Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Trump on synagogue attack, nationalism and media bias
Interview
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INGRAHAM: Mr. President, thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciate it.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Thank you Laura.
INGRAHAM: I know you're heading to Pittsburgh tomorrow and Rabbi Jeffrey Meyers from the Tree of Life synagogue said last night the following.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY MEYERS, RABBI, TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: I want to address for a moment some of our political leaders who are here. Ladies and gentlemen, it has to start with you as our leaders. My words are not intended as political fodder. Stop the words of hate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: So given his words, what do you think your role tomorrow will be and should be?
TRUMP: Well, I'm just going to pay my respects. I'm also going to the hospital to see the officers and some of the people that were so badly hurt and I really look forward to going. I would have done it even sooner but I didn't want to disrupt any more than they already have disruption but I look forward to going to Pittsburgh tomorrow.
INGRAHAM: You said over the weekend you might even tone up the rhetoric. The media today seized on it at Sarah Huckabee Sanders' press briefing. If they are pointing fingers at you saying, look, you could do more, you're the leader of the free world. What do you say to that?
TRUMP: Well you know, I did a rally and I said, in fact, I was thinking about canceling it. I also did the Young Farmers and it was great doing that and then I had a rally afterwards and I said you know, you make them too important if you start canceling. I remember Dick Ross (ph) wanted to get the Stock Exchange open as soon as possible, did a great job and other things.
Once you start doing that, once you cancel -- so you are doing a rally and rallies are meant to be fun. Rallies are meant to be everything and I said tone it down and then you saw the group saying, no, don't tone it down, don't tone it down.
So, we had a great rally in Illinois for some great people and frankly, I think that's probably the way it should be. You should go about your life. You can't let these people disrupt any more than they already have, which is disgraceful. What he did is disgraceful. You can't let it happen. As far as with the rabbi said, I agree with him.
INGRAHAM: The word nationalism has taken on, for the left, this connotation, of fueling anti-Semitism, hate, even violence. Do you think that is fair and do you want to further clarify what nationalism means to you?
TRUMP: No. To me I don't have to clarify. It means I love the country. It means I'm fighting for the country. I look at two things, globalists and nationalists. I'm somebody that wants to take care of our country because for many, many years, you know this better than anybody, our leaders have been more worried about the world than they have about the United States.
And then leave us in a mess, whether it's the wars, whether it's the economy, whether it's debt, whether it's all of the things that they've done, including putting in the wrong Supreme Court justices, and we've already put two great ones in.
Now, I'm proud of this country and I call that nationalism. I call it being a nationalist and I don't see any other connotation than that. Now, as soon as you make any statement nowadays with the political correctness world, they make a big deal.
I'm not a globalists but I want to take care of the globe, but first I have to take care of our country. I want to help people around the world but we have to take care of our country or we won't have a country, including we have to take care of our country at the border.
INGRAHAM: When you hear people use the phrase anti-Semitism to describe anything connected to you, you have a Jewish daughter, you have grandchildren who are Jewish, what's your reaction to that?
TRUMP: And it just received an award from the state of Israel from Bibi Netanyahu thanking me because I moved the, as you know, the embassy to Jerusalem, making Jerusalem the capital of Israel and I just did that. Now, how many presidents said they were going to do it and they never did it? Many, many presidents.
I won't go over the names but I can tell you every one of them. I can tell you what every one of them said. I just opened up and we opened it up. We didn't just name (ph) it, you know, it is going to take years and years to build and it was going to cost over a billion dollars. I opened up a beautiful building for $400,000, already open, well over a billion dollars and it's opened after four months.
INGRAHAM: And you were criticized for that too. You were criticized at the time I believe for being too pro-Palestinian, and now you're criticized on the other side.
TRUMP: And in fact, this horrible human being, this terrible person tht did the shooting, he was not a Donald Trump fan because he said I was too close to Israel. So, that seemed to be his reasoning. So, I will tell you, I'm going to show you right after, I'm going to show the most beautiful plaque.
It just came. They must have known you were going to be doing this interview, but it was sent by Bibi Netanyahu thanking me for opening the embassy in Jerusalem, which as you know is like the biggest deal.
INGRAHAM: The phrase enemy of the people, another phrase that's been seized upon by many in the media, many in CNN, but not just CNN. There was a woman who was just on CNN a short while ago saying that you have radicalized more people than ISIS. That was CNN today.
TRUMP: Well, that must be some kind of a sick woman. When I say the enemy of the people, I'm talking about the fake news, and you know it better than anybody. You have news out there they are so fake and I can do the greatest thing ever, North Korea as an example.
We would have been going to war. Normally, we would have been going to war with North Korea. I think President Obama would have gone to war. If he had had an extra year he would be in right now a war with North Korea. He told me it was by far -- and I'm not knocking him for this -- he said it is by far his biggest problem.
Look at what we've done and yet when they talk about North Korea they say what's taken so long?
INGRAHAM: But you know they're going to be biased.
TRUMP: This has been -- wait a minute -- this has been going in 70 somewhat years and they say -- I left Singapore where we had our meeting, where we really had a very good meeting and a good relationship, like what four months ago. They say the new line is what's taking so long? I say --
INGRAHAM: Well, how does it help expand your base to call them the enemy of the people? How does it help America heal in times like this?
TRUMP: Because, I'll tell you why, it's a very good question. Before we finished, so we've done a great job with North Korea. Then they said we can't get them on anything because the sanctions are wrong, we got everything, there's no missiles, we got our hostages back. We have the remains coming back -- everything. So now they said he met -- the new line is, I met.
INGRAHAM: Of course.
TRUMP: But listen to this.
INGRAHAM: But why are you expecting they are going to be fair to you? They're never going to be fair to you.
TRUMP: But they were thinking I met, OK. That's the new line. I shouldn't have met, so, you know. And if you go back to before I got here and look like we were going to war, above war with North Korea. So --
INGRAHAM: I was here with Reagan. I refer Reagan, they called him stupid, dumb, slept on the afternoon, incompetent, a warmonger and he always kind o -- he was like -- he had Stealey (ph), but he was --
TRUMP: But he didn't have social media. He would have fought back. He didn't have social media. When they -- it's my form of telling the truth. Here's the problem, we have a lot of supporters. You know that better than anybody. All you have to do is look at your ratings, OK.
But you know it better than anybody, their supporters know that they're lying. I watched "Meet The Press" this weekend. Everything was so falsely put, putting words in people's mouths --
INGRAHAM: Are they trying to hobble you in the midterms because you're the best closer for this party. That's what the Republicans are saying.
TRUMP: Well, 100 percent. They are going at it and I'm getting 25 and 30,000 people to these rallies. Nobody's ever seen it. There has never been anything -- this isn't bragging. There has never been anything like what's happening.
I went to Illinois. You're going to see, a Boeing 747, this massive hanger packed and they had to use a second hanger for the overflow. Nobody has seen anything --
INGRAHAM: Yes.
TRUMP: And always, look what happened for Ted Cruz. He's doing great now. We left Houston, he's now doing great. They don't even talk about that race and his opponent is not very good.
INGRAHAM: The bomber who sent the letters to CNN and Democrats was a fan of yours. He obviously also seems insane, completely insane. So, what do you say about that? You put bomb in quote, they went crazy over that too over the weekend because you used the word bomb in quotes. Would you like to kind of --
TRUMP: No, look. He was insane a long time before -- you look at his medical records, he was insane for a long time. Bernie Sanders had a fan who shot a very good friend of ours, Steve Scalise, and other people. He was a total maniac. Nobody puts his name in the headline, Bernie Sanders, in the headline wit the maniac --
INGRAHAM: In fact, Nancy Pelosi said do not politicize this back at the time.
TRUMP: I was in the headline of "The Washington Post," my name associated with this crazy bomber. Trump bomber or something, but I was in the headline when they got him. They didn't say bomber found, they talked about Trump in the headline.
Now, they didn't do that with Bernie Sanders when he had -- they didn't do that with the Democrats when other people came out. They didn't do that with President Obama with the church, the horrible situation with the church. They didn't do that. They put my name in the headlines.
When I say enemy of the people, I'm talking about the fake news, and it is fake. And the thing is, my people understand. One quick (inaudible), so, a reporter for "The Washington Post" does a story that -- a place that I was doing, an arena was empty and he shows a picture, not a very good crowd Mr. Trump, something to that effect.
And then it turned out that he took the picture five hours before the people started coming into the arena. The arena was packed and there were thousands of people outside. They had to retract it. But this is the kind of dishonesty that we have.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: Part two of my interview with the president is next. His reaction to former President Obama hitting him on the midterm trail and so much more. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Now for more of my interview with President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: Going into some individual races, Florida obviously so important to 2020, but important period. Andrew Gillum against Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis congressman, strong supporter of yours. Over the weekend you called Andrew Gillum, you referenced him being a thief, what did you mean by that?
TRUMP: Well 100 percent. Well, the FBI offered him tickets, said $1,800 a piece and he took them. He took a trip with the same FBI agent I guess he was posing as a developer or something. The man stone cold took the stuff. I don't even think he should be allowed to continue on wit this.
INGRAHAM: He responded today by calling you weak. You are howling because you're weak. That's what he said in a tweet.
TRUMP: I haven't heard that one lately. That's OK. Good, that's a change of pace. Look, here's a guy that in my opinion is a stone cold thief and his city, Tallahassee, is known as the most corrupt in Florida and one of the most corrupt in the nation. He's a disaster and how he's even close to being tied is hard to believe.
But Florida can't have -- if Florida has a governor like that, and I know Florida better than I know practically anywhere. Florida will become Venezuela. It will be a disaster and you have Ron DeSantis, who is a Harvard Yale guy. He's had a really terrific, you know, he's very good person.
He's going to be a very good to a great governor. This other guy is a stone cold, in my opinion, he's a thief. How can you have a guy like this? And you just look at his record. Also, look at the job he's done as the mayor of Tallahassee. He's a total disaster.
INGRAHAM: John James of course, running for senate.
TRUMP: Star.
INGRAHAM: Beto O'Rourke is down in the polls since you came in Texas but John James is only eight or nine points off his senate bid. He's like Army combat veteran. Why do you think he's not getting the play?
TRUMP: He is doing so well that I'm trying to get to Michigan. That's how well John James. John James is a star. African-American, great guy, and you know John James -- he was one of four or five people running and I'm watching television and I see John James and I said who is that guy? He is running in Michigan.
Let me see him again and I said that guy is great, he's a star. Now, she -- I don't know, she is just a clone for -- all she is an automatic vote -- Debbie Stabenow. She has been a disaster for Michigan. She is an automatic vote for Schumer.
John James is a young star and I said I'm going to back him and I backed him. (Inaudible) I backed him and he's taken off. He ends up winning with, you know, not a lot of money, ends up winning the primary and he's doing really well. He's down seven which sounds like a lot but it's nothing because normally they are down 25 or 30.
INGRAHAM: Obama is kind of following you on the campaign trail. He was in Wisconsin --
TRUMP: How is his grass(ph)?
INGRAHAM: Yes, at Wisconsin. He's going to Florida this week and he brought up the issue of the caravan and he said the following.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: They're trying to convince everybody to be afraid of a bunch of impoverished, malnourished refugees a thousand miles away. That's the thing, the most important thing in this election. Not health care, not whether or not folks are able to retire. Suddenly it's this group of folks we don't even know where they are. They're way down there. Don't fall for that kind of fearmongering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: We are scaremongering people on the border.
TRUMP: Yes. Well, he's trying to do the opposite. It's the problem with our country and you look at that caravan and you look largely, very, you know, big percentage of men, young, strong. A lot of bad people, a lot of bad people in there. People that are in gangs.
We don't want them in this country. If they want to come into the country you have to apply like other people. We have millions of people coming in. They apply. They're coming in legally. We have a very strong border. I called up the military. This caravan is not -- they're wasting their time. They are not coming over the country.
INGRAHAM: What is the military going to be able to do? Obama and Bush both sent the National Guard and it had no effect.
TRUMP: But they're not me. They're not me. I'm sending up the military. This is the military and their standing there and one thing that will happen --
INGRAHAM: No lethal force.
TRUMP: -- when they are captured, we don't let them out. What has been happening and we are not as of pretty recently, we are not letting them out. What happens is they would catch and release. We are catching, we are not releasing, so if they want to come over -- we're not even doing that. We're not letting them into this country. We're not going to let gang members --
INGRAHAM: But what if they're applying for asylum? Isn't the law because Congress is changing (ph) the law?
TRUMP: If they are apply for asylum, we are going to hold them until such time is their trial to --
INGRAHAM: Where? Do we have the facilities?
TRUMP: We're going build tent cities. We're going to put tents up all over the place. We are not going to build structures and spend all of these, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. We are going to have tents, they are going to be very nice and they are going to wait and if they don't get asylum they get out. And very few people -- they don't actually -- if you want to wait, they don't usually get asylum. You know that.
INGRAHAM: Eighty percent, the projected.
TRUMP: The problem is they release them in and then they have the trial three years later and nobody shows up. But we are going to -- unlike Obama and unlike others, we are going to take the people, were going to put them in and they're going to wait.
And you know what, two things happen. When they find out that that happens you're going to have far fewer people come up. And also, President Obama separated children from parents. Nobody talks about this.
INGRAHAM: Until a judge came along and said you can't do it.
TRUMP: No. He separated -- no, President Obama separated --
INGRAHAM: No, in the beginning.
TRUMP: OK, just so we all understand --
INGRAHAM: "The New York Times" is saying the military, Mr. President, being called up by you is an election year play. Is this politics or is this real?
TRUMP: We are being invaded. When you look at that, thousands of people. Somebody said, you know, now on that one when they built it down. I'm pretty good at figuring out how many people. Thousands and thousands of people on the bridge when you look at that bridge loaded up with people. That's called an invasion of our country.
This has nothing to do with elections and I've been saying this long before election, I've been saying this before I ever thought of running for office. We have to have strong borders. If we don't have strong borders we don't have a country.
INGRAHAM: Democrats are worried about the Latino vote suddenly. They are worried they're not going to get the numbers.
TRUMP: They should be. They should be. You know why? Because the Latinos, the Hispanic-Americans have the best unemployment numbers and employment numbers in the history of our country. The African-Americans have the best employment and unemployment numbers in the history of our country.
Asians, best employment numbers in the history of our country. Women, 65 years, you know, all of these things, women have the best numbers they've had in 65 years. They should be worried.
INGRAHAM: How are you going to expand into these traditional Democratic areas?
TRUMP: With results.
INGRAHAM: Kanye West spend some time here.
TRUMP: He was great. He was great Jim Brown. They were great.
INGRAHAM: It's fascinating. How big of an effect is West on this push for African-American support?
TRUMP: Well, a person came into my office who does poll numbers, said I do not believe how good these poll numbers are with African-Americans, and you see what's happened with my poll numbers. But here's what also happened. When we have the best employment numbers, the best median income numbers for all of these groups.
I mean, we have the best numbers we've ever had and I sometimes jokingly say it's going to be awfully tough to beat me in a debate when I have the best numbers ever produced. So I think they should be worried. They should be worried about the African-Americans because they are going to lose them.
INGRAHAM: Will you do some events in the inner cities?
TRUMP: I'm doing them. I already have them scheduled.
INGRAHAM: One thing that I think a lot of us are very concerned about is what's happening with the market this year. It's flat for the year, down a little bit, off its record high, both the S&P and the Dow. I know you've complained about the Fed before. How much is cheap credit globally is a part of this problem?
TRUMP: Well, remember this, President Obama had the worst recap that we've ever had since the Great Depression, OK, in terms of coming back. But he was dealing with zero money, zero interest money. We actually created value for money so the people that have money in the bank and did it the way you were supposed to do, they are actually getting interest on the money now.
The Fed is being very tight. Now, in one way you have to say that's very conservative. That's a good thing from the standpoint of conservative. I don't like it because it closes it down a little bit, but we're up. We are up almost 50 percent from the time I got elected, almost 50. In fact, more in some instances and now we are down just a little tiny bit.
We have such a strong -- when you go job numbers, when you go companies moving into our countries. We have so many companies, big ones like Foxconn and like the car companies. They are moving back to Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, North Carolina, they are coming back and nobody's ever seen this. You've never seen it before. They left and they had no intention. We just signed a deal with Mexico and with Canada. We did a new deal with Korea.
INGRAHAM: How about Bolsonaro? You talked to him last night. What can we expect for -- he's called the Trump of South America.
TRUMP: I know. I'm honored. We had a great conversation, and he's now the head of Brazil.
INGRAHAM: A deal, trade deal?
TRUMP: Yes, I could see that happening. You know, Brazil has traded as very tough because they charge very big tariffs. Brazil has been very tough. So, we'll be able to straighten that out, but we have of course what's happening with China. China has been really hurting our country economically. And you see, we are going to win that one. It's going to happen. We're going to win that one.
INGRAHAM: How confident are you about the deal?
TRUMP: I could make a deal right now, I just say they are just not ready.
INGRAHAM: $250 billion additional tariffs if that deal doesn't go through.
TRUMP: $250 billion and have $267 billion waiting to go if we can't make a deal.
INGRAHAM: Are you optimistic? Scale of 1 to 10.
TRUMP: I think that we will make a great deal with China, and it has to be great, because they've drained our country. We have really helped rebuild China. They've been taking out an average of $500 billion, billion, a year for many years. Not going to happen anymore.
INGRAHAM: Who is your dream person to run against in 2020? You've already raised $100 million. Dream, dream candidate to run against?
TRUMP: So far I like them all. I don't see anybody --
INGRAHAM: Hillary, apparently she's not down and out.
TRUMP: I like her, too. I like her, too. I would be very happy with Hillary. I like them all. I don't see anybody that I wouldn't enjoy running against. And that could happen, but I don't see it right now.
INGRAHAM: A couple other questions FOX viewers really want to know. Declassifying those documents, they were kind of kicked over to the inspector general. Why not declassify them, get them all out?
TRUMP: We are getting very close to doing what we have to do. I want to wait until after the election.
INGRAHAM: Why are you and Rod Rosenstein such good friends now? It seems like everything has been settled.
TRUMP: I do get along. But this should have never -- there should have never been a special council, in my opinion. It's an illegal investigation totally. A lot of people agree with me. A lot of people on your show and on other shows agree there was no collusion, there was never any collusion. It shouldn't have ever happened. But with all of that being said, I do get along. And I have made everything available. You know why? Because I have nothing to do with Russia. Hillary was a lousy candidate, and I did a very good job.
INGRAHAM: Are you going to do written questions, written answers?
TRUMP: She didn't go to Wisconsin, she didn't go to Michigan enough. She didn't do what she had to do to win, and it's just one of those things. But we have nothing to do with Russia, and I think you probably know that almost better than anybody.
INGRAHAM: The written questions to Mueller's, written answers to his question?
TRUMP: It's ridiculous that I have to do anything because we didn't do anything. But we will probably do something, yes, where we will respond to some questions.
INGRAHAM: How's Melania doing?
TRUMP: She's doing fantastically, really good. She's doing a great job. Just got back from Africa, and she saw some things that were really eye- opening. And tremendous poverty, tremendous poverty. So we're trying to help.
INGRAHAM: Thank you, sir. Thank you for your time.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Laura.
INGRAHAM: Really appreciate it.
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