WTH is going on at the White House? President joins us to talk about his COVID recovery, the 2020 election, the Supreme Court, and more

Episode #74 | October 14, 2020 | , , and President Donald Trump

Any expression of political views by AEI scholars is in their personal capacity and not on behalf of AEI. AEI scholars have academic freedom and their intellectual product is not driven by management

Danielle Pletka: Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka.

Marc Thiessen: And I'm Marc Thiessen.

Danielle Pletka: Welcome to our podcast, “What the Hell Is Going On?” Marc, what the hell today?

Marc Thiessen: Well, to our loyal listeners, everyone who's listened to this podcast for the past year, every one begins with the President of the United States saying, "What the hell is going on?" Well today we have the man himself to tell us what the hell is going on, Dany.

Danielle Pletka: And boy, does he ever. As many of you know, we often record this introduction after we've done the interview in order to set it up properly. And so we spent almost an hour talking to the President of the United States and going over some of the questions that should be front and center on people's minds: the election, the Supreme Court, foreign policy, NATO. What did I miss, Marc?

Marc Thiessen: You didn't miss anything. And so we're going to do away with the normal banter that Dany and I have at the start of the podcast, because I think people want to hear from the president. And just, editorial note, we have offered equal time to Vice President Biden, if he chooses to come on, we'd love to have him and give him the same chance to present his views to you on a number of issues. Without further ado, the President of the United States.

Marc Thiessen: Mr. President, welcome to the podcast!

Donald Trump: Well thank you very much, Marc.

Marc Thiessen: Congratulations on your recovery from COVID. I saw you had a rally last night. You looked like you were never sick.

Donald Trump: I recovered rapidly and they say you have immunity. You’re immune. That would be nice. I don’t know. I’ve heard different numbers. I’ve heard for life and I’ve

2 heard for four months. I like life better.

Marc Thiessen: I would too. So, you said the other day that the COVID diagnosis was a blessing in disguise. Tell us what you meant by that and also, you now having gone through this illness that hundreds of thousands if not millions – millions of Americans have fought it – what did you learn about their struggle and what it’s like to go through this illness?

Donald Trump: Well, I don’t think you could ever really understand it as well as if you go through it, and I did go through it. I felt weak. I had a temperature. And I felt not exactly the best I’ve ever felt. The doctors at Walter Reed and Johns Hopkins and other – one thing good about being president, you got a lot of doctors coming at you. We had great doctors and, I think frankly, therapeutically or cure-wise we have great medicines too that we wouldn’t have had six months ago. You know, I’ve lost five friends and maybe even a little more – but five friends, some very close to me, and they were gone very quickly. And now, when I think of what I went through, I think that we would have saved those people. You know, we’ve had a tremendous increase in really great drugs. And whether it’s Regeneron or the Eli Lily version of a similar drug, the antibody drugs. So we’ve done a lot of great work in a short period of time and FDA has been terrific.

Marc Thiessen: And we had Dr. Slaoui, who’s the head of Operation Warp Speed on the podcast and that drug – Regeneron – that you had was produced under this, wasn’t it?

Donald Trump: It was produced under us. Six months ago or less they never heard of it and… I mean, I can’t tell you. Maybe I would have recovered anyway. Maybe it would have been fast. But I can tell you, I took it and it was a fast recovery. I could have gotten out of the hospital the next day. And I didn’t feel like that the day before, I can tell you. Pretty amazing.

Marc Thiessen: Well, we’re glad you’re better.

Donald Trump: Well, thank you.

Marc Thiessen: You’ve been criticized for pushing too hard to end the lockdowns and reopen the economy, but the World Health Organization just came out the other day against lockdowns, and they pointed out to all the devastation that lockdowns are causing, especially to the poor. They said it might even double world poverty, it’s causing malnutrition around the world. Why do you think it took them so long to see what you and all of us saw from the beginning.

Donald Trump: Well, you were there early too, because you and I had a conversation and I saw where you were coming from. And I wouldn’t say that a lot of people were with us but a good chunk of people were. I’m glad they did it because frankly, it wasn’t that easy for them to do it. That’s a big give back. But you look at depression, you look at drugs, you look at alcoholism, you look at all horrible things that were taking place with these – people are just locked in their homes, their apartments, they couldn’t leave. And it’s a terrible thing. And I came up – I think it was me – the cure can’t be worse than the problem itself. I think you were seeing that. Last night in Florida I made a speech and I said – we talked about it, I talked about it a little bit. But I also said that there are people that if you feel that

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3 you want to stay in a position – because there are some people who have a great fear. But if you want to stay in a position where you are now, stay in your house, in your apartment, do it. Because you can’t force somebody out. But I felt as president, I had to be out. I can’t be locked in a basement, as the expression goes. I’m president of the United States. I’ve got to meet people, I’ve got to see people. It makes a big difference in terms of dealings. I knew I was taking a risk when you do that. The more people you see, the more risky it is. But, the good news, I recovered well and I look forward to being out tonight in Pennsylvania.

Dany Pletka: So, Mr. President, speaking about hiding in your basement, we are three weeks away from the presidential elections and one thing that I know I would love to hear from you is – for the American people – thirty seconds on your absolute best case for why Donald Trump, a) should be re-elected and what isn’t right for the country now.

Donald Trump: Well, I don’t know what’s going on with Biden because nobody really understands it. Yesterday he didn’t know Mitt Romney’s name. Yesterday, he said he was running again for the US Senate. That’s happened two or three times already. I don’t know what’s going on. I mean, I really don’t. You need very sharp people to be in this position and I can tell you, whether it’s Putin or President Xi of China, or whether it’s Kim Jong Un – that war never happened and I don’t think will. That was one that was going to happen. Everybody said President Obama thought it was going to happen. But you have to be 100% sharp. And when I look, you know, I’m amazed. I’m amazed that he’s getting by. He’s getting by because the press is not asking him. I watched his town hall the other day on NBC and it was a disgraceful situation. It was a joke. It was a terrible situation to watch that. They were asking him the questions of a child, that you’d ask a child. So, you know, with that being said, I guess the polls are close but I don’t believe the polls because I had the same thing four years ago and Marc knows that better than almost anybody because he was there. And when I have thirty thousand, thirty-five thousand people show up at rallies like last night… It went as far as the eye can see. People. And then he goes to a rally and he’s got 32 people, 38 people, less than a hundred people. I don’t see it. And they oversample Democrats. Way oversample Democrats. And then they say, “You’re losing by a little bit, you’re losing by five.” But they oversample Democrats. I don’t know why they do it, I don’t know what the purpose is. We have tremendous enthusiasm, much more so than we had four years ago in 2016. We have tremendous enthusiasm. Marc knows that; he sees it. Tonight we’re going to have a tremendous rally in Pennsylvania. I don’t even have to ask, “Will it be full?” They’re all packed, They’re packed with tens of thousands of people. We’ll go out a day before, two days before – we didn’t even know we were going to be doing this two or three days ago. And last night, you saw the crowd there, and you saw the enthusiasm. We have a lot of Democrats who are coming over as Republicans; we have a lot of registration that people don’t talk about in North Carolina, Pennsylvania. We have a lot of people registering as Republicans that never did before. So I think we’re going to be in great shape. I just see it. I see the enthusiasm. It’s incredible.

Dany Pletka: Well, enthusiasm is a hugely important part of any election and you do have a lot of enthusiastic supporters. You've told us what the problems are that you see with Joe Biden. Why is Donald Trump the right man to take us to 2024? What are you going to do?

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4

Donald Trump: Very fair question. Look, I built the economy once and now I'm building it a second time. It's going to be even better than it was. Last year, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world. I was beating China. I was beating everybody. We were getting bigger and stronger. China wasn't, nothing like us. If you go back and you look at predictions on China from ten years ago, 2019, China was going to take over the world economy. And they didn't even come close. And then I charged them, you know, tremendous tariffs, for dumping steel illegally. Our steel was doing well, everything was doing well and it's doing well right now. Look, we're about ready to break the all-time stock market record again and that's, you know, I think we're rounding the turn on the pandemic. I can’t tell you how important the drugs are. I just think they’re very important. Actually, the vaccines are coming out but I think these are actually more important, these therapeutics or the cures, or whatever you want to call it. But, we’re going to set new records, we’re setting new jobs records. 11.4 million in the last four and a half months. We’re setting new economic record, retail sales, housing. Take a look at what’s going on. It’s amazing. And the good news, I guess, I hope, is that your third quarter numbers are going to be released about two or three days before the election. So, they'll be released at the end of the month, or maybe November 1st, and that's right before the election and I'll stand with them. I think you’re going to have numbers are going to be record-setting numbers. Like, literally, record-setting numbers. We’re coming back very, very strong. And he can't do that. He wants to raise everybody's taxes. And he lies. I mean, look, he goes around saying, “There won’t be fracking, won't be fracking, won't be fracking.” Then he gets the nomination, announces there’ll be fracking, and no reporter calls him on it. I don't want to make you two feel guilty but, I men, think of it. No reporter even asks him about it. He’s strongly against fracking, energy, petroleum products, all of that. And then he gets the nomination, he goes out, he says, “No, no.” He doesn’t even say, “You misunderstood me.” No reporter asks him the question. No reporter asks him the question, “Why did he get three and a half million dollars from the mayor's wife of Moscow and why did he promise a billion dollars?” You talk about quid pro quo, that's really quid pro quo. Why did he promise a billion dollars if they drop the prosecutor? These are things that are on tape and nobody pursues it.

Donald Trump: I think journalism has gone so far down, I think it's a disgrace. But, you know, I have a big platform and I'm able to talk about it and people get it. And that's why we're getting the kind of crowds and that's why I think we're going to win most, if not all, of the states. We just got very good numbers out of Florida. We just got very good numbers out of Pennsylvania, out of North Carolina. I think we're going to have a big day, week, whatever you want to call it. I think it’s going to be very big.

Marc Thiessen: Hopefully not months.

Donald Trump: You know, the people that are voting for me, generally, I hear like 85%, they’re voters. And the people that are putting in the ballots, all they’re doing is substituting for the vote. So it's not like they have a lot of new people. We have a lot of new registers. If you look at Pennsylvania, I think in North Carolina, we have a lot more people, new people, registering for the Republican - because we have tremendous enthusiasm. They only have negative enthusiasm and those… In theory, you would know this better than me, but negative enthusiasm doesn't

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5 win races. Positive enthusiasm, meaning they like somebody.

Marc Thiessen: That's why Mitt Romney is not president.

Donald Trump: …a rally yesterday in Ohio and they had… almost nobody showed up. I show up for one in Florida and we had - it could have been 35, 40 thousand people show up. Nobody's ever seen anything like it, frankly.

Marc Thiessen: So, there's a there's a new Gallup poll out that shows 56% of Americans say they're better off now than they were four years ago, which is an incredible number considering what we’ve been through in 2020. And a 49% plurality say they agree with you over Joe Biden on the issues. But the RCP average, and I know, I'm sure you have other polls that say it's slightly differently, but they’re saying only about 42% of the country plans to vote for you right now. So there's a gap of – there's people who are benefiting from your policies, who approve of your presidency, but still aren't committed yet to voting for you. How are you going to win those people? That 5, 10% of the electorate that approves of your presidency but doesn't necessarily approve of you? You had a line at the beginning - before the pandemic hit that, “You may not like me, but you got to vote for me.” Talk about how you're going to win those voters over and convince them in the next three weeks.

Donald Trump: Well, I don't think that line changes. I like to think of myself as a good person. I'm saving the suburbs. I’m for law and order. He’s not for law and order. He can't even say – during the debate, he can't even say it. He's not a nice person. I mean, I've known him, he's not a nice person. You know, but he comes across as nice because he says things that nobody can even believe but I think people are going to want law and order. I think they’re going to want a great economy. Look at the economy. I mean, literally people with 401Ks – if they didn’t sell, and most of them had confidence not to – but if they didn't sell, they’re richer now than they were before the pandemic hit. Nobody ever thought that would be possible. And it's going up. It's only going in one direction. Well the other thing I win on is the economy, Marc, by a lot. You know, by ten points, fifteen points. And the other interesting poll, I think maybe the most interesting poll… And I saw the 56% – and don't forget that's in the middle of a pandemic. I say it's rounding the corner, but during a pandemic, 56%, you know, as opposed to the past administration. And it's also, I believe, the highest number ever recorded. And, you know, it’s sort of incredible. But there was another – and I think it was also a Gallup poll – that talked about your neighbors, who is your neighbor going to vote for? These people know their neighbors, and I won by a lot. And the other one, are people telling the truth? And they said, I think it was 62% or something like that said they're not telling the truth when they polled. They're going to go in and they’re going to vote and, you know, look, their 401Ks will crash, they're going to pay… Why would somebody in Pennsylvania want to pay much more taxes? He said he's not going to cut taxes, except he’s going to cut my tax break and under my tax break, with child tax credits and everything, you're talking about four or five thousand dollars a family. If you add child tax credits, if you add energy, you’re talking about much more than that, because we won't have any energy in this country. Right now, we're energy independent. So, I mean, there's some interesting polls. The one that was to me the most interesting is –I thought the 56% was great but when they asked people, are they going to vote, what are you going to do, are you lying? They're actually

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6 saying, are you telling the truth and wasn’t it 52 or 62% of the people said, “We're not telling the truth.” Well, if that's the case, there’s only one way… That would mean it's like a landslide. But look, all I can do is create the greatest economy ever and we're doing that. We're doing it, Marc. We’re doing it at a level that people are shocked. Because, again, I say we're rounding the turn. We're rounding that final turn. That’s what it’s going to be. But still, we're rounding a turn and we have the best stock market.

Donald Trump: People’s 401Ks, if you tell them it's going to be cut in half if Biden gets in, why would anybody want to vote? Why would anybody want to take a chance like that? And then you have law and order. I mean, there's no law and order; this is the radical left. They've gone crazy. So… But with us there's law and order. The Republican cities, you look, all of them, they're doing great. There's no crime, there's no – I mean, we have very little crime, very little…. All of the hot spots, all of the problems are in these Democrat-run cities. The so-called blue cities. Portland. You look at New York, what's happened there in a short period of time. We have to take Rudy. We want to get a younger version of Rudy. But we need something in Chicago, you look at what's going on in Chicago. It’s a very sad thing. But they're all Democrat-run cities. Republicans are doing phenomenally well and it’s law and order.

Dany Pletka: So, Mr. President, Marc and I started this podcast and we were really focused on foreign policy. You know, you succeeded where other presidents have not in getting our NATO allies to contribute more of their national budgets to defense, which is something that supports NATO. But a lot of people are worried that if you're re-elected, you won't keep your commitment to NATO. You'll want to pull the United States out. Is that right?

Donald Trump: Well, I can only tell you that it’s such a great question. Long answer, unfortunately, but it's a great question. So when I first got involved, one of the first things I saw was how we were being ripped off by our allies in NATO. I mean, just terribly ripped off. They weren't paying, we were paying probably 80%, could even be a 100% depending on the way you calculated. Marc, you and I have talked about it. And President Obama, President Bush never did anything about it. They kept going; we pay. So we got ripped off on trade in Europe by Germany, France, all of them, every one of them. We got ripped off on trade and then we protected them from Russia. And I'm the one that was the toughest on Russia and Putin knows that better than anybody. I'm the one that brought up the pipeline, you know, Nordstream Two, where Germany pays billions of dollars to Russia and we protect Germany and the others from Russia. I say, “What's this all about?” I brought that up. I'm the one that gives tank busters; he gave pillows. You know, the whole thing … I have tremendous sanctions on Russia. He didn’t have big sanctions on Russia. Look at what we've done. Nobody's been tougher on Russia. Now, at the same time, I think I get along with Putin very well. I think that's good. We're working on a nuclear arms treaty, you know, we want… To me it’s the single biggest risk in the world today. It's not other things that you hear about; it’s nuclear weapons. You know, I've totally rebuilt our military but I see that kind of power that we're talking about and you just hope to god it never has to be used. So, you know, getting along is a good thing, not a bad thing. But if you look at what I've done, I get NATO to pay a hundred and thirty billion dollars a year more, going up to four hundred and ten billion. And maybe my biggest fan in the whole world is Secretary General

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7 Stoltenberg because for fifteen years, if you look at NATO payments, they went down, down, down.

Donald Trump: And Obama would go and make a little speech and you wouldn't even talk about the fact that it's unfair that we're paying for your protection. And I went and I said, “Listen, these payments, this is no good. We're paying for you and you're ripping us off on trade.” You know, the trade with the European Union is terrible, I mean, it's a terrible thing what they've done. They’re almost as bad as China, you want to know the truth. And that was another thing we've done a great job with. But I was ready to do a really good job and then we had the pandemic come in and so… you know… I held back. But what we've done is gotten a hundred and thirty billion, you’ve seen that, Marc, a hundred thirty billion dollars more per country. And they asked me a very tough question, now I can reveal it. We had a meeting, twenty eight countries, we had a meeting and one of the countries, important country, said, “Well, are you saying that if we don't pay, you're not going to defend us?” Now, I had to say, “The answer to that is yes,” because I said, “Why should we be doing this? You're killing us on trade. You're ripping us off with your tariffs. You're ripping us off with all sorts of protection, you know, non-monetary tariffs, which are terrible. And then, on top of that, we're protecting you with our military – we're paying for most of the cost. It's not fair. So the answer is, yes, you're right, that's right.” And as soon as I said that, everybody said, “Let's pay.” We got a hundred and thirty billion a year and that number goes up to four hundred and ten billion dollars. And you may want for whatever you're doing – you may want to ask Secretary Stoltenberg because he could not believe it. And by the way, when you talk about being tough on Russia, that's probably the toughest thing of all because, you know, they weren't paying their bills because they figured the United States is stupid. They had people that for years didn’t ask for any money. I don't blame them, but I said, “No, if you don't do it that means you don't get protection.” And as soon as I said that everybody gave it up. And so we got a hundred and thirty billion a year, that's a lot and then we got – it goes up to four hundred and ten billion a year. Now, I would say that's one of the worst thing that's ever happened to Russia, but nobody ever wants to talk about that stuff, you understand.

Donald Trump: But, we have a lot of great things going right now and you know what they are. When it comes to the other part of your question, look at the Middle East, with no blood we've got Bahrain, we've got others lined up. We've got UAE, Muhammad’s a great warrior, you know, highly respected, we have many others wanting to come and no blood. But I did it totally different than that everyone went to the Palestinians first. I said to the Palestinians, “Let's go,” and they said “No, no, no.” I said “Well, why are we paying you seven hundred and fifty million dollars a year?“ They said, “Well, you know, death to America.” Oh okay, that's okay, “death to America” guess what, two years ago I cut off all payments to the Palestinians, and they want to make a deal I'll tell you right now. And I asked the people that came before me, I had a meeting with three people that negotiated in the Middle East. I said did anyone ever use the fact that seven hundred and fifty million dollars is given to the Palestinians and all they do is scream “Death to America?” And they said “No, we didn't think that was right.” I said “Well, I think it's right.” And we have countries lined up right now and I'll tell you, if I win the election the first country that's going to call me is Iran. They went down 27% GDP. Hamas, all these terrorist states are not getting money because Iran is … a disaster. They’re an economic because of my sanctions and because I got other

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8 countries… You can't do business with ‘em. You know they just want to see if sleepy Joe Biden gets in. Now if Biden gets in, they’ll rip us to pieces. If Biden got in, China will own this country and what I did with China is incredible. I took in tens of billions of dollars. I gave 28 billion dollarsto the farmers because they were targeted. I said “Thank you very much President Xi,” and the farmers love Trump, you know because I did something that nobody would have been able to even think of, they never even thought about it. So we have a lot of things happening and you know, like, I've done a good job what can I tell you.

Dany Pletka: So second term Donald Trump, people who say you're pulling out of NATO, what you're saying is more peace in the Middle East, standing up to Russia, standing up to China, and staying in NATO as long as budgets are continuing to go up. Is that a fair assessment?

Donald Trump: Peace through strength and I like the term. We have now, I've rebuilt the military, when I came in, it's a true story. I think I told it to Marc, because we were looking at North Korea very seriously, I said “How’re we set up?” He said, “Sir, we have no ammunition.” Should never have to go through that. I told you that, Marc, I think.

Marc Thiessen: Yes, you did.

Donald Trump: Nor should any president have to go through what we went through with the Russian witch hunt and all the other stuff So I've done more than any other president in the first three and a half years, and I did it with his horrible, disgusting cloud that now we've caught them and we know it was a total hoax. And let's see what happens after the election.

Marc Thiessen: You mentioned how tough you’ve been with China. How are you – the reason you got COVID is because China didn't control it – lied to the world about its virus – how are you going hold them accountable in a second term?

Donald Trump: What you're going to see? You know, sometimes, if you're playing a chess game with very smart people you can't say, “Gee, this is what I'm going do.” But they'll be held responsible. They'll be held responsible. They could have stopped it. They stopped it from going into, largely stopped it, from going into China. Now with that being said, they suffered much more than people understand. They lost far more people than we lost, far more people. But you know, they don't report things, they don't put it down and report X number of people a day, and, you know, you don't hear that. But they lost far more than probably anybody else. Other countries lost a lot, whether it’s India or… Iran got hit very hard. Lot of countries got… but they don't report their numbers

Dany Pletka: Mr. President, you've been so generous with your time, let me ask you quickly about the Supreme Court. We've got to Amy Coney Barrett in the middle of testifying, a really, really tough hearing. No president since Richard Nixon has been able to appoint three justices. The Democrats say that they’re thinking in response about packing the courts… something Joe Biden says the American people don't deserve to know whether he supports or not… what do you think?

Donald Trump: I think packing the Court’s a horrible thing and all you have to do is go back to Justice Ginsburg. She said, “This is a collegial group of people and we sit and we

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9 talk and you can't do that with large numbers.” And when you get large numbers, you know, you already have the Senate, you already have the House, I mean, you know, where does it stop? No, I think it's a horrible thing, I think it's a very unpopular thing. The Supreme Court is a very sacred institution as far as I'm concerned and I think packing it… You know, you’ve got to win elections and elections have consequences. If you lose an election, it has consequences. Justice Ginsburg also said, “No, when you're elected, you're elected for four years, not three years.” She was referring to a Democrat president, of course. But it it's the same thing, you know. We have plenty of time, you know, we will have plenty of time. I think it's going to be done very quickly and before the, you know, before the election. But, you have months after that so it's not even fast. If you really think about it, hey Marc, if you think about it, there’s a lot of time. Because they keep saying. “Oh, you're rushing it before the election.” Well, we have other things we want to do.

Donald Trump: I'd like to see stimulus because it wasn't their fault. I would like to see it; Nancy Pelosi doesn't like to see it, but I would love to see people get taken care of because it wasn't their fault. It was China's fault. But no, I think that packing the Supreme Court… You know, there are those that say, including your partner, Marc, because you had once mentioned it lightly to me when you were at the Oval Office, Marc, that a lot of my success in terms of getting elected was when I created the idea of twenty-five judges, you know, very highly respected conservative judges and justices, potential justices. And a couple of people have said that to me and I never really agreed with it, but I think probably more and more. A big percentage of people voted for me because they love the twenty- five people that I had on that list.

Marc Thiessen: I think the numbers are that 26% of your voters in 2016 said that was the most important issue for them. It was kind of not on the front burner for a while because you’ve been so successful. Because you put two Supreme Court… you secured the conservative majority, put all these great judges on that court. Do you think this is now going to energize those voters going into the 2020 election?

Donald Trump: I think so. I never believed it was that high. I’ve seen 26%, I guess that's done by a poll or something. I never believed it was that high. But whatever it was, it was significant and, you know, again, they didn't know me. They know me as a business person that had done well and all, but they didn't know where my conservative or my liberal… You know, where am I coming from. And I don't know if you know the history, it was interesting because I picked twenty and then ultimately twenty-five, you know, I increased it by five. But I picked twenty, twenty-five and I put them in and I said, “I will pick people like this,” and they said, “No way. Nope got to be this” And then I said, “All right, good, I will pick people, I will pick from this list.” And now it’s actually up to 45 people. You know, we added some names that are really great names. People that have been incredible and all highly respected. Really highly respected. No, I think that was a big thing. I don't know that it was as big as some people say, but it was my idea, that was my original idea. I say, because people coming to me and saying, you know, they don't know. Are you going to appoint liberal judges? Conservatives? They just didn't know enough about me politically. They know about business, but they didn't know enough about me politically, and I said “I'll tell you what I'll do.” That's really a problem, and it was a problem for political people. I said, “If

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10 that's really a problem, then let me do the following: I will create a list of twenty- five people. They will be top of the line.” I think you both agree that those names are pretty amazing.

Marc Thiessen: Yes.

Donald Trump: I will only choose from that list, and, I'll tell you what, I never heard about the problem again. Then when I got elected a lot of people said that was the reason. I just don't know if it was 26% because that's a high number, but certainly it had an impact. And I think he has to do that too. I think that Joe Biden has to pick potential justices and you got to know who's going on the court. “I'm not going to tell you before the election.” is very foolish, and I don't think it's going to be acceptable to people. I've never heard of it. “We're not going to talk about it now. We'll talk about it after the election.” What kind of a thing is that? I'm actually even seeing people that are that are on your opposite side. I will say, Marc, that are not happy with that answer. That's not a good answer, I don't think you can get away with that answer.

Marc Thiessen: Kavanaugh wasn't on your original list. Was it Justice Kennedy who suggested him to you?

Donald Trump: He did and other people too, and one of the reasons I created additional because I did, like him a lot. I liked him for a lot of reasons, and little did I realize that a man would have to go through so much. It was a terrible thing, I thought, that happened to him. I thought it was a terrible thing, but he's a good man. No, I did. He was in the additional five that I put up.

Marc Thiessen: Yep. Do you think that's why they're not going after Amy Coney Barrett on her faith right now? That they learned their lesson from how going after Kavanaugh backfired on them? They lost their chance to take back the Senate?

Donald Trump: Well, I think she's doing it, I watched for a little while this morning before you called. That’s why I was shocked, knowing you, that you did this. I thought you would say no. You got to say it's interesting and I think she's doing well, of course. I haven't watched for the last half hour but no, I think that it would be very hard for them to pull off another Kavanaugh, rude, horrible situation. There's never been anybody treated as badly as Justice Kavanaugh. Never. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I think it's a disgrace. I don’t think you could get away with that here. They have been doing other things. They're going after other things but basically it's not the same league.

Dany Pletka: No, you're completely right, it was a disgrace. I want to ask you something else. You know that this has been a difficult year, not just because of COVID, not just because of all of the implications of that, but also because, you know, for African Americans, for Black Americans, this has been a very dramatic year with the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and a lot of unhappiness in the Black American community. But you have a pitch to that community to re-elect you, because you say that that's going to be better for Black Americans than a Democrat in the White House. Why?

Donald Trump: Well I think that had COVID not come along, and I told this to Marc, I think… You

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11 know, somebody said, “How do you bring the country together?” I said, “Success.” Had COVID not come along… I was getting calls from Democrats and people that normally I wouldn't be talking to too much. They wanted to get together, they wanted to work things out. There were tremendous discussions going and then we got hit with COVID and that superseded everything. And I think we've done a great job. If you look, not only with the vaccines and stuff that are ready to come, but also with the medicines and the ventilators and all… And I took care of a lot of governors. We made a lot of governors look good that shouldn’t look good because their cupboards were bare. But our cupboards were bare. But I will say this. If we didn't have COVID come along, we would have a unified country right now. Because success was bringing it together. We had the highest… I mean, when you talk African Americans, Hispanic Americans, every category, women, every category was the highest unemployment, the best unemployment numbers, the best… Employment numbers were up to a hundred and sixty million people employed. Our country was never close. A lot of great things were happening and I was starting to get calls from people. And then we got hit and there was, like, a new ballgame. But success will bring our country together. And I saw that. I really… I got about a one month, two months glimpse of it. It was all happening. It was going to be a beautiful picture and then we got hit with this invisible enemy and, you know, obviously then it was it was back to the fort. But no, it was all happening. People that you wouldn't think, Marc. People that you know that you would never say called. A lot of good things were starting to happen.

Donald Trump: I had a lot of victories, you know? I ended up winning on the wall. That was a good. You know, I got to win and they did everything they could to block the wall and I ended up winning the court cases and got the wall. The wall is almost complete now. You know it's going to be complete very soon and we're doing ten miles a week and it's had a huge impact on the southern border. The numbers are phenomenal. And especially in a COVID period, you know, because in Mexico is very, very, severely ill. They have a tremendous COVID problem and, you know, one of those things. Success was really bringing it together and it would have been a beautiful thing. But I think we can do that again. I think next year is going to be a great year. I really… Watch this quarter. I better be careful with Marc. I read him too closely because if it's a little bit off, he will say, “He was wrong.” Watch the third quarter. I think you’re going to see numbers that going to be really high. GDP numbers.

Marc Thiessen: You said that all these people before COVID were coming to you and out of the woodwork and saying, “Let's work together, let’s get something,” right? Do you – I mean, this is such a toxic environment now with an election going on and it's so heated – do you think if you win re-election and Democrats finally have to accept your presidency and that you're going to be there for four more years, do you think that we're going to have more acrimony or do you think they're going to finally have to come around and work with you and that we could have the kind of cooperation that eluded us in the first term?

Donald Trump: I think they're going to say, coupled with success, I think they're going to say, okay, look, it’s enough. They've tried for four years. They tried before I got elected. You know that, everything is there for you to read. We have everything. Terrible. Frankly, if it were them, they’d bring charges. Our people are very nice.

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12 After the election, we'll see. But I really believe that they will say it's time, it's time. Marc Thiessen: Well, I hope you're right.

Donald Trump: You know, time does that. Time and success. But it was happening, I don’t know if I could even say it strongly enough. It was happening so strongly before COVID. A month and a half, two months before COVID. Look, every single index was at its all-time high. We had the best market. We had the best 401k's ever. Now, the amazing thing is, we're just about there, you know, in terms of the 401k’s. That's a big deal, the 401k’s. Meaning stocks. People don't realize, they think rich people have stocks, poor people have stocks, middle income people have stocks. And I've really got the economy going again and it's a success. But success and time. It'll be a very interesting election but I think people eventually are going to come together.

Marc Thiessen: So, exit question for me, Mr. President. So Joe Biden, you mentioned this earlier did that town hall where he had the fake, undecided voters, right? So, you've got a real undecided voter here in Dany. Dany didn't vote for you in 2016, but she has publicly said that she is very seriously considering it now. So what is your pitch to Dany and to voters like her who didn't support you last time, but are thinking about it in this election?

Donald Trump: Well, first of all, I'm honored by your statement and my pitch is very simple. We're bringing our country back. We got hit very unfairly by a disease that should have been kept inside the confines of China because they did it for themselves but they didn't do it for us, Europe, and the rest of the world, a hundred eighty eight countries. But we've made tremendous strides. You look at the mortality rate at almost 90%. You know, 90%. Think of it. People that would die are now living and that's because of the therapeutics and all of the things that we've done. You know, what I've done with the FDA has been amazing. These things in the FDA would have taken two, three years ago to get approved. I get them done in weeks. That's the personality, I guess, but, you know, nevertheless, I'm very proud of it. And, you know, Dr. Hahn, is a top guy from a great hospital in Houston, the cancer hospital, and I said, “Look, we can't we can't take three years to get this stuff approved.” And we got things done. But look at the mortality rate which is 85 to 90% now. It's incredible. It's a whole different thing. We're going make the economy stronger than ever before. The best year we've ever had was last year. The best year we will ever have is going to be next year and that's going to bring people together. At the same time, we're re-doing trade deals. I've been doing them at a level that nobody's seen before. We have been ripped off of every aspect of life, you know, because I believe in America First. And I tell countries, “You should believe in your country first too. I'm not saying America First and you have to come second.” I deal with many countries and I said, you know, “Whether it's Peru or whether it's any country, you should think of your country first but we have to put America first.” You know, a lot of people get insulted when I say America First and then we go into a negotiation and I said, “No, I'm sorry.” It's like Canada, we have Mike Pence, good guy, he's up in Canada, he's up in Wisconsin today. They were charging us 287 dollars a percent tariffs. I found out about it. I said, “That's not going to happen.” Then I renegotiated the whole thing. The farmers were getting killed. Our farmers were getting absolutely decimated. Now, sometimes I have to get that word out and it's always hard. But think about this administration. If they didn't create a fake

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13 Russia hunt, you know, a hoax, if they didn't create a fake phone call where Adam Schiff read a phone call, but that was not the call that I had. And thank goodness, we discussed this, Marc, thank goodness I had transcribers, very good military transcribers, by the way, which was totally verified. But, you know, think of how vicious it was. I got impeached over a perfect phone call and it was perfect. I told Marc last time, I said, “You know, we sent…” When I heard there was a problem, I said, “How could there be a problem, I just called the guy to congratulate him.” We sent it to the Justice Department, Department of Justice, the transcript of my call with the Ukrainian president. And they called back and they said, you know a day later, they said, “Okay, so what are you looking for here?” They’re used to seeing killings and drug deals and they say, “What do you want us to find here? What's wrong?” They found absolutely nothing wrong. It was a hoax. And then they couldn't turn back because… See, they thought it was the Schiff statement that he made in Congress, you know, about eight times quid pro quo, there were no quid pro quos. There was for Biden. So if I didn't have that, it would be probably – even with a pandemic it would be a much easier… You know, I went through four years of Russia, Russia, Russia and the only thing I have with Russia is that I’ve been much tougher than anybody else has ever been. You know, when you look at the way they handled it. Hillary with her button that she gave with the wrong language, with the wrong words. So I don't know. But look, it's an honor talking to both of you and I'm glad you have it recorded. Let somebody know it.

Marc Thiessen: Well, Mr. President, we're very glad that you're recovered, and we thank you so much. You've been very generous with your time.

Donald Trump: Well, it's an honor, and you’ve been fantastic and I hope I get that positive vote on the other side. That'll be a big deal. I'll celebrate. We’re doing a good job.

Marc Thiessen: It's up to you, Dany.

Donald Trump: I appreciate both and call when you want. Call, you want to do this every once in a while, it's an honor to do it. You’ve been so fair.

Marc Thiessen: We’d love to have you back on. Thank you so much.

Donald Trump: Yep. We'll do it again.

Marc Thiessen: Take care.

Donald Trump: Thank you. Thank you, both. Thank you.

Marc Thiessen: Bye.

Donald Trump: Good bye.

Marc Thiessen: All right, Dany. You just got a personal pitch from the President of the United States, as an undecided voter, asking for your vote. What did you think of the interview and what he had to say?

Danielle Pletka: Well, I don't think there's any American who would not feel honored by a personal pitch. So I was really honored by that. I think it's important also to hear

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14 that the President had a lot of charm in laying that out. That charm that he brought to that question that you asked, Marc, is something that would serve him really, really well on the campaign stage. This is a hard vote for a lot of people. This is a vote where people feel conflicted, because as you said, they like the policies, but they're not comfortable with the man. He can do something to make people more comfortable.

Marc Thiessen: Yeah, it's interesting to hear him in that sort of one-on-one, or in this case, two- on-one conversation, as opposed to what you see on television and other places. It was a very different Donald Trump that we just heard in this conversation from the Donald Trump we saw on the debate stage, for example, with Joe Biden. It would benefit him to show the Donald Trump we just saw a lot in the next three weeks. Would you agree?

Danielle Pletka: Oh my God. If the Donald Trump, notwithstanding the oft-heard complaints about the Russia hoax and the oft-heard complains about Biden himself, notwithstanding that, if that man that you and I just talked to had been on the stage with Joe Biden in the first debate, I think people's impressions would have been very, very different. It was a shame, actually, because what people saw and what people heard is not what people wanted to hear.

Marc Thiessen: No, I agree with that.

Danielle Pletka: I think a lot of people will be, who listen to this, will be frustrated by the usual tropes that they hear from Donald Trump and they don't like. But there's something that I heard here that I do like. When I asked him about African- American voters, Black voters, when I asked him about what he was going to say, he talked about how success is unifying. I do think that that's true. People want to hear, "I want to deliver a better economy. I want to deliver better security, because that makes your life better, and that brings us together." That's a great message. It's one he should stick with.

Marc Thiessen: I agree, and the other thing that he said, which I think is interesting is, after the impeachment, when the impeachment failed, the whole effort to bring down his presidency was exhausted and defeated, right? And the economy was booming. People were starting to reach out to him and try and find ways of cooperation, because everyone thought he was going to get re-elected. Then all of a sudden the pandemic hit and it breathed this second life into the effort to end the Trump presidency, right?

Marc Thiessen: I thought what was hopeful is that he thinks that if he's re-elected, that that will resume, finally. That if he can, one more time, stop the effort to end his presidency and win four more years, that it's not going to be another four more years of acrimony, that he thinks that people will, that the other side will come and decide, "Okay, it's time to start working together." Because I think that's the biggest fear that a lot of people have. Fifty-six percent say they're better off than they were four years ago. Under who? Under Biden and Obama, right? They would love to continue the good things about the Trump presidency, but they're worried that they just don't want to go through four more years of what they just went through, with all the fighting and all the political, on both sides. Because I think the Democrats have become, everything they criticize about him, they've

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15 become themselves, in many ways. And we all just want that to end.

Marc Thiessen: So I think it's an actual, a very strong message for him to take into the last three weeks is that if he wins, it's not going to be four more years of what we experienced. It's going to be four years where we can get a lot done for the country.

Danielle Pletka: Well, from his mouth to God's ears. I hope that that will-

Marc Thiessen: You're skeptical?

Danielle Pletka: There were a lot of people who had derangement syndrome under Obama. There are even more people who have derangement syndrome under Trump. It just seems like people have crawled into these separate camps and that they feel comfortable there, hating each other. It's not a good thing for our country.

Danielle Pletka: Something else for our listeners, as well, I think some people are going to be irritated, as always, with Marc, but even with me, about not arguing with the President. Look, this is an opportunity to hear him. It's not an opportunity for us to school him. I want people to understand that one of the things I dislike about our press is that they've become adversarial. If people are going to indict themselves, let them indict themselves. It's not our job to sit there and fight with the President about what the NATO numbers are, or how China actually brought us the virus, or not. Please understand that. It's important.

Marc Thiessen: Well, I think we also asked tough questions. We asked him why there are so many people who think they're better off, but are still not voting for him. I thought he answered that in a very interesting way. Look, we have reached out to the Biden campaign to offer equal time. We'll give Joe Biden the same chance, if he's willing to take it.

Danielle Pletka: I would absolutely be delighted to hear from Vice President Biden. If the pollsters are right, he's got a very, very good shot of celebrating on the night of November 3rd, or maybe December 3rd.

Marc Thiessen: Or January 3rd.

Danielle Pletka: Or whenever it is that we know what the results are of this election. I should say a thank you to you, Marc, as well. Because you're the one with the relationship with Donald Trump. Needless to say, we do not have that relationship, and it was his confidence in you that got him to say yes, to us. I think it was a great opportunity to hear what the President of the United States thinks. I have respect for whoever sits in the Oval Office, no matter who they are.

Marc Thiessen: Well, that's a great note to end on. We hope you enjoyed the interview, and we'll see you at the next episode.

Danielle Pletka: Take care, everyone.

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16

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