attacker. Russia was attacked. Russia attacked. But there was no reason for them to attack.

You could have talked about you. There was no reason that he should have attacked. That whole thing was was going on for years.

There was no reason he was going in. It should have never happened. That war should have never happened. And I'm telling you, the way they talked, I said, you know, these guys are going to go into a war. It's it's this is a you know, every time I say, oh, it's not Russia's fault.

I always get slammed by the fake news. But I'm telling you, Biden said the wrong things. Zelensky said the wrong things. They got attacked by somebody that's much bigger and much stronger. Which is a bad thing to do.

And you don't do that. But Russia could have been talked out of that so easily. That should never have been a war. And all those dead people shouldn't be dead.

And all those cities shouldn't be demolished right now. So when Zelensky said, oh, he wasn't invited to a meeting. I mean, it wasn't a priority because he did such a bad job in negotiating so far. Number one, you shouldn't have had a war. And if you did, it should have been solved and settled immediately. It could have been. Mr. President, I think you're 100 percent right. There's two three years ago, Zelensky made two mistakes in two, three days.

He criticized you and then he criticized the meeting. And then he said, I'm walking away from the deal, which was, I think, 55 percent of their rare earth minerals. It would have allowed America to have a stake there and nobody would attack Ukraine if America had business there. Having said that, I think if both sides could, do you think the Russians should be celebrating right now?

Because they hear the rhetoric coming from the White House. No, because if I got out, they I think they really want to make a deal. I do think they found it impossible to make a deal with Zelensky as his buildings came down. You know, the buildings came down all over.

They were just raining, raining down. You got nothing. You know, take a look at what he's going to. Let's assume I make a deal.

I'm getting him back. Many demolished cities and the bodies of many dead people. What kind of a deal is that?

What kind of a what kind of a situation is that? There was no reason for that. Now, Russia attacked, but they shouldn't have let him attack because they wouldn't have attacked.

If they if you had people that knew what they were doing. Joe Biden is a very dumb man. You know that.

And I know it. Joe Biden is a very dumb man who was dumber than ever before because, you know, things have happened to him. He had no idea what he was doing and everything he said was wrong. And I said, you know what? I think this guy's going to cause the I think he's going to cause a war.

And that's what happened. And I will tell you, Putin could have been talked out of that so easy, but they didn't know how to talk. So, Mr. President, have been talked out of that war so easy. You didn't know how to talk.

But you had all the wrong things. And I'm I'm not trying to make Putin like nicer or better. I'm just telling you the fact that war should have never happened.

Putin would have never gone in. And we'll see where we go from here. Mr. President, you have some sway with him.

You definitely talk to him more than probably anybody else in the world outside. But here's the thing. They don't have to make a deal because if he wanted, he'd get the whole country.

But he's paying a huge price, as you pointed out a couple of weeks ago. They have taken about 20000 Ukrainian kids and they basically kidnapped them, gave them new names and put them into homes in Russia. Can you get Vladimir Putin to reverse that?

Could that be one of the precursors to show they sincerely want to negotiate? I believe I could. Yes, I didn't know too much about it. I was hearing about it yesterday.

It's pretty tough stuff, but I believe I could do that. Yes. Great.

I want to talk about something different right now. Kathy Hochul says game on. You drew first blood as you got rid of. Have you got rid of congestion pricing in New York City?

What's your response to her? In fact, in fact, here's what you said. It was very bad. Listen to this.

Listen to this. I was going to kill Manhattan in certain parts of New York. Ultimately, when Manhattan goes, the whole state goes. Manhattan is not doing well to start off with. And all you're doing with congestion pricing is saying don't go in. And it's like fifteen dollars a day. Yep. And if you're a shoe salesman or if you're a waiter or if you're the owner of a restaurant or the owner of just about any business, it's a disaster.

It's been a disaster. Every place has been used that it is. And, you know, they call me for help. And yet nobody's treated me worse than they have in Manhattan. They have a rigged court system that they treated me worse than anybody. There's never been treatment like I've been treated. And that's the way they treat people. They go after people. And, you know, people think that, oh, I should come and help.

I view it and I say, what a what a shame. But despite that and despite the way I get I get treated, I do help. I help New York tremendously. And everybody says I shouldn't even bother with New York the way they do, the way they are. It's a it's a really vicious place from a legal standpoint, from a weaponization. It's totally weaponized. The courts are weaponized and they're horrible.

And I had the best cases. Nobody could even believe every single one of the pundits from McCarthy to Turley to Greg Jarrett. Dershowitz said they had no case against me whatsoever. It shouldn't be brought. And you can't win in New York. You get these judges that you can't win. The whole thing is a rigged, horrible system. And it's crooked and corrupt. And they put this congestion pricing on and it would have destroyed the city even further. You would have had you would have had no business left in Manhattan.

Numbers were way down. They need business. They need people to go in. They basically it's like putting up a wall. People weren't going to go in.

Everybody was going to lose their jobs. Really, it's a very, very sinister place. What's taken place in New York over the last eight years or so. It's a very, very sinister place. And Mayor Adams is finding that out right now.

It's a little bit. But it's gone on and on and on. And it just gets worse and worse, nastier and nastier. And they've got to do something about the court system in New York. It is a rigged system.

It's a horrible system. I had three judges. They were totally dishonest judges. They were the most dishonest judges. Look, I've been around. I've been to many courts. And I will tell you, these are the most dishonest group of judges I've ever had.

I've never seen anything like it. I think Mayor Adams would agree with a very corrupt place. And now on top of everything, what they want to do and people are leaving, businesses are leaving in record numbers and people are leaving. And I'll tell you, Brian, it's really a shame to see such a great place go so bad.

And now they put this horrible payment that you have to have for the privilege of going to a place that's not doing very well. It's a loser. And I give my I give my secretary a great literally a great applause for what he did.

All right. So that was that was transportation secretary Sean Duffy. So, Mr. President, right now, the market dropped a little because Kmart is not for Kmart or Wal-Mart is not forecasting growth in revenues. And they look at inflation. Inflation is stubborn.

You inherited it. When does it become your economy? When is it a Trump economy where we get to see if your plans are working?

Well, it takes a period of six months to a year. Biden really screwed up our country. He really screwed it up badly. If you look at the deficits we have with other countries that should have been taken care of. Brian, we have a deficit with China of over a trillion dollars, a trillion. And so it takes a period of time. We're going to have a very strong country.

It's going to take a little while to get it back. Just like inflation. You know, I gave him almost no inflation, one point two percent, which is perfect.

And it went up to nine point nine percent. What I think the worst inflation in the history of our country. But I gave him no inflation.

A powerful, great economy. And he screwed it up with two ways. He spent too much. And Mitch McConnell shouldn't have approved all that stuff. Mitch McConnell did a very poor job. Very, very poor job. He shouldn't have approved a lot of this stuff. He approved it.

It was like I said, what does he have on Mitch McConnell? It's just so sad to see that. But but I gave him and they what they've done to this, what they've done to this country is just incredible. Between the open borders and prisoners pouring in and mental patients and everything else pouring in. And it's not easy to get them. You know, they're looking all over the place, have searches all over the place. But, you know, these are professionals escaping. And Tom Holman is doing an unbelievable job.

And Kristi Kristi, an unbelievable job. But so they really made a mess of things in foreign policy and in local policy. They have made a mess of this. It'll be straightened out.

I would say in 12 months we're going to have a whole different country. All right. So yesterday it just happened, actually. They voted through the night that a vote-o-rama and the GOP with the Republican led Senate just passed one of two bills. So this this was adopted.

It's a fifty to forty eight. And they're going to get financing for defense and financing for the border. But there didn't do they didn't do a real they didn't re up on your tax reform. You said this is what Senator Thune told me yesterday about what he's trying to do, because now you want one bill and he's given you two cut for. What would that one bill consist of and what would the second bill consist of? And why not just do one?

Well, I think we're I'm game. And if the House can execute on getting one done, more power to them. I think at the moment, what we're trying to do is preserve optionality for the president. The president has campaigned on and said his number one priority is securing the border.

And this this bill that we're doing today is heavily focused on giving the president the resources he needs to secure the border. So your thought about the one bill that passed? Yeah.

Look, the Republicans have been very well, everybody, but I think Rand Paul voted against it. Is that right? Yeah. Oh, boy. Never ends with these guys.

They have to they have to go in grandstand. But I was very honored by the bill that he did. I think John Thune is doing a fantastic job, but it does.

It gives you optionality, Brian. We want one big, beautiful bill, as I say. And, you know, that would include many other things than what we were approved yesterday.

But to have what we approved yesterday is nice. And we'll see now how the House is going to do. The House is going with the one bill concept, the Senate, the two. And the Senate will come along to do if they see good progress with the House, they'd rather have everything included also. But we're going to see what they we're going to see what the House comes up with.

They're working very hard. They think they're going to get there on one bill. And then the Senate would be able to vote on the one big, beautiful bill that would include taxes, tax cuts. And really the biggest it'll be the biggest tax cuts in American history.

And I would think it's very hard for even Democrats to vote against it. So it sounds like you're almost open to two. You're still feeling like, let me see what happens, right? As long as we get to the same point, you know, two bills. Now, what they approved yesterday is one part of it. And then they approve another part of it. And, you know, you could I guess you could make the case you could do three. You could do ten as long as we get along, you know, as long as we get them all added up.

And it's the same thing. And, you know, I think we're in very good shape. I think that's a good signal that I think it's a very good signal that we we got the one bill passed because there's great unity. We have great unity in the party. The House is great and the Senate is great. We have fantastic unity.

And I think it's going to go good. If this didn't get approved, the Democrats essentially would have approved the largest tax increase in the history of our country. And I don't think that works very well for them politically. Right. And they keep saying your tax reform was for the rich.

It is not. It was for the middle class. And everyone benefited across the line. That's one thing I don't think you guys do a good job pushing back on.

In fact, a lot of people who were wealthy got hit on your tax reform bill. But I want to talk about, if I can, 40 media outlets, including ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, Newsmax, all want you to reinstall at the AP because they fear that another president will come in and ban Fox and Newsmax. Do you worry about the precedent banning something like the Associated Press, even though you might have legitimate concerns about their reporting? I don't care if they come in or not. It doesn't matter to me. The fake news, they're all fake, most of them. So they don't come in.

That doesn't matter to me. And they're getting the highest ratings they've ever had since I've had, you know, since. Look, if they had somebody else, nobody would be watching. I mean, Sean Hannity had a show the other night with Elon Musk.

He set like a record on ratings. And if they don't want to come in and interview and do news conferences, that's OK with us. We just closed down the room.

Let them find out how to do it some other way. Associated Press is a third rate outfit with a first rate name. It's got a great name for many years ago, but it's third rate. It's run badly.

It's radical left. Colvin, their reporter, the primary reporter, is terrible. She's a horrible person, a horrible reporter, terrible reporter. And if they don't want to come in and if some people don't want to come in, there's the one good thing about today is there's so many. You know, there's so many media outlets. Look, I got elected probably by using the non-traditional outlets, Joe Rogan and a group of people that a lot of people didn't hear of so much. I did interviews and I'd have 100 million people with Joe.

I had 250 million people. And, you know, I mean, there's a whole lot of other people that will take their seats if they don't want to come in. I don't care. I really don't care. But the fact that you say at least they wouldn't put Gulf of America in so you told them to stay out.

So you're just saying forget it, just come back in? Well, I have, here's the thing. I legally have the Gulf of America is now, you know, from the Gulf of Mexico. It's called the Gulf of America. And it should have for years. But, you know, nobody thought about it.

I think of things that nobody thought about. And if you look at the frontage, we have most of the frontage on the Gulf of America, what we call now the Gulf of America. By the way, everyone's accepted it. Google Maps accepted it. Just about everybody accepted it. And AP wants to be cute. You know, AP is radical left lunatics.

They are very I don't think I've had a good story at AP in 10 years. They don't do good. And so I view that a little bit, too. And that's why they don't want to do this. They don't want to admit everybody says it's the greatest idea. Why didn't somebody think of it?

Well, I have a very fertile mind and I think of things. And I also got Mount McKinley put back. Mount McKinley was taken away by people that shouldn't have done that. He was a very good president. He left Teddy Roosevelt a large amount of money. He was a tariff president and he left Teddy Roosevelt a lot of money. And Teddy Roosevelt took all that money and he went and did a good job. He built the park system and lots of other things. He built the Panama Canal, by the way. He built the Panama Canal, which we have to take back because the Panama Canal is being run by China. It was one of the dumbest deals ever made in the history of our country. We lost 38000 people. We it was the most expensive development ever built at that time. But if you bring it up to this day, to this day, it was the most expensive development ever built over a trillion dollars.

And think of this, Brian. The Panama Canal, we lost 38000 people and they they gave it away for one dollar. No reason. They gave it away for one dollar to Panama.

You know, they want to be politically correct. And we got to take it back because China has taken over the Panama Canal. And that wasn't the deal. They were charging our ships more than they were charging regular ships.

Think of it. They were charging more for our ships. They were charging more for our Navy than for other navies. It's ridiculous at what happened. We're taking it back. Yesterday, you called the USA hockey team. They lost in overtime to Canada. But the way they stood up in Canada really stood out and upset the team. They lose in overtime yesterday. What did you say to the USA hockey team? Because they were all motivated afterwards, very patriotic people.

And what do you say to Justin Trudeau, who's kind of taunting you afterwards, saying Canada will always be for Canadians. And we'll always, to paraphrase, we'll always own hockey. Well, we won the first game.

The second game was a great game. We could have gone either way. Justin's a loser.

Always has been. And, you know, he's he's he's just a guy that really doesn't. I think he's done a very bad job for Canada. He's taken it radical left. And he's going to lose the election.

It looks like pretty big. It's if he even runs. He's not running. Looks like he's not going to run.

That's a smart move because he wouldn't have a chance of winning. So, you know, Justin's sort of a nice guy, but he's a loser. And the game was a fantastic game. I watched the end of it. I was making a speech to the governors of our country and so I couldn't watch most of it. But I got back.

I watched the end. It was a great game. I mean, both teams played really well. I thought it was I thought it was a terrific thing. And I congratulate the Canadian team because the American team is fantastic. But they each won one game.

But here's the thing, Mr. President. They booed our national anthem. And in Boston, we did not boo theirs. Are you proud of you? Are you proud of the people that attended? Yeah, I think it's great that they did.

I think it's great that they did. And we have a good relationship with Canada, not with Justin, because Justin, he's too far radical left. He's so radical left. He's he's killing Canada. Canada is doing terribly right now. And his policies, his radical left, you know, Marxist policies have absolutely destroyed Canada. Canada is in bad shape. So, Mr. President, a couple of things.

You're trying to get live in the PGA together. What kind of progress did you make? And could your next project be college sports between the NIL and everything else? Their money's pouring in, but certain colleges are getting locked out. Are you concerned about the direction of college sports?

And is that something you want to get involved in? Well, that's a decision in colleges that should have been appealed. I mean, I couldn't believe how easily they seem to have given up on that. And I don't like what's happening in college sports. I don't like that decision that was made.

College sports was so great for so many years. And they go in and they win one case. I don't know that that case was appealed.

You know, I won a lot of cases, as you know better than anybody on appeal. So I don't know what's what's going on with that. That's I think it was a terrible decision and very bad for college sports. Absolutely.

All right. Do you see yourself playing a role in that, of maybe bringing sides together to try to get some... Well, they're still fighting it, but are they fighting it? They didn't fight the decision. Why didn't somebody go in and appeal the decision? Now, maybe they did, but it doesn't seem to me that they did.

But maybe they did. But, you know, you got to fight these cases right until the end. You got to take them up to the Supreme Court. You have judges, you have radicalized judges. But, you know, you have to take these cases up to the Supreme Court sometimes.

It just seems to me that they didn't use the power of the appellate courts. Mr. President, I know you got to run, but I have a couple of things. Number one, Booker T. Washington needs to be in your African-American Black History Month. I think he's the type of guy who's teamed with Teddy Roosevelt, like Frederick Douglass, that you will just love. Like Andrew Jackson, who's who made the cut again in the Oval Office. And number two, if you could bring me back to this moment, you're sitting in the White House. And when you were marched down in Georgia and you're taking your mugshot and you're sitting there by yourself, and then you got to walk out, get in your caravan and go back, did you think to yourself, I'm going to be president, it's just a matter of time, or were you thinking possibly at that moment, I don't know if I could turn this thing around? Too many cases, too much momentum the other direction.

Well, it was a very low period. It was a horrible thing. We had some real sleazy, corrupt prosecutors doing things in many cases. I mean, Doreen Jack Smith, Fannie Willis, she calls herself Fannie, I think, over absolutely bogus cases.

I have it in New York with cases in New York that are just so disgraceful, so disgraceful how corrupt it is. And everybody knows it. Everybody knows it, whether you like these people or not. But every one of the pundits that you have in the show all the time, not one of them said that I should have been sued on any of this stuff. It was all made up stuff, especially the New York stuff, and just all made up stuff with crooked judges, corrupt judges, very corrupt judges.

And it's a shame. So I knew that, and I knew how crooked the system was. In New York, they wouldn't even let me go to the courts that you were supposed to go to. They had these judges hanging on to cases for dear life. They wouldn't let those cases go. Vicious, vicious stuff. And people know it. And that's one of the reasons businesses aren't coming into New York. But if you would have told me what was my attitude then, I think, honestly, Brad, my attitude was just fighting.

I wasn't thinking about losing. I was thinking about fighting because I knew how corrupt they are. And when I had to take a mug shot, that was a low point. But when I looked at how the mug shot turned out, it was one of the it was a it was a picture that somehow got snapped up by the whole world. It's they rated now the number one mug shot.

It used to be Frank Sinatra and Elvis. And there was some pretty good mug shots. But this was this has blown everything away. So you understand what I mean by that. So it started off as a, you know, hard.

It's a hard look. It was a horrible thing to have to go through that. And it taught me a lot. It taught me that we have to have an honest court system. We also have to have an honest press.

We don't have an honest press. And many of our courts, not everywhere, but in particular in New York, they're so corrupt. And what happened in in Georgia was a very corrupt prosecutor. That was a very, very corrupt prosecutor. You know that better than it.

Right. If you look, I remember Fannie Willis. That was a very corrupt situation, too. I mean, they indicted so many people. So many people were so badly hurt and they were hurt for nothing, for being patriots. And they were old. Some of the people were very old people. They loved our country. They love our country out. They still love it.

And they were treated so badly. But I think I was really thinking people do ask me that question. I think I was only thinking about winning. That's amazing. Mr. President, thanks so much. I appreciate your loyalty to the radio show. It's been a fascinating 30 days. I look forward to covering the next four years.

Thanks so much. Hey, Brian. Yes. I have no loyalty to your radio show. I only have loyalty to you. So if you're doing radio, that's good. If you're doing television, that's good, too.

And if you're writing something, if you ever reduce yourself to that, that'll be fine, too. I'm honored with that comment. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Have a great day. Thank you, Brian.