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Donald Trump Interview with Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News

October 30, 2021

PIRRO: We start with my exclusive sit down with President Donald Trump in Florida, where he was in great spirits and as fired up as I've ever seen him. His prediction for the Virginia gubernatorial race, his reaction to Biden's disastrous administration and so much more. Take a look: Mr. President, thank you so much for having us here at Mar-a-Lago.

TRUMP: Thank you.

PIRRO: Okay. If there's one word that could sum up the Biden administration, it would be crisis. There's the energy crisis, the supply chain crisis, the COVID crisis. If you look back on the last 10 months of the Biden administration, what grade would you give them?

TRUMP: Well, it's probably the worst presidency in history. I can't imagine. I used to say Jimmy Carter, not a big fan of Bush getting us into the Middle East, to be honest with you. I think this is though, the worst in the history of our country. If you look at Afghanistan and that horrible thing that happened to our nation with these young people being killed, and by the way, so badly injured. We have over 20, no arms, no legs, nobody ever talks about them. And then to leave $85 billion worth of the best military equipment, brand new, much of it brand new, better than what we have, right out of the box. And they didn't explode it, they didn't blow it up like they said. They did a couple of old planes that were not very valuable. No, I think that was the worst. And I'll tell you what, it's getting to be pretty close. What's happening on the border is one of the great embarrassments for our country also.

PIRRO: So we'll talk about those individually, but what grade would you give the Biden administration?

TRUMP: I think you have to say an F. And not an F plus it would be an F. It's a failed administration. It's a disaster. I've never seen anything like it. And by the way, I wish he'd do well. I love the country more than I love anything, family, God, country, we have to take care of our country. I would love to see him do well. I don't think there's ever been a greater embarrassment as an administration. And we had everything ready to go, we handed it on a plate. Whether it was the border or Afghanistan, we were getting out, but we were going to get out with great dignity and strength.

PIRRO: Well, Joe Biden was sold to us as a guy who understood foreign relations. He was a United States Senator for 36 years. He was on the Foreign Relations Committee. He was the vice president for eight years. He was sold to us as a guy who understood foreign relations.

TRUMP: Well, his own Secretary of State, Gates said very strongly, he never made a correct decision in his life. Now that was made-

PIRRO: On foreign policy.

TRUMP: Numerous times by numerous people. But it was made even recently by Gates and others that worked with him. And I think Afghanistan was a disaster. Not getting out, I was the one that set it up. I brought it down to 2,500 soldiers and we were in great shape and they weren't going to touch us, they knew. They weren't going to touch us. And then he took out the military before he took out the people. He left maybe thousands of people that are Americans and people that should be taken out.

PIRRO: Why do you think he didn't listen to his military?

TRUMP: Well, I think the military is largely discredited. I think our top people in the military discredited, he might see that, if he understands it, he might see that. I wanted to get out also. I remember Milley telling me, because I said, "I want every screw, every bolt, every nut, every tank. I want to take the tents, the big tents that hold the equipment and the planes. I want everything out." Getting the planes out, you just fly him into Pakistan and then take them over to our country. So easy.

They left everything. But I remember Milley saying, and he told me this, and I lost a lot of respect when he said it. "Sir, we'll save money if we leave the equipment." I said, "Save money? If we leave a $50 million airplane or a $10 million tank, you think we're saving money by not putting it into a plane or flying it out?" I said, "What does that mean?" "Sir, it's cheaper to leave it than it is to take them." And I said, "That's a fool talking." When Milley said that I lost such respect for him. I said, "Give it to me again. Tell me again. I want to hear it one more time." And he said that. I really lost a lot of respect for him.

PIRRO: We've got a school board controversy that feeds into the Virginia gubernatorial race, but more important is the fact that we are now at a point in American history where a are being referred to as domestic terrorists by the National School Board Association. They took it back after the outrage, but you've got an Attorney General, Merrick Garland, who's ready to deploy national law enforcement to supervise what's going on in local jurisdictions, which is a job for the sheriffs and the local police. And he is doubling down. We heard the hearings this week.

TRUMP: I've been watching the school board hearings more closely than I ever have, to be honest, and it's so interesting. The parents are incensed. They're not terrorists, they're just people that are so upset. They're angry, they're hurt, they're crying because their children are being taught things that in our opinion, in my opinion, and a vast majority of the people in this country's opinion, they don't want their children to hear about this stuff. They want to go back to reading, writing, and arithmetic. And they want to hear that black people are good and they want to hear that white people are good. This is the division that's being caused by these programs are just terrible.

PIRRO: The amazing part of this is the National School Board Association who drafted this letter, the administration promotes the head of that association, gives him a plum job. We now know that there was coordination between the Biden administration and the National School Board Association to get that letter to the Attorney General so they could start going after parents. The saddest part of all, this is that there was a young girl raped. The school board knew about it. The superintendent lied about it. And now we've got a gubernatorial race in Virginia. It will be a forecast of 2022, the midterms. How do you see Youngkin doing against McAuliffe next Tuesday?

TRUMP: Well, I think he's going to do very well. Look, McAuliffe made a tremendous mistake, but it's really, probably not a mistake from his standpoint, he believes it. He said the parents have nothing to do with what their children are going to learn. They have nothing to do with it. I heard that statement. I said, "Is that going to be bad? Is that going to be like deplorables?" Remember when Hillary made the statement deplorables? I said, "That's not a nice word." And it blew up. I think this is going to cause him tremendous problems come Tuesday.

PIRRO: Do you think Youngkin's going to win?

TRUMP: I think he's a good man, and I think he's a successful man. He loves Virginia, he loves the country.

PIRRO: Will he win?

TRUMP: I think he should win. He should win. I'll be honest, my base has to turn out. If my base turns out, he's going to win. And I hope they turn out, I really want them to turn out.

PIRRO: It's interesting, don't you think that they are now referring to Youngkin as a Trump acolyte, using you as a way to get the Democrats to come out and vote?

TRUMP: Well, I think it backfires because I think that gets the base to come out and vote by doing that, by hooking me with him as much. And I know him a little bit, but I really know him as a good person. The last person that ran as a Republican did not embrace Trump in Virginia. He got killed. He was just absolutely destroyed. And I think if my base doesn't come out, he can't win. I think my base has to come out very strongly.

PIRRO: Do you see yourself as a kingpin for elections going forward?

TRUMP: Well, something has happened and this is not from an egotistical standpoint. It's a great honor, because it's never happened before to anybody. If I endorse somebody, they win. If I endorse somebody, they win. I think I'm 148 and two. That's a pretty good number.

PIRRO: You endorsed Youngkin.

TRUMP: And I did endorse Youngkin, And we're going to see. I hope it's not going to be three. Do you understand that? I did. I endorsed him strongly. He's a good man. He wants to do the right job. He's a sane person. These people are insane.

PIRRO: Let's talk about inflation. You talked about how you left this country in great shape. We now have inflation of 5.4%.

TRUMP: It's terrible.

PIRRO: Now the prices of beef are up 17.6%. The average American family spending an extra $175 a month. Gas prices are up to $7 in California, $5 in New York. We can't afford these people and Joe Biden, when he was asked about gas prices, what he's going to do about it, he says, "I don't see anything that's going to significantly reduce gas prices in the near future."

TRUMP: Incredible.

PIRRO: He doesn't know.

TRUMP: No it's he doesn't have any idea. Look, one of the things I was most proud about our country became energy independent. We didn't need the Middle East, we didn't need Russia, we didn't need anybody. We had more than them. We were number one by far over Saudi Arabia, and you know this, and Russia. Number one by far. I had the pipelines going, Keystone XL pipeline. Amazingly, I ended the Russian pipeline. I was not good to Russia, I got along well with Russia, I got along well with Putin, but they weren't happy with Trump, I can tell you that. But Biden opened up this big massive pipeline all over Europe, but he closed down the XL. And I don't have to say it, because you heard it a thousand times. More importantly, we're energy independent no longer. I was so proud of that. First time, really in history. They say 75 years, but I don't believe we were ever energy independent.

PIRRO: It was big.

TRUMP: We were energy independent. We were doing so much, the prices, it was $1.87 a gallon if look at the numbers.

PIRRO: They're crazy.

TRUMP: And now yesterday they had in a certain section of California, $7.70. It's always the lead, it's going to follow, and it's going to go a lot higher than that. And Biden sent people to go see Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other members of OPEC that we need help because we don't have enough. Now, when you talk about inflation, the biggest factor in my opinion is no energy. The trucks, the factories, everything, the deliveries, the planes, everything, it's so energy based that the energy now is so expensive to get. We don't have enough oil. I filled up the strategic reserves for almost nothing. When oil hit bottom, we were almost empty with the reserves and nobody thought of it.

I said, "This would be a great time to fill up. We'll buy it cheap." I never got credit. I don't think anybody's ever mentioned it. But I bought 75 million barrels, I believe it was. 75 million barrels, which is a massive order. It was good for two things. The prices got so low that it was hurting our energy jobs. And we bought it cheap as hell, and now he wants to use that energy, that oil that I bought at a great price, that should be used in cases of a emergency, he wants to now drain it so that the prices come down.

PIRRO: But even he said, it'll save us about 18 cents a gallon.

TRUMP: It's not 18 cents. No, I could get that down within six months. I'll bet you, I could get it down to $2, $2.50. It's going to be over $10.

PIRRO: Doesn't he know how to do it?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think he does because his answer was weird. You can get it down a few cents? A few cents? No, you get it down many dollars.

PIRRO: How do you do that?

TRUMP: You have to let the oil companies go back to work. They ended leases they ended ANWAR because of Lisa Murkowski, Who's done a terrible job-

PIRRO: In Alaska.

TRUMP: She's not a Republican. She says she's a Republican in Alaska. Ronald Reagan tried to get it, Bushes tried, everybody tried to get it. I got it done. It was all done. Maybe it's bigger than Saudi Arabia, maybe. They've tried for many, many decades to get it done. I got it done. This would've added to our supply. We're already the biggest in the world by far. Now we're not the biggest in the world anymore. We've ended all the leases on government lands that frankly were pumping out for years and not hurting it, done in an environmental way. And if you look at natural gas, natural gas is very clean. We got windmills destroying our landscapes, killing all the birds-

PIRRO: And not necessarily effective.

TRUMP: The energy is so expensive. And you know where the turbines are made? Every one of them-

PIRRO: China.

TRUMP: Germany, and China.

PIRRO: Still ahead. What Donald Trump thinks of Biden and the Dem's vaccine mandates. Plus his take on the latest caravan heading towards the Southern border and how it can be stopped. Back in a moment. Welcome back to Justice. We return now to my exclusive interview with president Donald Trump, covering everything from Dr. Fauci to the latest migrant caravan headed our way. Take a look: let's talk about what's going way on in this country with the firing of police officers, firemen, nurses, the ones who were our heroes, they were on billboards all over the country. And now what we've got are, we're talking about vaccinating kids who were five years old to 12 years old, and then forcing them to continue to wear masks. Our heroes of being fired, they're losing their jobs. Are you sorry you didn't fire Anthony Fauci?

TRUMP: Well, it's not because of him they're losing their job, it's because some bad policies that are being made by the Biden administration. But look, if you look at my relationship with Fauci, first of all, he's been there like for 40 years. You walk in and he goes, "Hi, my name's Tony." "Oh, great. Hi Tony, how you doing?" But everything he suggested that we do, I didn't do. I went the opposite. He wanted to keep China open, I closed it to China. We would've lost-

PIRRO: Fauci Wanted to keep China open?

TRUMP: Oh, yeah, for a long time. And he actually said, "President Trump saved thousands and thousands of lives." I was the only one. I was sitting in a room, many, many people. I said, "We have to close it to China." I then closed it to Europe because I saw what was going on in Europe. And we saved thousands of lives. And what I did do, and we want freedom and we want all of this, and this was a great achievement though, worldwide, because I think you would've had a 1917, like the Spanish flu where maybe a hundred million people died. That I got the vaccine done, three vaccines, in less than nine months. They said it was going to take five years and it probably wouldn't get done. I got them done and they do work and they're great, I'm very proud of them, but people shouldn't be forced to take them.

PIRRO: You must have seen this week is this caravan is coming from-

TRUMP: The biggest anyone's ever seen.

PIRRO: Yeah. More than Del Rio. This caravan that's coming up now is actually fighting with the Mexican National Guard, forcing their way through. How do we stop this? And when they get here, what do Americans do? They're here.

TRUMP: So the wall would've stopped them. So the only thing they can do is-

PIRRO: They're letting them in.

TRUMP: I know. The wall would've stopped them. The only thing they can do is go to small areas where the wall was going to be completed over the next month. It would've been completed almost immediately, they just had to finish it.

PIRRO: But now-

TRUMP: Okay. Before we start that, let me just tell you, these are rough people. They were going through. The Mexican police, who were tough. They're tough police. They were lined up, they thought they could stop them. You look at that front few lines of the people there on this caravan, a name I came up with because I saw some caravans, but they were tiny and we ended it. We stopped the caravans, we made sure. Now what's happened is they're talking about one caravan, 120,000 people are going to be … that's like an army.

If you look at that front line, they look like they belong in the NFL. In fact they should be signed, some of them for the NFL. They burst through tough Mexican police who tried to stop them. They had no chance. We have to stop them. We can stop them but we have to get very tough. Our country is being poisoned. It's being poisoned. And you know what else? It's being poisoned also with drugs. We had fentanyl down to the lowest number since it's founding because fentanyl, if you look, it's worse than anything, it's the worst.

PIRRO: It is. It's a killer.

TRUMP: Much of it's made in China, and I had him just about stopped. I said, "Look, we're not doing any business if you're …" All of a sudden they're making fentanyl like crazy. They're sending it through the border.

The numbers on fentanyl have gone up tenfold. I had it, not stopped, but I had it almost stopped. When we would've had the wall completed and a couple of other things, I would've had it down to almost nothing. The fentanyl and drugs generally, are pouring through our border. People that are very sick are coming into our country. Very contagious diseases, many different diseases.

PIRRO: Many.

TRUMP: Not just COVID. By the way, COVID is peanuts compared to some of these diseases. They're pouring through our country. They are destroying these leaders, if you call them leaders, [inaudible] they're destroying our country.

PIRRO: Well. And the saddest part of it is they're here. And if it's 1.7 million that we've counted, I imagine it's just as many who got through who were runaways.

TRUMP: You can multiply times seven. I don't know if you know that number. So if they have 1.7, they say you multiply times seven. That's the number that come in totally unchecked.

PIRRO: Really?

TRUMP: And the other thing, you're talking about tens of millions of people over a relatively short period of time. Over a two year period of time, we would have more than 10 million people coming into our country. Our country can never be the same. Our country is changed already.

PIRRO: Do you have a plan to go to the border to boost morale there?

TRUMP: Well, I've gone to the border many times.

PIRRO: Are you going again?

TRUMP: Well, I just got back. I was there recently. I saw what Biden said, he was there sometime, but he wasn't there.

PIRRO: Yeah, 2008.

TRUMP: But he wasn't there. I don't think he was even-

PIRRO: He said he doesn't have time.

TRUMP: No, I've been to the border many times. I don't think it helps for me at this moment to go. I'm not the president, he's the president. He's got to go to the border. The Border Patrol people are incredible. When I was there a few months ago, I was there three months ago. They're so incredible. ICE people, and they are tough people. They have to be tough people.

PIRRO: They have to be.

TRUMP: They love our country. They really want to do their job. That's the amazing thing. It would be easier if they didn't. They want to do their job. They're tough people, but they're great patriots, and they're being treated with tremendous disrespect.

PIRRO: Still ahead: President Trump responds to the escalating crime surge in America. Plus he has a message for Hunter Biden that you don't want to miss.

[commercial break]

PIRRO: Welcome back to Justice and our exclusive interview with President Donald Trump. We now tackle crime in America, and of course, that includes Hunter Biden. The, I want to talk about my favorite subject.

TRUMP: Go ahead.

PIRRO: Crime. They are trying to defund the police, demoralize the police. They're now firing police. We've got shocking headlines from everything, Biden releasing a gender equity plan to make sure that women are released, eliminating cash bail and all kinds of crimes. And two San Francisco prosecutors have quit, Chesa Boudin is the DA there. I just want to take one second and I want to read this one case to you.

TRUMP: Well, they quit in protest because they say, "What's going on over here?"

PIRRO: Yeah, because he's not making arrests, but he is letting people out. But in one case, a man charged with robbery, eight prior felony convictions, was released early by the DA, Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi's playground. He's then arrested four more times for other crimes, but the District Attorney's office never charged him. Nine months after he was set free, he hit and killed two women while driving drunk in a stolen car. This is America today. What can we do about this?

TRUMP: Well, this is America today. It's only going to get worse because you have all of these millions of people, many of them are the worst people. The worst people. Somebody would say, "Oh, that's not a nice thing to say." Some of these people are the absolute worst people.

PIRRO: But the DA's are the worst.

TRUMP: All they want to do is indict Republicans. That's all they do. They want to go after Republicans. They use the DA's, the attorney generals and the federal government. Now sometimes you have fair people, sometimes you don't. They're good at destroying Republicans. They're horrible at destroying crime. They're letting these people that are killers go out. You look at Chicago, go, you look at New York, what's gone on with the crime in New York. New York is like a different place. Here's the good news. It could be changed, otherwise it would be so sad, you wouldn't even want to talk about it. But what's happened to New York, de Blasio is the worst mayor. It's filthy dirty.

People are living on Park Avenue. They're living in tents on the most incredible streets where people come from all over the world and they pay tax, which gives our police the money. They have to refund the police. They have to give the police more money. But what's happening in New York and what's happening in Chicago, where 88 people were shot last month and six died. I don't even know how only six died, 88 people were shot. You look at a weekend. They had a little while ago where they had a weekend, Labor Day weekend, where many people were shot.

PIRRO: Let's talk about Hunter Biden and his special council. This week Merrick Garland was asked again about what or not he would appoint a special council to investigate Hunter Biden. Again, Hunter Biden, who couldn't get his so called art listed in any gallery until his father became president, now selling at the same prices as a Monet or a Degas. No special council. That's got to eat at you.

TRUMP: I think that's the least of it. But the art is so terrible. So he's getting a half a million dollars a painting, and I was seeing that a Monet is getting less. It's such a terrible situation. And we're not going to learn who the buyers are. Should I buy one? It will give me great access to the White House.

PIRRO: But these say that there's a wall, they have no idea. But there are people who are actually coming to the exhibits.

TRUMP: First of all, the concept of it is ridiculous. And you said he couldn't get in the past … I don't think he ever painted before, I think he just started. So he's learning by the numbers. And let me tell you, I believe that as bad as that is, it's peanuts compared to other things. But it's so obviously horrible. I've had people say, "That's a terrible thing." That is a terrible thing what's going on. And they're getting numbers like nobody has ever gotten.

PIRRO: A lot of money flowing in.

TRUMP: In fact, I'm thinking about opening up my own gallery.

PIRRO: You are? How much are you going to charge?

TRUMP: I think a couple of million dollars a painting. If he gets 500-

PIRRO: Who are you going to paint?

TRUMP: I'll paint, whatever the hell I have to paint to get $2 million.

PIRRO: Mr. President, thank you so much for having us here at this beautiful Mar-a-Lago and thank you for taking the time for us.

TRUMP: Thank you, Jeanine. Thank you very much.

Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump Interview with Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/370714

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