Read: Full transcript of Trump's '60 Minutes’ interview with Norah O'Donnell
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA: Donald Trump appeared on '60 Minutes' on Sunday, November 2, marking his return to the CBS program a year after suing the network over its editing of a Kamala Harris interview.
The conversation, conducted by correspondent Norah O’Donnell on October 31 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, aired two days later as part of the network’s Sunday broadcast.
During the interview, the president also spoke in length about his plan to resume nuclear weapons testing, the current admin’s immigration policies and his stance on Middle East peace efforts involving Israel and Iran.
Trump had a lot to say about the government shutdown. He also defended his use of tariffs as a matter of national security and rejected claims of political retribution following the indictments of several of his critics like Letitia James and James Comey.
The hour-long sit-down with O’Donnell captured his trademark defiance and confidence in what he called a “booming” economy and a “secure America,” offering an unfiltered look at his second-term agenda.
The conversation began with Trump’s recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping before moving to the new US-China trade deal, tariffs and other global flashpoints.
Below is the transcript of Trump's conversation with Norah O'Donnell
DONALD TRUMP: Well, first of all, we get along great, and we always really have. We had the COVID moment, which was not-- attractive as far as I was concerned. I wasn't so happy. But outside of that, we have always had a great relationship. He's a powerful man. He's a strong man, a very powerful leader.
And-- we've always-- had the best of relationships, probably the best of-- I could-- I think I could speak for him, just about as good as it gets from his standpoint and from my standpoint. And having that is important because of the power of the two countries.
NORAH O'DONNELL: What did you get out of this deal that you wanted?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I got sort of everything that we wanted. We got-- no rare earth threat. That's gone, completely gone. We have tremendous amounts of-- dollars pouring in-- 'cause we have-- very big tariffs, almost 50%.
We never had anything in terms of tariffs, although I put tariffs on China, but Biden let it lapsed by the-- by the fact that he gave exemptions on almost everything, which was just ridiculous.
But-- we have-- billions and billions of dollars coming in, and we have a very good relationship. I mean, we have-- a great relationship with a powerful country. And I've always felt if we can make deals that are good, it's better to get along with China than not, if you can't make the right kind of a deal than not, because, you know, China, along with many other countries (they're not alone in this), they've ripped us off from day one.
They've ripped us so much. They've taken trillions of dollars out of our country. And now they're-- it's the opposite. I mean, we're doing very well with China, and hopefully they're gonna do very well with us. But I do think it's important that China and the U.S. get along, and we get along very well at the top.
NORAH O'DONNELL: This trade war, though, was hurting Americans. I mean, our soybean farmers. China had stopped buying the soybeans.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
NORAH O'DONNEL: As you mentioned, they were-- China was withholding these rare earth materials that you need for everything from smartphones to-- to build submarines.
DONALD TRUMP: Sure.
'We made a very good deal': Trump on negotiating with President Xi
NORAH O'DONNELL: What-- what was the crucial thing? I mean, how tough of a negotiatior--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, when you say hurting--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --is President Xi--
DONALD TRUMP: --it was a temporary hurt. It was a hurt because-- I was takin' in a lot of money from China. We're doing very well against China. And all of a sudden they said, "You know, we have to fight back." And so they used their powers. The power they have is rare earth because of the fact that they've been accumulating it and-- and really taking care of it for a period of 25, 30 years.
Other countries haven't. Now we are. I mean, we have tremendous rare earth, and it's going to be-- you know, it's going to be-- it'll be a strength, but it won't really be a strength if everybody has it. Everyone's gonna have it pretty soon.
And they were doing it-- on a singular basis. Now-- they use that against us, and we used other things against them. For instance, airplane parts. That's a big deal. They have-- hundreds of Boeing airplanes. We wouldn't give them parts. We were both acting-- maybe a little bit irrationally, but the big thing we had was tariffs ultimately.
I said, "Look, if you don't open up, then what we're gonna do is we're gonna impose a hundred percent tariff over and above what you're already paying." And as soon as I said that, they came to the table. We met in South Korea, as you saw, right? A lot of people watched.
And-- we made a really good deal. And it was good for them also, I hope. I mean, I want 'em to be good for both sides, but-- we'll be takin' in hundreds of billions of dollars-- in the form of tariffs. You know, tariffs are incredible, because they really give us great national security.
As an example-- when they pulled the rare earth on us and the rest of the world, if we didn't have tariffs to fight back, I-- I immediately instituted a 100% tariff over and above what they were already paying. And when I did that, they immediately came to the table. Without tariffs, we would not have had that privilege. We would have-- not have had that right. Tariffs give us national security and great wealth.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You talked about those rare earth minerals. Of course--
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --I-- my understanding is about 90% of them come from China. That's their--
DONALD TRUMP: Right now.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Yeah--
DONALD TRUMP: But within a short period of time-- we'll have everything we need for ourselves. You know, we've instituted an emergency program, and we will have-- within a year from now to a year and a half, we'll have everything we need, no matter what kind of a threat is being--
NORAH O'DONNELL: How? How do we do that?
DONALD TRUMP: Because we've taken over. First of all, you saw the partnerships w-- we've established with Japan, with Australia, with U.K., w-- with just about everybody, frankly. And we're all doing it together. You know, this wasn't a threat against the United States. This was really a threat against the world. So the w-- whole world has come together, I think, at our behest. And rare earths, in-- within two years, rare earths will cea-- really cease to be a problem.
NORAH O'DONNELL: The one thing that China wants but it doesn't have is the world's most advanced semiconductors.
DONALD TRUMP: That's right.
NORAH O'DONNELL: That's what the United States has. Will you--
DONALD TRUMP: Chips in particular.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Chips. That's right--
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
Trump on allowing Nvidia to sell their chips to China
NORAH O'DONNELL: Will you allow the chip maker, Nvidia, to sell their most advanced chips to China--
DONALD TRUMP: No. No, we won't do that. But--
NORAH O'DONNELL: It's not on the table at all?
DONALD TRUMP: --we will let them-- deal with Nvidia. Nvidia's the prime-- company in the world for that. And we will let them deal with Nvidia but not in terms of the most advanced. The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Because then they would win the AI race.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, they wouldn't win it necessarily, but they would certainly have-- an equal advantage. Right now we're winning it because we're producing electricity like never before by allowing the companies to make their own electricity, which was my idea, which nobody, frankly, had thought of.
These massive plants that are being built are building their own electric generating plants along with the plant itself. And that gives them all the electric they need without going to an old grid that's, you know, 150 years old. And-- they're makin' it-- themselves, and then they're selling back any excess electricity into the grid, so we benefit in all ways.
But most importantly, it allows the c-- the companies to go immediately forward. We're getting-- approvals done in two and three weeks. It used to take 20 years. And we are leading the AI race right now by a lot. We are leading it by numbers that people have no idea. It's been-- it's been really great. We've been very, very far-reaching for it-- th-- look, that's the new internet. That's the new everything all put together. The AI race is a big deal.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mr. President, you just negotiated this one-year trade deal with China--
DONALD TRUMP: Yep.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But as you know, the Chinese, they think in a hundred years.
DONALD TRUMP: Sure.
NORAH O'DONNELL: They play the long game, including on our own soil.
DONALD TRUMP: We play the long game too.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Our own intelligence agencies say the Chinese have infiltrated parts of the American power grid and our water systems. They steal American intellectual property and Americans' personal information. They bought American farmland. How big of a threat is China?
DONALD TRUMP: It's like everybody else. We're a threat to them too. Many of the things that you say, we do to them. Look, this is a very competitive world, especially when it comes to China and the U.S. And-- we're always watching them, and they're always watching us. In the meantime, I think we get along very well, and I think it's-- I think we can be bigger, better, and stronger by working with them as opposed to just-- knocking them out--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Hmm.
DONALD TRUMP: --of the economy. They can produce things that we don't want to produce because it's not really worth our while-- making-- undergarments, makin' this-- you know, certain things. We don't want to do that, and we can buy them inexpensively from other places in the world while we can lead the world in AI, and chips, and lots of other things.
Within-- two years from now, we'll have 40% or 50% of the chip market. What's happening here, the biggest companies are leaving Taiwan. They're coming into the United States because of tariffs. If we didn't have tariffs, they wouldn't be doing it because--
NORAH O'DONNELL: In how many years? You think we'll be producing--
DONALD TRUMP: I think in two years, we'll start opening up plants and we'll have a very substantial portion of the chip market. Right now we have almost none. We should have had a hundred percent. If we had par-- if we had presidents that knew anything about business or knew what they were doing, because, frankly, they didn't.
We lost 50% of our automobile business. It's all coming back. We lost a hundred percent of the chip-- you know, it used to be all Intel and other companies. And what happened is other countries came in, and they stole our chip business, and we didn't charge tariffs.
If we would have charged let's say a 100% tariff, none of those companies would have left. But they all left. Now they're all coming back, Norah, because the only way they avoid the tariffs is to build in our country. If they build in our country, make their plant and make their product in our country, then it's a very simple thing. They-- they don't have any tariff to pay.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Uh-huh.
'We have $17 trillion being invested in the United States right now' : Trump
DONALD TRUMP: And that's what they want to do. And so instead of charging somebody a 100% tariff and you can make your product outside, they come in, and they make-- and this is why we have $17 trillion being invested in the United States right now. By the time it-- it-- just to show you how big that is, it's the biggest in history by many times. No other country's been any-- seen anything like it.
The Biden administration in four years did less than a trillion. We have 17 trillion-- more than $17 trillion right now, and I'm in my ninth month. By the time we finish up, I think we're gonna have over $20 trillion invested in the United States or to be invested in the United States--
NORAH O'DONNELL: How will that trickle down to the average worker?
DONALD TRUMP: Because of jobs, because they're building plants. W-- we're bringing back the auto industry into our country. We lost 58% of the automobile manufacturing business to other countries. You know, we used to be the king of automobile and automobile manufacturing, and now we're not really the king anymore, you know?
Within a year and a half, two years, we're gonna be the king again. We're gonna-- the-- the-- as an example, I was also in Japan, as you know, and South Korea. We had-- the biggest Japanese companies are investing billions of dollars in building auto plants in the United States.
If I weren't elected-- if I weren't elected, we would be losing all of these jobs. We would be losing far more of the auto industry. We would be nowhere in chips. Our country would have been bankrupt, and we would have had a bigger welfare roll. They would have expanded welfare and forgotten about everything else.
Now we're building a country that's gonna be so strong, I don't know if you saw the last numbers in terms of employment. They're all non-government jobs. Not just government. Government jobs are easy. I could-- I could immediately inc-- do anything I want with government jobs.
I'd just say, "We're gonna add up-- we're gonna add on a million government jobs," and you're gonna say, "Oh, what wonderful numbers." They don't mean anything. We are building jobs at a level that nobody's ever seen before. But when all of these plants that are currently under construction and to be under construction, when they open, we're gonna have an economy like our country has never seen before, the strongest economy in the world.
We're doing very well. By the way, the stock market just hit-- perfect timing for your show, just hit an all-time high. It's hit an all-time high 48 times during the course of my-- nine-month period. But just yesterday, the stock market hit an all-time high. We're doing really well, and everybody knows it--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can I ask--
DONALD TRUMP: Let's put it this way--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can I-- can I ask you--
DONALD TRUMP: The smart people know it.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Uh-huh. Can I ask you, Mr. President--
DONALD TRUMP: The smart people definitely--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --on that point, though?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: When the stock market is doing well, that doesn't affect everybody. Not everybody's invested in the stock market--
DONALD TRUMP: It does. Oh, it does, it does.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But there have been-- grocery prices are up--
DONALD TRUMP: Look, 401(k)s. People have 401(k)s. Their 401(k)s are double what they were a year ago.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Uh-huh. But for people that don't have 401(k)s, who are not invested in the stock market--
DONALD TRUMP: Sure. But-- but--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --they've seen their grocery prices go up, inflation--
Trump: Grocery prices went up under Biden and right now they're going down
DONALD TRUMP: No, you're wrong. They went up under Biden. Right now they're going down. Other than beef, which we're working on, which we can solve very quickly. So the beef-- the ranchers have really taken a drubbing over a 30-year period. Because of what I've done, the ranchers have done well.
But with that, the beef price went up a little bit. We're gonna get the beef price down very quickly. It'll be very nice, just like eggs. When I first took over, eggs were double, triple, quadruple what they were. This was because of Biden.
All of these problems were caused by Biden, whether it's-- the people that came into our country through jails. I mean, they were released from jails. They were lease-- released from mental institutions into our country. These problems are caused by Biden. We had an open border. Now we have a border that's, as you know, absolutely shut other than--
NORAH O'DONNELL: How--
DONALD TRUMP: --people are allowed to come into our country, but they have to come in legally.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I do want to talk about immigration and some other-
DONALD TRUMP: Sure.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --domestic issues. But just-- if we could stay on China for just a moment--
DONALD TRUMP: Sure.
Trump answers if he would order US forces to defend Taiwan?
NORAH O'DONNELL: One potential flash point with China, probably the potential flash point with China in the coming years, is over the issue of Taiwan. The Chinese military is encroaching on Taiwan's sea lanes, its airspace, its cyberspace. I know you have said that Xi Jinping wouldn't dare move militarily on Taiwan while you're in office. But what if he does? Would you order U.S. forces to defend Taiwan?
DONALD TRUMP: You'll find out if it happens. And he understands the answer to that.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Why not say it--
DONALD TRUMP: This never even came up yesterday, as a subject. He never brought it up. People were a little surprised at that. He never brought it up, because he understands it, and he understands it very well. Taiwan is a very interesting case.
It's 69 miles away from China. We're 9,500 miles away. But that doesn't matter. He understands-- what will happen. He and I have spoken about it. But it was never even brought up during a two and a ha-- or two-and-a-half-hour meeting we had yesterday.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Do you mind if I ask, when you say, "He understands," why not communicate that publicly to the rest of us? What does he understand that--
DONALD TRUMP: Well--
DONALD TRUMP: --I don't want to give away-- I can't give away my secrets. I don't want to be one of these guys that tells you exactly what's gonna happen if something happens.
The other side knows, but-- I'm not somebody that tells you everything because you're askin' me a question.
But they understand what's gonna happen. And-- he has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, "We would never do anything while President Trump is president," because they know the consequences.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Less than an hour before your meeting with President Xi, you posted on social media that you instructed the, quote, Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons--
DONALD TRUMP: That's right.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --immediately.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah--
NORAH O'DONNELL: What did you mean?
Trump: 'We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times'
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we have more nuclear weapons than any other country. Russia's second. China's a very distant third, but they'll be even in five years. You know, they're makin' 'em rapidly, and I think we should do something about denuclearization, which is gonna be some-- and I did actually discuss that with both President Putin and President Xi. Denuclearization's a very big thing. We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times. Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, and China will have a lot. They have some. They have quite a bit, but--
NORAH O'DONNELL: So why do we need to test--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --our nuclear weapons?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, because you have to see how they work. You know, you do have to-- and the reason I'm saying-- testing is because Russia announced that they were gonna be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea's testing constantly.
Other countries are testing. We're the only country that doesn't test, and I wanna be-- I don't wanna be the only country that doesn't test.We have tremendous nuclear power that was given to us largely because when I was president (and I hated to do it, but you have to do it)-- I rebuilt the military during my first term. My first term was a tremendous success. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country.
But my second term is blowing it away. It's blowing it away when you look at the numbers, the stock market, the jobs. Look at the job numbers, how good they've been. And, again, I have costs down. Remember, Biden gave me the worst inflation rate in the history of our country--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I-- I w-- definitely want to talk about the economy, but I just want to make s-- sure we-- we button up this issue--
DONALD TRUMP: Sure.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --on nuclear weapons. And I want to clarify this--
DONALD TRUMP: Sure.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Are you saying that after more than 30 years, the United States is going to start detonating nuclear weapons for testing?
DONALD TRUMP: I'm saying that we're going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But the only country that's testing nuclear weapons is North Korea. China and Russia are not--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, Russia's-- no, no. Russia's testing nuclear weapons--
NORAH O'DONNELL: So my understanding--
DONALD TRUMP: And China's testing 'em too. You just don't know about it.
NORAH O'DONNELL: That would be certainly very newsworthy. My understanding is what Russia did recently was test essentially the-- delivery systems for nuclear weapons, essentially missiles, which we can do that but w-- not with nuclear warheads-
DONALD TRUMP: Russia's testing, and China's testing, but they don't talk about it. You know, we're a open society. We're different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it, because otherwise you people are gonna report-- they don't have reporters that gonna be writing about it. We do. No, we're gonna test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea's been testing. Pakistan's been testing.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Not nuclear weapons, is my understanding--
DONALD TRUMP: Of course they have--
NORAH O'DONNELL: North Korea has, but not nuclear weapons--
DONALD TRUMP: But they don't go and tell you about it. And, you know, as powerful as they are, this is a big world. You don't necessarily know where they're testing. They-- they test way under-- underground where people don't know exactly what's happening with the test.
You feel a little bit of a vibration. They test and we don't test. We have to test. And Russia did make-- a little bit of a threat the other day when they said they were gonna do certain forms of a different level of testing. But Russia tests, China-- and China does test, and we're gonna test also.
NORAH O'DONNELL: So we are going to--
DONALD TRUMP: Doesn't it sorta make sense? You know, you make-- you make nuclear weapons, and then you don't test. How are you gonna do that? How are you gonna know if they work? We have to do that--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Apparently, we don't need to test our nuclear weapons, 'cause they're the best in the world, according to experts I've spoken with--
DONALD TRUMP: According to me. We have the best, and I was the one that renovated them and built them during a four-year period. And I hated to do it, because the destructive capability is something you don't even wanna talk about. But if other people are gonna have 'em, we're gonna have to have 'em.
And if we have 'em, we have to test 'em, otherwise you don't really know how they're gonna work. And we don't wanna ever use them. And in the meantime, I've solved eight wars. I knocked out eight wars. I had eight wars-- I brought a little list for you if you'd like to see it-- but I took eight wars and stopped during an eight-month period, during eight months.
Before the ninth month I stopped eight wars. The only one I haven't been successful yet in, and-- and that'll happen, is Russia Ukraine, which I thought actually would be the easiest one because I have a very good relationship with President Putin. But-- we are respected again as a country, and that's the way I've been able to stop the wars. I also stopped them because of trade.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Who's tougher to deal with, Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping?
DONALD TRUMP: Both tough. Both smart. Both-- look, they're both very strong leaders. These are people not to be toyed with. These are people you have to take very serious. They're not-- they're not walking in saying, "Oh, isn't it a beautiful day? Look how beautiful. The sun is shining, it's so nice." These are serious people. These are people that are tough, smart leaders.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And on that note, you talk about Ukraine, that being the one war that you are not able to solve. In August, I mean, you rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin in-- Alaska. But there's been--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I roll out the red carpet for everybody.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay. But is-- but there's been no ceasefire--
DONALD TRUMP: I think I made-- yes, there isn't--
NORAH O'DONNELL: What's—is he ignoring you?
DONALD TRUMP: --because he thinks-- because I inherited a country where he thinks he's winning. That was a war that would've never happened if I was president. He even said that. That was a war that would've never happened. Joe Biden was the president.
Joe Biden gave $350 billion to Ukraine, including a lot of weapons, a tremendous amount of weapons, which allowed them to fight, 'cause we make the best weapons in the world. You know, I rebuilt our military during my first term. They used a lotta those weapons in that war. We make the best weapons in the world. Now we make even better weapons. But that was--
NORAH O'DONNELL: So why won't Putin end this war?
DONALD TRUMP: --that was-- but-- but Norah, that was Joe Biden's war, not my war. I inherited that stupid war. That should not have been a war. That would've never happened if I were president. And by the way, for four years it didn't happen. There was never even a doubt.
Then the election was rigged and stolen, and all of a sudden you see them forming up at the line. And now I come back and I'm gonna get that one solved too. But I brought, I mean, just a little list of-- of-- look at this, wars. How many did I solve?
Cambodia-- this is Cambodia Thailand. Kosovo Serbia. Congo-- the Congo and Rwanda. Pakistan and India, that was gonna be a beauty. They shot down seven planes. Israel and Iran, you've heard about that one? Egypt and Ethiopia, that's another beauty. Ethiopia built a big-- dam where there's no water going to the Nile. Armenia and Azerbaijan. And if you take a look, Israel and Hamas, which is a, you know, rough little situation, but it's gonna be--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I do wanna talk about-- I mean, you have branded yourself the peace president.
Trump on being the Peace President
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think I did--
NORAH O'DONNELL: What--
DONALD TRUMP: --pretty good. I-- I solved-- those are eight of the nine wars I solved. I--
NORAH O'DONNELL: When--
DONALD TRUMP: --you know how I solved 'em? I said, in many cases, in 60% I said, "If you don't stop fighting, I'm putting tariffs on both of your countries and you're not gonna be able to do business with the United--"
NORAH O'DONNELL: So why isn't that-- why isn't that working with Putin?
DONALD TRUMP: It is working with Putin, I think. I did different with him because we don't do very much business with Russia, for one thing, you know? He's not, like, somebody that buys a lot from us because of-- foolishness. And I think he'd like to be. I think he wants to come in and he wants to trade with us, and he wants to make a lotta money for Russia, and I think that's great. That's what I like--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can you get it done in a couple months, do you think?
DONALD TRUMP: I think we're gonna get it done, yeah. I think he really wants to do business with the U.S. But it did work with India, and it did work with-- Pakistan, and it did work with-- 60% of those countries. I can tell you, if it wasn't for tariffs and trade I wouldn't have been able to make the deals.
But I stopped, as an example-- India does a lotta business with us. They were going to war. They were gonna have a nuclear war with Pakistan. The-- Prime Minister of Pakistan stood up the other day and he said, "If Donald Trump didn't get involved, many millions of people would be dead right now." That was a bad war he was ready to start.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Let's talk about--
DONALD TRUMP: Shot down airplanes all over the place. That really-- that was gonna be a bad war. And I told both of them, I said, "If you guys don't work out a deal fast, you're not gonna do any business with the United States."
And they do a lotta business with the United States. And they were both great leaders, and they worked out a deal, and they stopped the war. That would've been a bad war. It would've been a nuclear war.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I wanna stay on the issue of foreign policy, and let's turn to our hemisphere. There have been at least eight boats in the Caribbean destroyed by the U.S. military--
DONALD TRUMP: Fortunately.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And now the USS Gerald Ford, that is the world's largest aircraft carrier, on the way to the Caribbean. Are we going to war against Venezuela?
DONALD TRUMP: I doubt it. I don't think so. But they've been treating us very badly, not only on drugs-- they've dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country that we didn't want, people from prisons-- they emptied their prisons into our compan-- country.
They also-- if you take a look, they emptied their mental institutions and their insane asylums-- into the United States of America, 'cause Joe Biden was the worst president in the history of our country--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But why is our aircraft carrier--
DONALD TRUMP: Let me just finish.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --going down there?
DONALD TRUMP: Joe Biden was the worst president in the history of our country. We had the worst inflation, we had the worst of everything.
But the worst thing he did was allow millions of people to come into our country that were many-- in many cases, criminals, murderers, 11,888 murderers were let into our country.
Venezuela let a lot of those people in. But they were from all over the world. This isn't just Venezuela. They were from all over the world.
NORAH O'DONNELL: We are gonna talk about--
DONALD TRUMP: And what he did to our country should never be forgotten. He had an open-border process, and people would come in, and I'm not discriminating against tattoos, but people would come in with tattoos all over their faces, and say, "Come on in, come on in, come on in."
They let people in that should've never been. Venezuela emptied their prisons into the United States of America. And every one of those boats that you see shot down-- and I agree, it's a terrible thing-- but every one of those boats kills 25,000 Americans. Every single boat that you see that's shot down kills 25,000 on drugs and destroys families all over our country.
Trump on military operation around Venezuela and President Maduro
NORAH O'DONNELL: We will talk about immigration in a moment, but I just wanna talk about the scale of the military operation around Venezuela, because it has been described to 60 Minutes as using a blowtorch to cook an egg. Is this about stopping--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don't think so. Look--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Is it about-- let me ask you, though. Is it about stopping narcotics? Or is this about getting rid of President Maduro?
DONALD TRUMP: No, this is about many things. This is a country that allowed their prisons to be emptied into our country. To me, that would be almost number one, because we have other countries--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Well we don't need to blow up boats in order to deal--
DONALD TRUMP: Look, Mexico has been very bad to us in terms of drugs, okay? Very bad. We have a closed border right now. You probably noticed that for five months in a row, they have zero-- think of this, zero people coming into our country through our southern border.
And it was millions of people a year just a little more than a year ago. Millions of people a year walked into our country totally unchecked, unvetted. We had no idea who they were. And we're never gonna let that happen again. That's what made Biden the worst president, because you know what, inflation I've already taken care of. We had the worst inflation in the history of our country, and now we don't have inflation. It's at 2%. It's-- it's the perfect inflation.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Aren't--
DONALD TRUMP: But what made him so bad-- well, the weaponization of law enforcement, all of that. Look, he was bad in every way. But the worst thing that he did is allow millions, and millions, and millions of people to pour into our country unvetted, unchecked. And they were criminals, they were murderers, they were drug dealers, they were people from jails, and people from mental institutions.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You-- you have had success on immigration, I wanna talk about that in a minute. But on Venezuela--
DONALD TRUMP: Big success.
NORAH O'DONNELL: On Venezuela in particular, are Maduro's days as president numbered?
DONALD TRUMP: I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And this issue of potential land strikes in Venezuela, is that true?
DONALD TRUMP: I don't tell you that. I mean-- I'm not saying it's true or untrue, but I-- you know, I wouldn't--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Why would we do it?
DONALD TRUMP: --I wouldn't be inclined to say that I would do that. But-- because I don't talk to a reporter about whether or not I'm gonna strike. I'm not gonna-- you know, you're a wonderful reporter, you're very talented, but I'm not gonna tell you what I'm gonna do with Venezuela, if I was gonna do it or if I wasn't going to do it.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Why do we need an aircraft carrier and all of group--strike group--
DONALD TRUMP: It's gotta be somewhere. It's a big one.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I just think it-- it leads to the suggestion that the United States military is planning a larger operation involving Venezuela.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, we're not gonna allow countries from-- what-- you know, it's countries from all over the world coming in. You know, they come in from the Congo where we just settled that war. But it come-- they come in from the Congo, they come in from all over the world, they're coming, not just from South America. But Venezuela in particular-- has been bad. They have gangs-- Tren de Aragua, do you ever hear of it?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Of course--
DONALD TRUMP: The most vicious gang anywhere in the world. They cut people's hands off if they call up the cops. You know, they call up the police and they said, "Did you call the police?" "Yes, I did. You took my apartment, you live in my building, you took my apartment." They cut his hand off.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I--
DONALD TRUMP: "Don't ever call the police again."
NORAH O'DONNELL: I fully underst--
DONALD TRUMP: These are animals. Wait a minute. And they came in from Venezuela. Worst gang-- probably the worst gang, most vicious gang in the world. And you know what I did? In Washington, D.C., we had a lot of 'em. We took care of business. They're gone.
Washington, D.C., right now is a very safe place, as it should be. Washington, D.C., be-- before I got here was almost like a crime capital of the world. It's the capital of this country. To me, it's the capital of the world. You see the way they treat me.
I go to Japan, I go to South Korea, I go to Chi-- any place I go, and you know what I call that? Respect for our country.
They didn't treat Biden that way. When Biden went there-- first of all, he hardly went anywhere. Guy couldn't leave his bedroom. But they didn't treat Biden that way.
They had no respect for Biden falling up the stairs going to an airplane three times. I mean, this is a man who should've never been president. This was a rigged election. And we--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can I ask--
DONALD TRUMP: --have to get back-- we have to get to the bottom of that also, because we don't want that to ever happen again. You see what's going on. We don't ever want that to happen again. Look what happened to our country by having Biden as the president.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I--
DONALD TRUMP: Our country went to hell. And if we--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I wanted to ask you about Israel--
DONALD TRUMP: --had another couple of years, if Kamala had won the election, our country right now would be finished. It was a dead country, and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
We have the strongest stock market, we have everybody wants to come in. A year ago we were a dead country. Right now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Think of that. And I did that in nine months.
And it's only gonna get better.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Let's talk about Israel, as we're on foreign policy and talking about some of your successes. You got-- on Israel, you got the remaining Israeli hostages out of Gaza.
DONALD TRUMP: I did.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You arranged a ceasefire, however fragile that may be. Those are major--
DONALD TRUMP: It's not fragile. It's a very solid-- you know, I mean, you hear about Hamas, but Hamas could be taken out immediately if they don't behave. They know that. If they don't behave they're gonna be taken out immediately. They know that--
NORAH O'DONNELL: How do you get Hamas to disarm?
DONALD TRUMP: If I want 'em to disarm, I'll get 'em to disarm very quickly. They'll be-- they'll be eliminated. They know that. Don't forget, you said I got the remaining hostages. I got all the hostages out. But I always said the last 10 or 20 are gonna be tough. But we were tough also, and they let 'em all out.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You were tough--
DONALD TRUMP: And now, by the way, they're getting-- a lot of the bodies are coming out too. Did you know a lot of the parents-- this is very interesting-- were-- the people that lost their child, you know, mostly sons, but sons and daughters, they knew they were dead, in some cases.
Do you know that they were as anxious or even more anxious of getting their child out, even though they knew it was a body that we were dealing with, than the people that had a living child-- a living, breathing child that they knew they were alive, if-- if barely, because the way they lived was so horrible.
And-- you saw yesterday four more just came out. We're gonna get them out too. They're buried in many cases. They're buried under rubble. But we pretty much know where they were. But I didn't get just the 20 out. I got all of the hostages out.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You pushed the Israeli Prime Minister to make this deal, to get a ceasefire, to apologize-- to Qatar. Can you push Bibi Netanyahu to recognize a Palestinian state?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, he's-- he's fine. He's fine. Look, he's a wartime prime minister. I worked very well with him. Yeah, I mean, I had to push him a little bit one way or the other. I think I-- I did a great job in pushing-- he's a very talented guy. He's a guy that-- has never been pushed before, actually.
And that's the kind-- that's the kind of person you needed in Israel at the time. It was very important. I don't think they treat him very well. He's under trial for some things, and I don't think they treat him very well. I think it should-- you know, we'll-- we'll be involved in that to help him out a little bit, because I think it's very unfair.
But he's a wartime prime minister. I did, I pushed him. I didn't like certain things that he did, and you saw what I did about that. I also stopped-- you know, I-- we knocked the hell out of Iran, and then it was time to stop, and we stopped.
Iran wants to make a deal. They don't say that, and they probably shouldn't say-- no good deal maker would. But Iran very much wants to make a deal. The key to Middle East peace-- I made Middle East peace. For 3,000 years they couldn't do it.
I did it. And I did it with some very good partners in Israel. But the key to the Middle East peace was knocking the hell out of their potential-- nuclear. When we, with those beautiful B-2 bombers-- we just ordered 20 brand new ones, the newest and the greatest-- but with those beautiful B-2 bombers, when they went in there and they blew the hell out of that, you know, potential nuclear weapons site-- there were two of 'em, actually.
And every single missile hit every single air shaft. You know, they had to go down an air shaft. Every single one of 'em hit their target. And I remember fake news CNN said, "Well, maybe it wasn't as powerful or as good as we thought."
No, it was much-- turned out it was actually better. You know the Atomic Energy Agency said the hit was even stronger than anyone ever thought possible. And those pilots did a great job. What they were able to do-- and those machines. But it wasn't only them.
They were surrounded by F-22s and F-16s. They were surrounded by F-35s. They were-- do you know we had 52 tanker planes, loading 'em up with jet fuel, because it was a long flight. They flied-- they flew for 37 hours.
Of course, I flew for thirty-- 42 hours over the last three days, so I know how they feel. But they flew--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Except there's a bathroom on Air Force One--
DONALD TRUMP: --but they were sitting in one seat. I was-- I was able to walk around a little bit. But yeah, they said 42 hours. I've been in the air for 42 hours over a few days-- and that was fine, because we took in trillions of dollars into our country.
And we also-- you know what's interesting, Japan took tremendous advantage of us over the years. You know, they sold cars to us, we couldn't sell cars to them. They made a fortune, we didn't make anything, we lost money. But it's the exact opposite now.
But you know what? They like us more now than they used to because they respect us now. They didn't used to respect us, and they have great respect for us, all of 'em. Every country has-- including China. China now has great respect for us.
They didn't have respect for us when they had Biden and when they had Obama. Obama was a terrible president. Nobody wants to talk about it because they wanna be politically correct. I don't care. He was a terrible president.
Our country was-- it really started a very bad downward spiral. Then I stopped it, then we had a rigged election, and then-- what-- what Biden did to our country should never, ever be forgotten.
NORAH O'DONNELL: We're still on-- on foreign policy, so I just have another question--
DONALD TRUMP: No, I'm with-- I'm on all policy.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I know you are--
DONALD TRUMP: I'm not talking about foreign-- no, no. I'm talking about everything.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Well, I just wanna--
DONALD TRUMP: I'm talking about economy, I'm talking about everything--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I wanted to ask you about the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is coming to the White House--
DONALD TRUMP: That's right.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --this month. He has said they won't join the Abraham Accords without a two-state solution. Do you believe that?
DONALD TRUMP: No. I think he's gonna join. I-- I think-- we will have a solution. I don't know if it's gonna be two-state. That's gonna be up to Israel and other people, and me. But-- look, the main thing is you could've never had any kind of a deal if you had a nuclear Iran. And you essentially had a nuclear Iran. And I blasted the hell out of 'em, and no president is--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Are you convinced they have no nuclear capability right now in Iran?
DONALD TRUMP: Do you wanna know-- do you wanna know-- they have no nuclear capability, no. Do you wanna know that-- the pilots, I invited them to the White House--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I saw that.
DONALD TRUMP: --'cause they were very brave. I mean, I wouldn't have wanted to do it, you know, getting in a plane, and they know you're coming, and you're going right into Iran airspace.
And, you know, they're very experts, and you're flying in with machines, these big, fantastic, unbelievable, beautiful wings that carry massive 100,000-pound bombs, and you don't-- I personally-- I can think of other things I'd rather do.
These guys are very brave people.
They're-- they were beautiful-looking people. They were-- they're real-- I mean, they're real American heroes, and I thought they deserved to be invited.
And I invited 'em to the White House, the Oval Office, including the mechanics and the people behind the scenes, I invited--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I saw that.
DONALD TRUMP: --a lot of 'em. And they told me something I didn't know. They said, "Sir, for 22 years we've been practicing this route. Our predecessors," obviously, before them-- but "our predecessors and ourselves, for 22 years we've been practicing this hit, three times a year, every year, for 22 years. And you were the only president that let us do our job."
I said, "Let me ask you. Is this a job you wanted to do?" "Yes, sir, 'cause it was the right thing."
These are really brave people. These are really amazing people, and talented people. When you can hit at midnight with no moon, with no vision, every single air shaft, where that bomb went deep into that mountain and exploded and beat the hell out of it, I'll tell you what, they deserve to come to the White House.
I gave 'em all a medal. They deserve to come to the White House. And it was a pleasure to meet 'em. These are great people. We have great people in this country.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mr. President, we've talked about foreign policy, now let's focus on issues here at home--
DONALD TRUMP: Okay, sure.
Trump calls government shutdown 'Democrats fault'
NORAH O'DONNELL: --some of that you have already mentioned. We are now approaching the longest shutdown in American history.
DONALD TRUMP: Democrats' fault.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Under your presidency, we're talking about more than a million federal workers who are not getting a paycheck, including our air traffic controllers. You see there's traffic snarls out at the airports now. This weekend food aid for more than 42 million Americans is set to expire. What are you doing as president to end the shutdown?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, what we're doing is we keep voting. I mean, the Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it, and the Democrats keep voting against ending it. You know, they've never had this. This has happened like 18 times before. The Democrats always voted for an extension, always saying, "Give us an extension, we'll work it out."
They don't wanna give us an extension because they used to think it was good for him, but the polls are turning around because-- not turning around. I just saw a poll where they're down 20-25%. What's happening is the
people understand they're losing so much, they call it Trump derangement syndrome. They are losing so much that they don't know what to do. They've lost their way. They've become crazed lunatics. And all they have to
do, Norah, is say, "Let's vote." And you can open the-- the economy could open up during our interview--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Is there something you can do, though--
DONALD TRUMP: Maybe it did.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Is there something you can do--
DONALD TRUMP: All I can do--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --to bring this to an end?
DONALD TRUMP: --is give the facts. Here's what I can't do. I can't give them $1.5 trillion so that they can give welfare to people that came into our country illegally. So that prisoners, and that people from mental institutions, and people that are drug dealers get vast amounts of money for healthcare. That I can't do--
NORAH O'DONNELL: So my under--
DONALD TRUMP: What I can do is I can continue to run a great country. We have the best economy we've ever had. I can continue to do that. What they should do-- look, this started a long time ago. I always said-- and you know I've been very consistent-- Obamacare is terrible.
It's bad healthcare at far too high a price. We should fix that. We should fix it. And we can fix it with the Democrats. All they have to do is let the country open and we'll fix it. But, you know, people are gonna get an 18-19% increase in Obamacare. It was a faulty program, it should've never been approved. But it was approved.
NORAH O'DONNELL: So now that we're in--
DONALD TRUMP: If we fix it it'll be-- one of the greatest achievements. But--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But if ending the government shutdown--
DONALD TRUMP: --they have to let the country open, and I'll down with the Democrats, and we'll fix it. But they have to let the country-- and you know what they have to do--
NORAH O'DONNELL: So your plan--
DONALD TRUMP: All they have to do is raise five hands. We don't need all of ''em.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But so you're saying your plan is to tell the Democrats to vote the-- to end the shutdown.
DONALD TRUMP: Correct, very simple.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And that you will put forward a healthcare plan?
DONALD TRUMP: No. We will work on fixing the bad healthcare that we have. Right now, we have terrible healthcare and too expensive for the people, not for the government, for the people.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But Mr. President, with all due respect--
DONALD TRUMP: The people are paying--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --you've been talking about fixing the healthcare insurance plan since 2015--
DONALD TRUMP: Sure. And you can't do it because of the Democrats. That's right.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Since 2015, you said you'd fix it.
DONALD TRUMP: I've been talking about it for a long time. We almost did it. We were one vote short. We woulda had great healthcare. We were one vote short. And couple of Senators that we currently have made the mistake, and they-- they made a big mistake. John McCain made a mistake, frankly.
We were one vote short. We woulda had great healthcare. And I've been saying ever since, "We can fix it. It's too expen--" it's got two things. It's too expensive, and it's lousy healthcare. It's too expensive for the people. They're gonna get a very big increase this year. And it's because--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Well, they're gonna get an increase if they don't-- if you don't extend the subsidies.
DONALD TRUMP: No, no. But the subsidies is part of it. We're supposed to spend trillions of dollars to take care of something that-- that is defective. What I'm saying is, we can make it much less expensive for people and give them much better healthcare. And I'd be--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But where is that plan?
Trump 'willing to work with Democrats' to end shutdown
DONALD TRUMP: --willing to work with the Democrats--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But where is that plan?
DONALD TRUMP: --on it. The problem is, they want to give money to prisoners, to drug dealers, to all these millions of people that were allowed to come in with an open border from Biden. And nobody can do that. Not--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can I just--
DONALD TRUMP: --one Republican would ever do that.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can I just button that up? Because the extension of these Obamacare subsidies, if they are not extended is that's what the Democrats are pushing for. I know you understand that. Tens of millions of Americans will see their monthly payments double.
DONALD TRUMP: No, no. It's going to double--
NORAH O'DONNELL: That's a lot.
DONALD TRUMP: --anyway. It's gonna double anyway--
NORAH O'DONNELL: My understanding is, it's just the...but can I-- may I just-- my understanding is, if those healthcare subsidies are not expan-- extended, premiums will double for many of the people that are on it. And I was looking into it.
Three quarters of these people that will see their healthcare premiums double live in states where you won in the last election. I mean, even here in Florida has the highest number of residents on Obamacare in the country. If those--
DONALD TRUMP: And I'm saying we can fix it, Norah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But if the subsidies are not extended, they're not gonna be able to afford health insurance--
DONALD TRUMP: Look. It was a defective plan put into line by Barack Hussein Obama, who was a lousy president, not nearly as bad as Biden, by the way, who by the way is building a museum that's, like, four times over budget. It'll never open, built in a neighborhood that-- you know, it's just not gonna work. The neighborhood doesn't even want 'em.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay.
DONALD TRUMP: And it's a disaster. The same guy that did his museum, which is a total catastrophe, came up with a bad healthcare plan. And for the sake of one vote, we would have had, you know, it's so sad thinking back--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But how-- I guess the question is-- I hear you.
DONALD TRUMP: If we had the vote, that one vote, we would have great healthcare at a much lower cost, and that's what I want. But I don't want to give $1.5 trillion to prisoners and drug dealers and-- and the people that-- that came into our country from mental institutions. What they allowed to come into our country, and we're getting 'em out, but what they allowed to come into our country, Norah, is horrible. So--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I just--
DONALD TRUMP: --ready?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay.
DONALD TRUMP: We can make it good.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I don't want to get into a back-- too much of a back and forth on this--
DONALD TRUMP: No, but here's all I have to do. Open up the country. Open up the country.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You mean, end the shutdown--
DONALD TRUMP: We only need five of the-- of their votes. We only need five votes, and already a couple of Democrats, a few Democrats are already voting. They want to open up. And we'll fix all of those problems.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You're st--
DONALD TRUMP: Those problems are much easier than what I just did with solving all these wars.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Last question--
DONALD TRUMP: We had-- wait a minute, we had nine wars on our planet. I solved eight of 'em. I have one to go, Russia-Ukraine. I thought that was gonna be one of the easier ones but it's not because Putin is tougher than people thought--
NORAH O'DONNELL: You have-- you-- you have helped these government shutdowns in the past when it came about--
DONALD TRUMP: I did.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And you did it by bringing back--
DONALD TRUMP: I'm very good at it, but I'm not gonna do it by--
NORAH O'DONNELL: You brought members of Congress to--
DONALD TRUMP: --I'm not gonna do it by extortion--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --to the White House.
DONALD TRUMP: I'm not gonna do it by being extorted by the Democrats who have lost their way. The-- there's something wrong with these people.
Trump calls Chuck Schumer a 'basket case'
NORAH O'DONNELL: So then what happens on November 15th--
DONALD TRUMP: Schumer-- Schumer is a basket case.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --when the troops don't get a paycheck?
DONALD TRUMP: Schumer is a basket case. He's gonna be defeated in the next election by a vast number of people. And he has nothing to lose. He's become-- I just left Japan. He's become a kaz-- kamikaze pilot. This guy--
NORAH O'DONNELL: It sounds like-- it sounds like this is not gonna get solved--
DONALD TRUMP: --is, this guy is a kamikaze. He would rather see the country fail than have Trump and the Republicans do well. But the people don't want that--
NORAH O'DONNELL: It's, I know, I hear you. It sounds like--
DONALD TRUMP: So we have a record-setting country right now, and we're not gonna be extorted by a man who's grossly incompetent, who-- who is gonna be defeated by any one of five different candidates. We're not gonna let that happen--
NORAH O'DONNELL: It sounds like this is not gonna get solved.
DONALD TRUMP: Say it?
NORAH O'DONNELL: It sounds like it's not gonna get solved, the shutdown.
DONALD TRUMP: It's gonna get solved, yeah. Oh, it's gonna get solved.
NORAH O'DONNELL: How?
DONALD TRUMP: We'll get it solved. Eventually, they're gonna have to vote.
NORAH O'DONNELL: You're saying the Democrats will capitulate?
Trump says Democrats are like 'kamikazes'
DONALD TRUMP: I think they have to. I mean, look, I-- I use the word kamikaze, not freely. I don't like to have to use that word. They are kamikazes, but there are gonna be four or five Democrats that come. We need five. They're gonna come and vote.
NORAH O'DONNELL: That's--
DONALD TRUMP: And if they don't vote, that's their problem. Now, I happen to agree to something else. I think we should do the nuclear option. This is a totally different nuclear, by the way. It's called ending the filibuster.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Did you see John Thune said today they're not gonna do that--
DONALD TRUMP: I know John doesn't-- well, John and a few others. But, you know what?
The Republicans have to get tougher. If we end the filibuster, we can do exactly what we want. We're not gonna lose power.
The theory is, oh, then we'll do it, but then when they get into power someday they'll do it. That's true. But you know what?
NORAH O'DONNELL: So you think John--
DONALD TRUMP: We're here right now. No, I like John Thune. I think he's terrific, but I disagree with him on this point.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay.
DONALD TRUMP: I don't-- I don't even know-- actually, I don't even know his attitude on the filibuster, but I think we should do it--
NORAH O'DONNELL: He j-- he said today he wasn't gonna do it.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, that's too bad. You know, I mean, I think we're much better off. 'Cause here's the problem. The Democrats will do it in the first week in office. The Democrats, and I told that to John. The de-- and I get along with him great. We've had a great relationship--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Yes.
DONALD TRUMP: And I also know there are other Republicans that feel the other way. And I understand that too, but they're wrong. The Democrats will do it. If they get into power and someday I guess they will. Who knows?
It's hard to believe when they have men in women's sports, open borders, open everything, a transgender for everyone.
The Democrats will do it in their first day in office, and the only reason they didn't do it is because of Sinema and because of a man named Joe Manchin from West Virginia--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Senator Kyrsten Sinema--.
DONALD TRUMP: --good man. And they disagreed with it. Now wait. Had they approved it, I think just one of 'em, had they been able to get those votes, you would have had the nuclear option used.
You would have had the filibuster ended, and the Democrats would have used it.
So I say to the Republicans that want to be, you know, all like, "Oh, well, we-- you know, we're above all that," the Democrats will do it.
See, the Republicans have much better policy. We have smart policy. We have great policy. That's how we win. The Democrats are vicious. They're vicious.
They have horrible policy, but they are the most vicious human beings on Earth. They are people that weaponize government. They do a lotta bad things. But--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can I ask you about--
DONALD TRUMP: --the good thing is, from our standpoint, from the standpoint of winning is, they have the worst policy of-- it's hard to believe. Think of it. Open borders, men playing in women's sports, transgender for everybody. I mean, I could go point-- these are not 80:20--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can I ask you about the economy--
DONALD TRUMP: --these are 99:1 issues. And they don't change. I just watched this morning a show where--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mr. President, can I ask you about the-- the economy--
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, just-- just one thing. I watched a show this morning where a very well-known Democrat Congressman was fighting like hell for men playing in women's sports. They don't change it--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Who was that?
DONALD TRUMP: I don't want to tell. You'll be able to check it. Just check your local TV.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay. On the economy, the signature part of your economic plan is tariffs. The Supreme Court is gonna hear arguments this week on whether you have the authority to impose these sweeping tariffs without Congressional approval. The lower courts have ruled against you. That's why it's at--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, no.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --the Supreme Court right now.
DONALD TRUMP: Very close rulings, yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: What happens to your economic plan if the Supreme Court invalidates your tariffs?
DONALD TRUMP: I think our country will be immeasurably hurt. I think our economy will go to hell. Look, because of tariffs, we have the highest stock market we've ever had. Because of tariffs, 401(k)s at the highest level that-- and this is millions and millions of people that we've ever had 401(k)s.
Because of tariffs, I've ended six of the eight wars that I've ended, and it'll end up being used also for the last war in a different way. Because of tariffs and the economy, but because of tariffs, we have a great economy.
Because of tariffs, our country is wealthy again. Because of tariffs, tremendously good things happened. Because of tariffs, our country is respected again. Because of tariffs, a president--
NORAH O'DONNELL: So what if the Supreme--
DONALD TRUMP: --wait a minute. Because of tariffs, President Xi allowed us to win every single point. He bought billions and billions of dollars of-- of our soybeans, of our everyth-- it was the money they're spending. When I came out, did you see what happened with the farmers? They're having rallies for Trump right now because of tariffs.
Because it gives us national security. If we didn't have tariffs, and remember this. Tariffs are used against us. Let me talk about that lawsuit. That lawsuit against us was instituted and backed by foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years.
They don't want it because they were rippin' us off for years. And if we lose that lawsuit, they'll continue to rip us off and you're not gonna end up with a country. I think it's the most important subject discussed by the Supreme Court in 100 years.
If they don't-- if they take away the power of tariffs from us, and it has to be quick and nimble, you can't have Congress, well, hundreds of people have to look. They can't even agree to continue a country. You can't have Congress here. This has to be quick and nimble. As an example--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Well, you just-- finish that sentence. You said, "If they take away my power to do tariffs," what?
DONALD TRUMP: It would be a very sad day for the United States of America. We're making a lot of money. We're respected again all over the world. We have great national security. Let me give you an example. With China, they were, you know, very strongly threatening us frankly with the rare earths.
And then I said, "Well, if you're gonna play that card, I'm gonna put a 100% tariff on over and above what you're already paying," which was 55%, which was very high. A lotta money coming in, tremendous money like we've never seen. "I'm gonna put a 100% tariff on everything over and above."
And you know what happened? We got a phone call 20 minutes later. "We'd like to talk." If they take away the right to tariff, if they-- if-- if we're forced to use Congress to approve, they can't approve anything. They would be sitting around for years debating whether or not we should use tariffs. If they take--
NORAH O'DONNELL: You want that power. You want that executive power.
DONALD TRUMP: You need it to ru-- to protect our country. This is a national secure-- tariffs are national security. If you take away the right to tariff, and remember this.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And--
DONALD TRUMP: Tariffs have been used against us.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Can you just answer that question that tariffs have led to inflation? They have led to an increase in cost of living for most Americans--
DONALD TRUMP: They haven't led to inflation. We have no inflation. We have no inflation. Biden had inflation, and he didn't have tariffs. He didn't use tariffs.
NORAH O'DONNELL: For the average American--
DONALD TRUMP: You know why he didn't use 'em? 'Cause he's not smart enough to use 'em.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But the companies say they passed on more than 30% of these costs to the American consumer off the tariffs--
DONALD TRUMP: Okay, ready, are you ready?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Somebody has to pay for it.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. You have to pay, but we don't have any inflation. Inflation is the que-- is the real test of paying. Everybody said, "Oh, if you do tariffs, you're gonna have inflation." So Biden had the highest inflation in the history of our country by far, okay. No tariffs.
I have very modest tariffs compared. Let me tell you.
These tariffs ultimately are so good that at some point when they're used properly, and I use them more properly than anybody's ever even dreamt possible, think of it. We become rich. We're taking in trillions of dollars.
And I have no inflation. And I have total national security. When I put the 100% tariff on China over and above what they were already paying, which was about 55%, so 155%, they came to the table immediately and they made a deal with us that was a very fair deal.
That's called national security. And then I didn't make 'em pay the 100%. That would have been instituted. That would have come to fore on November 1st. Norah, Norah, listen to me--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I know our time with you is limited. I hear you.
DONALD TRUMP: If I didn't have the power of tariff, we would be-- we would be like a subject nation. We'd be subject to everyone else. Everybody uses tariffs on us. If I wasn't allowed to use tariffs on them, we would be a third rate-- we would be a third world nation.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I know your time is limited, so I do want to make sure I get through another-- more of these topics.
DONALD TRUMP: Sure.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Immigration. I mean, you campaigned on immigration. You largely won the election on a promise to close the border--
DONALD TRUMP: Did great job, don't you think?
NORAH O'DONNELL: --and you succeeded on that. Illegal crossings at the Southern border are at a 55-year low. Want to ask you about this. More recently, Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood, and the smashing of car windows. Have some of these raids gone too far?
DONALD TRUMP: No. I think they haven't gone far enough because we've been held back by the-- by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama. We've been held--
NORAH O'DONNELL: You're okay with those tactics?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown outta their countries because they were, you know, criminals. Many of them are people from jails and prisons. Many of them are people from frankly mental institutions. I feel badly about that, but they're released from insane asylums. You know why? Because they're killers.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Well, you promised in your campaign that you were going to deport the worst of the worst, violent criminals--
DONALD TRUMP: That's what I'm-- oh we're doin' that--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --rapists.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, that's what we're doing--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But a lot of the people that your administration has arrested and deported aren't violent criminals. Landscapers, nannies, construction workers--
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, no, no, landscapers who are criminals--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --farmworkers.
DONALD TRUMP: Now, look, look.
NORAH O'DONNELL: The family of US service members--
DONALD TRUMP: I need landscapers and I need farmers more than anybody, okay.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But was it your in--
DONALD TRUMP: We-- and we want to-- we focus on the bad ones, and we've gotten tremendous numbers of bad people. Don't forget.
NORAH O'DONNELL: The-- there--
DONALD TRUMP: When you have over 11,000 murderers released into our country, over 11,000, 50% of which have murdered more than one person, we gotta get 'em outta here.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Is it your intent to deport people who do not have a criminal record?
DONALD TRUMP: We have to start off with a policy, and the policy has to be you came into the country illegally, you're gonna go out. However, you've also seen, you're gonna go out. We're gonna work with you, and you're gonna come back into our country legally. Because we have a lotta good people. We have some great people. But, you know, the problem we have, and people don't like talking about-- these are very-
NORAH O'DONNELL: But there isn't--
DONALD TRUMP: --wait. These are very smart countries. Their leaders are very smart. They're very street-wise. They might not have gone to the finest schools, but they're very street-wise. They want-- they don't want, they have good people. They want people that are bad out.
So they, what do they do? They open their jails. They let 'em out. They get rid of their drug dealers. They let 'em out. But you know who else they get out? The people that are on welfare that aren't working. In other words, they have people that just don't work. They don't want people that just don't work, so they put them into our country.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But if someone has been in this--
DONALD TRUMP: And we've accepted all of these people because of Biden's open border policy where people would walk in totally unchecked and unvetted, murderers and everybody else.
NORAH O'DONNELL: When will you declare mission accomplished on immigration?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, it takes a long time, because, you know, probably I say 25 million people were let into our country. A lotta people say it was 10 million people. But whether it was ten or-- I believe I'm much closer to the right number.
Of the 25, many of them should not be here. Many of them.But we're-- we're cleaning up our cities.
You know, I campaigned on crime, but I've done a much better job on crime than I thought. You know, the crime numbers are way down, even though we have a lot more people in our country that really shouldn't be here. And many of them are stone-cold hard criminals.
When I look at D.C. now, you can walk down the middle of the street. You can have your daughter who's ten years old meet you at the park. She's gonna be okay.
NORAH O'DONNELL: In certain parts of D.C.--
DONALD TRUMP: She woulda been murdered. Well, I-- in almost--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I live in D.C.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, you tell me--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Certain parts of D.C.
DONALD TRUMP: How big a difference is D.C. now compared to what it was a year ago?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Uh-huh.
DONALD TRUMP: Right? I mean, you have to be honest with me. People walk-- people in the White House, they walk up to me, young ladies I've never seen. "Sir, thank you very much." I know-- I-- they don't even have to tell me what they're thanking me for.
But when I ask why? He said-- she-- one girl said, "I'd get into Uber and I felt dangerous even in an Uber." They'd attack the car, okay. It wasn't even safe then. "Sir, I now walk to work every day and I walk, I-- I-- I-- I'm so safe. I f-- there's nothing going to happen. 100% safe." And you know that too, Norah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I wanna ask you about the s--
DONALD TRUMP: You live here. You know that too.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I wanna ask you about amer--
DONALD TRUMP: Do you see a difference?
NORAH O'DONNELL: --American cities--
DONALD TRUMP: You see a difference?
NORAH O'DONNELL: --in Washington, D.C.?
DONALD TRUMP: Yes.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I think I've been working too hard. I haven't been out and about that much--
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, that's not a fair answer. You see the difference.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I get in my car and go to work and I go home--
DONALD TRUMP: That's good. You don't have to use that one. Don't worry. Don't worry. I don't want to embarrass her.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I've been working too hard--
DONALD TRUMP: It's-- it's like you know what the difference is? Like, day and night.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I want to ask you more about some American cities.
DONALD TRUMP: Sure.
NORAH O'DONNELL: We are about-- we're on the eve a number of big state and local elections. One of the most watched is the one for Mayor of New York City.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL:. . . he is, Zohran Mamdani, 34-year-old Democratic Socialist. He's the front runner--
Trump calls Zohran Mamdani a 'Communist'
DONALD TRUMP: Communist, not Socialist. Communist. He's far--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Some--
DONALD TRUMP: --he's far worse than a Socialist.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Some people have compared him to a left-wing version of you, charismatic, breaking the old rules. What do you think about that?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think I'm a much better looking person than him, right?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay. Well, former governor Andrew Cuomo, who you know is campaigning for mayor, he recently said that "If Mamdani becomes Mayor of New York City that you will take over New York." Cuomo said this. He said, "He will be President Trump and Mayor Trump. He's gonna take over New York and send tanks down Fifth Avenue."
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, that's so crazy. Look. When I left New York, we were at the-- the epitome of it was a great city. It was doing great. It was a great city, but there were some bad sides, because we had a guy named de Blasio, who was the worst mayor. Like I say Biden was the worst president, de Blasio was the worst mayor in history--
NORAH O'DONNELL: What if Mamdani becomes mayor?
DONALD TRUMP: I think he's probably gonna make de Blasio look great. I think he will make de Blasio look like one of our great mayors. De Blasio was the worst mayor we've ever had. Now I saw that, you know, but I was sort of leaving during that period of time.
I got to see de Blasio, how bad a mayor he was, and this man will do a worse job than de Blasio by far. And it's gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York. Because if you have a Communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting the money you're sending there.
So I don't know that he's won, and I'm not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it's gonna be between a bad Democrat and a Communist, I'm gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Uh-huh. This past Tuesday, while speaking to American troops in Japan, you talked about U.S. cities that are having trouble with crime. And you said, "If we need more than the National Guard, we'll send more than the National Guard." What does that mean, send more than the National Guard?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, if you had to send in the Army or if you had to send in the Marines, I'd do that in a heartbeat. You know, you have a thing called the Insurrection Act. You know that, right?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Uh-huh.
DONALD TRUMP: Do you know that I could use that immediately and no judge can even challenge you on that. But I haven't chosen to do it because I haven't felt we need it. Do you know that we have a place called Chicago that, with a very bad governor. They threw him outta the family business.
He became governor. Do you know that 4,000 people were murdered during his governorship. 4,000 people were murdered during his governorship, and yet he won't let us bring in the National Guard. He won't let us bring in-- in Chicago--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But when you say, "Send in more than the National Guard," what does that mean?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, more would be Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines.
NORAH O'DONNELL: So you're gonna send the military into American cities?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, if I wanted to I could, if I want to use the Insurrection Act. Do you know how many presidents--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Will you-- what would be the--
DONALD TRUMP: No, no.
NORAH O'DONNELL: What would-- what would cause you to do that?
DONALD TRUMP: Do you know how many presidents have used the Insurrection Act?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Tell me.
DONALD TRUMP: Almost 50% of 'em. Do you know that some of the presidents, recent ones, have used it 28 times? Twenty-eight times. The Insurrection Act has been used routinely by presidents. I haven't chosen to use it, but if I-- because I've done well without it.
But if I needed it, I could do it. And if I needed it, that would mean I could bring in the Army, the Marines, I could bring in whoever I want. But I haven't chosen to use it. I hope you give me credit for that.
Trump is asked if the indictment of his foes is 'political retribution'
NORAH O'DONNELL: I wanna ask you about-- another matter. James Comey, John Bolton, Letitia James were all recently indicted. There is a pattern to these names. They're all public figures who have publicly denounced you. Is this political retribution?
DONALD TRUMP: You mean, do you think it's bad that I went after a public figure?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Is it political retribution?
DONALD TRUMP: You know what? You know who got indicted, the man you're lookin' at. I got indicted, and I was innocent. And here I am, because I was able to beat all of the nonsense that was thrown at me. I got indicted. They indicted the President of the United States.
You know, they impeached me twice and I got out of it quickly and easily? They impeached me twice. These people are scum. And yet, when you go after a dirty cop like Comey or a guy like Bolton, who I hear has, I don't know anything about it, I hear he took records all over the place, who knows.
Letitia James is a terrible, dishonest person, in my opinion. Terrible. I just won the case against her. She wanted me to pay $500 million for something I didn't do anything wrong on. And the judge just overturned the-- the decision. So and then you--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Have you--
DONALD TRUMP: Wait, wait, wait. And then you tell me about me. Just so you understand, you say I went after these people. These people are bad people. They're dishonest people.
NORAH O'DONNELL: No, I was just asking, is it political retribution--
DONALD TRUMP: And Comey's a dirty cop. Look, Comey's known as a dirty cop. I'm not known as a dirty person. They indicted me many times, indicted me. They were after me. I'm lookin' at you now. I'm President of the United States. I went through numerous indictments and two impeachments.
And you tell me that I went after people? These people are dishonest.
Look. Biden didn't have a clue. He illegally used, as you know, a machine, the autopen in order to give pardons to people.
The only pardon he signed it looks like was his son, Hunter. He signed Hunter's, so, "Hunter, you're free, con-- congratulations, Hunter."
But everyone else, I think those pardons are all just, were just a waste of time. Those pardons--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Did you instruct--
DONALD TRUMP: --wait a minute, those pardons--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --the Department of Justice to go after them?
DONALD TRUMP: Did I what?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Did you instruct the Department of Justice to go after them?
DONALD TRUMP: No, and not in any way, shape or form. No. You don't have to instruct 'em because they were so dirty, they were so crooked, they were so corrupt that the honest people we have, Pam
Bondi's doin' a very good job. Kash Patel's doing a very good job.
The honest people that we have go after 'em automatically. But they instructed them to go after me, because the records now have been found. So when you tell me about I went after Comey, Comey's low on the totem pole.
They went after the President of the United States. Do you know that they raided my house in Palm Beach, Florida called Mar-a-Lago? They raided my house. I had 78 or 98 FBI agents with arms--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I know how you--
DONALD TRUMP: --come into my house. And you're telling me, Norah, that I went after some low-life named Comey, who's judged to be a crooked guy. He lied all over the place. He lied to Congress and did many other bad things.
NORAH O'DONNELL: But I was just asking, has this--
DONALD TRUMP: For that, you should be ashamed.
NORAH O'DONNELL: No, no. I was just asking, is this-- is this retribution on your part?
DONALD TRUMP: No, it's the opposite. I think I've been very mild-mannered. You're looking at a man who was indicted many times, and I had to beat the rap. Otherwise I couldn't have run for president. They tried to get me not to run for president by going after me and by indicting me.
But even during my term, on a perfect phone call, I got impeached. This call was perfect. Tim Scott, from South Carolina, highly respected, a legitimate person totally legit, he read the tran-- thank goodness we had a transcript of the call.
The call I got indicted on, a call on Ukraine of all places, with the President of Ukraine. It was a perfect phone call. Tim Scott said, "I just read the transcript. The President didn't do anything wrong, was perfect." And that was the end of the indictment pretty much.
But I had to go through a whole process. You know, the Democrats knew that I wasn't guilty, because they didn't know the-- the call was-- I didn't know either, the call was essentially taped. So we knew exactly what the call. When they found out that the call was taped, Nancy Pelosi went crazy.
She said, "You made me go into this mess." She screamed at all these people that made her do it, bad people like Schiff, et cetera, et cetera. So what happened is, she went nuts and just to conclude, and they said, "Let's do it anyway."
They did it anyway, and I won very easily as you know. But you can't then accuse me of weaponizing government. They were horrible human beings. They went after the President of the United States. They went after my children. They went into my wife's-- drawers.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I know--
DONALD TRUMP: They went into my wife's closets. They held the dresses up. She came back. She said, "Oh, what happened? What happened?" 'Cause she's a very meticulous person. Everything's nice and neat.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I've heard you talk about it.
DONALD TRUMP: All of a sudden, everything's, like, they went into my office. They took things that I was allowed to have file-- under the Presidential Records Act that I was allowed to have. I had records. I was allowed to have 'em. Only the president's allowed, but I was-- and it was nothing very significant anyway.
There was, like, nothing. Wait, just one second. They opened these-- I'm a very meticulous person too. I have files, beautiful. They took the files, threw 'em all over the phone-- all over the floor. They were all over the floor-- and they took pictures of 'em.
This is my office. I said, "What the hell? That's not my office." They took files, they threw 'em all over, and they took pictures and they released 'em to the public that this is "President Trump's office. We caught him with all of this stuff," like it was all over the floor in my office. These are crooked people. These are the same. So don't ask me about, "Did you go after?" Letitia's--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I--
DONALD TRUMP: Letitia James, in my opinion, and I only say in my opinion 'cause I guess the lawyers would prefer that I say that 'cause I have a much stronger opinion, she's a total crook. She's a low-life. Comey's a dirty cop. Bolton actually helped me a lot because he was crazy.
He's the one who want, him and-- and Cheney, a couple people got Bush to go out and blow the hell outta the Middle East and then take-- you know, then leave.
And actually, Bolton helped me 'cause every time somebody saw Bolton standing behind me, foreign countries, they conceded. You know why they conceded?
'Cause they said, "Bolton's a nut job. Trump is gonna take us to war." But I don't listen to people that are stupid. Go ahead.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And I know my time is-- is limited with you so I want to be respectful of-- of you, Mr. President. The issue of political violence I want to get to, because you were nearly assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania. Charlie Kirk.
DONALD TRUMP: Yup.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Was assassinated. Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro's house was firebombed.
DONALD TRUMP: Uh-huh.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Minnesota lawmaker murdered. What's your message to those on the left and the right who would seek to commit acts of violence?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think primarily on the left. A little bit of both, but I think primarily on the left. I think they have to tone it down. I think they have to approve the shutdown so it's not shut down. I think it's very bad what they're doing. They're hurting people.
You know, if you think about it, if people aren't gonna get paid, there're gonna be, you know, a lot of angry people out there. They want to get their food. They want to get the money so they can live. In some cases-- whatever they want to get, they want to get.
I think by the Democrats not giving us the votes, I think it's-- I think it endangers both parties. I think it's very bad. There's never been a case like this. This is, you know, this is fairly standard stuff. You do auto-- extensions are almost automatic.
In fact, they were virtually automatic. This is the only time they don't want to do the extension, because they're losing so badly that they said, "Maybe we have some leverage." One of the Senators said that. "Maybe this is the first time we have some leverage."
The Republicans can't be extorted with shutdown, says Trump
NORAH O'DONNELL: I wonder if we're--
DONALD TRUMP: But they really don't have leverage, because--
NORAH O'DONNELL: I wonder if we're at a breaking point?
DONALD TRUMP: --the Republicans can't be extorted in order to ruin our country.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Do you feel like we're at a breaking point? Given everything that you--
DONALD TRUMP: No.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --just said?
DONALD TRUMP: No. It's been much worse.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Because you--
DONALD TRUMP: I mean, over-- over history?
NORAH O'DONNELL: Well.
DONALD TRUMP: It's been much worse.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Sure, but the political violence that, you know, we just outlined. The number of-- of members of people in public that have been targeted--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, that's-- that's a different question. Yeah, I think--
NORAH O'DONNELL: --that have been targeted. And then I just read that there's now a number of your cabinet secretaries and aides who are now living on military bases.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Usually when people talk they're not the problem. It's the ones that don't talk, in terms of that. But-- yeah, I-- I think it's-- it's a lot of the rhetoric. Look, they call me a Nazi all the time. I'm not a Nazi. I'm the opposite. I'm somebody that's saving our country.
But they call me Nazi. They have talking points, you know? They have just talking points. And the press is-- is largely responsible for it. The fake news, what they've done-- I think one of the greatest terms I've ever come up with is fake news.
What they've done to our country is very bad. They have to change around. Now, nobody believes the fake news. Nobody believes 'em. I mean, they've gone, you talk about popularity, you talk about approval, their approval numbers have gone f-- from, like, in the 90s to in the teens now.
We need borders. We need fair votes. And you really need a fair press. If you-- and you do, you have some great journalists and great reporters. But you have some terrible, terrible, dishonest journalists. And I see it all the time, because I'll give 'em a story and they'll have it.
Even my trip with China, it was so successful. But of all, the Wall Street Journal, they said, Trump Lowers Tariffs. That was the headline. Trump Lowers Tariffs. That wasn't what happened. I lowered tariff-- tariffs in order to get everything that anybody could possibly dream of.
The point wasn't lowering tariffs. I put up a high number, I cut it, and I got everything. And yet the headline in the Wall Street Journal, beautiful picture of myself and President Xi, everything nice. But the headline was Trump Lowers Tariffs.
That wasn't the story. The story was Trump got everything, got everything. Including world peace. We're respected as a country. We're not threatened right now. And we're not gonna be threatened. As long as we have a strong, smart president, we're never gonna be threatened by anybody.
NORAH O'DONNELL: There's been a lotta talk about 2028 and who will be at the top of the--
DONALD TRUMP: Well.
NORAH O'DONNELL: --Republican ticket. Can you set the record straight? You're not gonna try and run for a third term?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don't even think about it. I will tell you, a lotta people want me to run. But the difference between us and the Democrats is we really do have a strong bench. I don't wanna use names, because it's, you know, inappropriate. But it's too early. We're talking 3 and ¼ years--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But people do like when you start talking about whether you like JD Vance or Secretary Rubio--
DONALD TRUMP: I do like JD Vance. I like--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Or secretary--
DONALD TRUMP: --Marco Rubio. I like-- I like so many people. We have an unbelievable bench. We could run two people together. We have a great bench. So I don't wanna start talking about elections. It's too early. One thing I can tell you, the 2020 election was rigged.
And a lotta people say when it's rigged you're allowed to do it again. It was rigged. And it's been caught. And they-- and you see the same information that everybody else does. And it's coming out now in spades. But with all of that, we have a great bench.
We have unbelievable people. You could go up and down my cabinet, we have great people. They don't. They have a guy that's ruined the state of California, ruined it, destroyed it. And I have a lotta property out there, I can tell you they've ruined the state of California.
He has been terrible. Other than he's got a good line of--bullshit, that's all it is. He's ruined the state. And he's one of the people running. Jasmine Crockett, she's a low-IQ person. They say she might run for president, Jasmine Crockett. This is a very low-IQ person.
AOC, I watched her speak the other day, almost the first time she was screaming. She was like a crazy person. Her-- she's got-- not a good speaker. Doesn't have, I don't think, but you never know what it is. You never know what it is c-- that can spark an election.
When Joe ran first time I thought he was terrible. He was horrible. I-- I won by a lot. The second time he was running he was doing very poorly, he had a bad debate, and they replaced him in the middle the election. That never-- this could only happen to me.
They replaced him with somebody, the press got behind her. Oh, they were so behind her. But eventually she failed because she couldn't speak. She wasn't a very intelligent person, in my opinion. But she couldn't speak properly. She could not speak.
And actually 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. And you don't have to put this on, because I don't wanna embarrass you, and I'm sure you're not-- you have a great-- I think you have a great, new leader, frankly, who's the young woman that's leading your whole enterprise is a great-- from what I know.
I don't know her, but I hear she's a great person. But 60 Minutes was forced to pay me-- a lot of money because they took her answer out that was so bad, it was election-changing, two nights before the election. And they put a new answer in. And they paid me a lot of money for that. You can't have fake news. You've gotta have legit news. And I think that it's happening. I see--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mr. President--
DONALD TRUMP: --I see good things happening in the news. I really do. And I think one of the best things to happen is this show and new ownership, CBS and new ownership. I think it's the greatest thing that's happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mr. President, can I also ask you, we're now at the end of your first year.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Of this second term. What do you hope to accomplish in the next three years?
DONALD TRUMP: I hope I can have the same year that we had. Look, we have been acknowledged to have the greatest nine months. You know, it's nine months. The greatest nine months in the history of the presidency. So if I can keep that going I'll be very happy.
Because, you know, what we've done, what we-- I inherited a mess. And I've fixed it, other than it will take a while to get all the criminals, the real criminals, the ones-- the real bad ones, out. But we've gotten a lot of them out. We've gotten a lot of the murderers out.
We've gotten a lot of the people from jails out and we've taken 'em back to their countries. In some cases they're so dangerous that we've actually had to put them in our jails because we didn't want 'em coming back. I wanna just keep it going pretty much the same way. I want safety in our cities.
Our cities are a mess. And I hate to say it, they're Democrat-run cities. If you take the top 25 cities, they're almost all-- almost every one of 'em is run by Democrats.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And to people that say they're-- struggling with the cost of living, expenses--
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, cashless bail--
NORAH O'DONNELL: What could you do about that--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, let me just say, cashless bail is a disaster. It's gotta be changed. Sanctuary cities really have to be changed.
They're sanctuary, you know what they're sanctuary for? Criminals. Things-- some basic things have to be changed. But one of the things I really have focused on is making Chicago great again.
Making-- and we're just getting started in Chicago. But what we did in D.C., where we took D.C. from being so bad to so beautiful, such good-- the restaurants are booming. You can't get into a restaurant. They were closing and now they're all opening every-- you can't get a restaurant now.
You can't get into a restaurant. But you c-- if you wanna buy a restaurant or-- or own a restaurant you almost can't find it. I wanna make this happen all over the country. I want it to be like that in New York, in L.A., in Chicago. I wanna do it as much as you can.
You know, by the way, Memphis, we're there now. Memphis was a dangerous hellhole. 65% down in crime. And this is after two weeks. We can do it all over the place. It's turned out to be a new passion for me, making our city-- I had no idea we could be that successful. I thought it would take a much longer period of time. Do you know in Washington, in 12 days it was really good. In one month it was close to perfect.
NORAH O'DONNELL: And for those that are suffering with cost of living increases and saying they're living paycheck to paycheck--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I'd be very upset with--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Prices are up
DONALD TRUMP: --Biden. Because we don't have any of those problems. We-- we don't have inflation. You know, essentially we don't have inflation. We-- I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. We don't have infl-- we're down to 2%, even less than 2%. A couple of items like beef I'm getting down. But our groceries are down--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Healthcare-- healthcare premiums?
DONALD TRUMP: I can fix healthcare, give them better healthcare for less money. Obamacare is-- is hurting people. Obamacare was a disaster from day one. I can fix it and make it good. I'd really rather start with a fresh plate, but if it's-- if it's required to keep it, we can make it much better.
But it's bad healthcare, and they're gonna get big increases, and that has nothing to do with me. That has to do with the fact that it was originally put into play. It's a shame. But we can make it better. Energy is way down.
You know, you're gonna have $2 gasoline very soon.
Nobody could believe it. You were at $4, $5, $6, and even $7.
Look at the cost of gasoline in California. What it was, I brought it down.
The problem is when I bring it down here in California they put more tax. They-- they tax the gasoline to such an extent. No, we're in great shape. This country is in great shape. We're ready to really rock. As I say often--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Are you-- are you--
DONALD TRUMP: --we were a dead country. We were a dead country one year ago. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Leaders have said that to me. Just recently they said that to me.
Even President Xi, he said, "I'd like you-- you to be congratulated." He said it so beautifully. "I'd like you to be congratulated on the incredible job you did in bringing back the United States of America." President Xi said that to me.
NORAH O'DONNELL: I know we're out of time, but just on that matter, we talked about that-- because I know how closely you follow the stock market. Do you worry about an AI bubble?
DONALD TRUMP: I guess. I worry about everything, you know? I mean, you know, I'm a worrier. I worry. But you know what I do? I worry and then I fix it. I fix it. That way I don't have to worry.
NORAH O'DONNELL: There's a lotta money behind AI--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, there's a lotta money. And right now I'm taking advantage of it, because we're leading AI.
You know, we're leading it by a lot. China's in second place, but we're leading it by a lot. We have the greatest minds of any country anywhere in the world, and we're using that.
I'm using those great minds to help us. Now, will something happen later? I guess, you know, something. But it could also be something very good happens. And I hope it's gonna be very good. But if it's not so good, we're protected.
Our country is doing great. We're strong. We're solid. We've never been-- I think we haven't been like this in-- maybe ever. Maybe ever. We have a great country, and you should be very proud of it.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mr. President, thank you very much for your time--
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much, Norah.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Thank you.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Do I have the opportunity to ask you two more questions?
DONALD TRUMP: If you want, if it helps--
NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay. Okay. Two more questions--
DONALD TRUMP: That means they'll treat me more fairly if I do-- I want to get-- It's very nice, yeah. Now is good. Okay. Uh, oh. These might be the ones I didn't want. I don't know. Okay, go ahead.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Is everybody ready?
Trump: 'My sons are involved in crypto much more than I. I know very little about it'
NORAH O'DONNELL: This is a question about pardons. The Trump family is now perhaps more associated with cryptocurrency than real estate. You and your son-- your sons, Don Jr. and Eric, have formed World Liberty Financial with the Witkoff family.
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Helping to make your family millions of dollars. It's in that context that I do wanna ask you about crypto's richest man, a billionaire known as CZ. He pled guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws.
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Looked at this, the government at the time said that C.Z. had caused "significant harm to U.S. national security", essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. Why did you pardon him?
DONALD TRUMP: Okay, are you ready? I don't know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt. And what I wanna do is see crypto, 'cause if we don't do it it's gonna go to China, it's gonna go to-- this is no different to me than AI.
My sons are involved in crypto much more than I-- me. I-- I know very little about it, other than one thing. It's a huge industry. And if we're not gonna be the head of it, China, Japan, or someplace else is. So I am behind it 100%. This man was, in my opinion, from what I was told, this is, you know, a four-month sentence.
But this man was treated really badly by the Biden administration. And he was given a jail term. He's highly respected. He's a very successful guy. They sent him to jail and they really set him up. That's my opinion. I was told about it.
I said, "Eh, it may look bad if I do it. I have to do the right thing." I don't know the man at all. I don't think I ever met him. Maybe I did. Or, you know, somebody shook my hand or something. But I don't think I ever met him. I have no idea who he is. I was told that he was a victim, just like I was and just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration.
NORAH O'DONNELL: The government had accused him of "significant harm to US national security"--
DONALD TRUMP: That's the Biden government.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay. Allowing US terrorist groups to, you know, essentially move millions of dollars around. He pled guilty to anti-money laundering laws. That was in 2023. Then in 2025 his crypto exchange, Binance, helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And then you pardoned CZ How do you address the appearance of pay for play?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, here's the thing, I know nothing about it because I'm too busy doing the other--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But he got a pardon--
DONALD TRUMP: I can only tell you that--
NORAH O'DONNELL: He got a pardon--
DONALD TRUMP: Norah, I can only tell you this. My sons are into it. I'm glad they are, because it's probably a great industry, crypto. I think it's good. You know, they're running a business, they're not in government. And they're good-- my one son is a number one bestseller now.
My wife just had a number one bestseller. I'm proud of them for doing that. I'm focused on this. I know nothing about the guy, other than I hear he was a victim of weaponization by government. When you say the government, you're talking about the Biden government.
It's a corrupt government. Biden was the most corrupt president and he was the worst president we've ever had. I only care about one thing. Will crypto be-- will we be number one in crypto? Crypto has turned out, and in that sense I've been right.
Crypto's turned out to be a massive industry, if you wanna call it that. And I'm very proud to say that we are far and away ahead of China and everybody else. Now, China is getting into it very big, right now. If you wanna go after people, you're gonna kill that industry.
And it'll be very bad. Tremendous number of jobs. I campaigned positively on crypto, very openly. I campaigned. Biden campaigned against it. When Biden found out that I was getting, like, 100% of the crypto vote, which was a lot, he switched totally and he went in favor of crypto.
They were totally in favor. They had many people under indictment. They let 'em all go. They let 'em all go. You know that. Many people were under indictment. Biden was a corrupt president. Biden went all in on crypto at the very end because he thought he could get some votes.
It didn't work. They voted for me. I wanna make crypto great for America. That's the only thing. I don't wanna have somebody else have crypto and have China be number one in the world in crypto. Because in crypto it's a kind of an industry where basically you're going to have number one and you're not gonna have a number two.
"And right now we're number one by a long shot. I wanna keep it that way. The same way we're number one with AI, we're number one with crypto. And I wanna keep it that way."
NORAH O'DONNELL: So not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?
DONALD TRUMP: I can't say, because-- I can't say-- I'm not concerned. I don't-- I'd rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, "Can I ask another question?" And I said, yeah. This is the question--
NORAH O'DONNELL: And you answered--
DONALD TRUMP: I don't mind. Did I let you do it? I coulda walked away. I didn't have to answer this question. I'm proud to answer the question. You know why? We've taken crypto--
NORAH O'DONNELL: But just generally speak--
DONALD TRUMP: Excuse me. We're number one in crypto in the whole world. Other people wanna be. They're fighting like hell to be.
But we're number one in crypto because I'm the president. Biden wanted to also, at the very end, you know, he totally switched his thing.
You know, Biden was totally in favor of crypto at the end.
Do you know that many people that were indicted under Biden for crypto, at the very end before the election, were let go? You know why?
He wanted the vote. We are number one in crypto and that's the only thing I care about. I don't want China or anybody else to take it away. It's a massive industry.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Mr. President, thank you.
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much.
