Mr. President, let me get right to the most important question I'm gonna ask you today. Tell me, how good is your press secretary? Well, I think she's -- perhaps one of the most talented I've ever known. She's -- and actually, first of all, your daughter is a great person. She is a great human being and she stepped in, and it's not easy. You know you have a lot of haters out there screaming questions. When I look at those people, they're just hating.They never thought this was gonna happen and it happened for a lot of good reasons, but she has done it with brilliance and with coolness and we're very, very happy with the jump she's doing Sarah's a very exceptional person. Just know that you did a good job. Your wife did a better job. My wife did a better job. And just know that we will forever vote for you for having just said that. I understand. I understand. You've had a tough week. Puerto Rico, going to Las Vegas this week to deal with the most horrific kind of this -- just horrible crime that's killed 59 people. When you were there yesterday, there was a moment in which a young man who had been shot in the leg. He went to his hospital room, you and the first lady, and he stood despite the leg wound, and he said "I always stand for my president." That's right. Fine young man. Tell me about that. He was badly hit in the leg, badly hit. He, and others, I have to say, because there's great respect for the office and actually many of the folks, those two young women, one hit in the back and the bullet went just over her heart. She was hit in the back, right here. Just went over her heart, just by an inch, and so many of them support what I do. They support me from the Evangelical-Christian standpoint. They support me from so many different -- now I was so honored that this young man got up and his leg was in bad shape, but he refused to lay down in bed, and don't forget it only happened like two days before, and it was very nice to see, but we had that from everybody, the hospital, hospital workers, they have done such an incredible job. The sheriff and the Las Vegas metropolitan police, the job they've done out there has been really incredible. You know, they got to that room very quickly. Now, they didn't get in because they were playing all sorts of things they didn't know or their bombs and their what, but they kept his attention, he stopped shooting. In other words, he was focused because you had cameras out there. This was a sick person, but probably smart and he had cameras, but they got there so quickly and they really did, you know, they have to be given credit. Also, though, the hospital, I saw people that were, you know, the hospital was full and at -- before the event, before this horrible event, and then all of a sudden these people came in by the hundreds in the hospital, and all of the hospitals did a fantastic job. So I was very proud of them. When you run for President, you obviously run to say, "I want to change the tax policy, healthcare policy, relationships with foreign governments." You have a hundred things that you can paint on. Right. Nobody runs for President saying, "I will be able to offer consolation in the time of a crisis." And yet, in the early months of your presidency, you have been called on time and time again, hurricane Irma, hurricane Maria. All of these issues. How -- how difficult is it to step into that role when it's really, you're representing 330 million Americans to -- to show your support and consolation for the rest of the country to these people? It's such a great question. Now in one way, it's a wonderful thing because you're helping people and if you feel you're a better manager and you can get people out and do it better, you know, we've had disasters that turned out to be bigger disasters, and they should have been -- when you look at Katrina, when you look at some of the other hurricanes as an example. But we started with Texas and Louisiana. Don't forget, Louisiana got hit hard, and I went to Texas, and I went to Louisiana, and met the people and I think it helped and we got very high marks, we got eight pluses, and then before we had a chance to even breathe, we had a big one hit, Florida, a big one, a vicious one, and it also happened to get Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but to a much lighter extent and then the following week, Puerto Rico got hit. And we got really high marks on Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and I think, I did at least, as well on Puerto Rico. The problem is that Puerto Rico was in bad shape before the hurricanes ever got there, I mean, their grid was virtually -- their electric company was a disaster, their grid, their electric grid was down, they were -- they've, got a lot of problems, and on top of that, they got hit with two hurricanes, not one. In fact, I was supposed to go to Puerto Rico the day of the second hurricane I decided. Maybe I have to wait a little bit, but we're working with the people of Puerto Rico. It is a really tough. I mean, they had 200 mile an hour winds. It just -- it just ripped the place apart, but we're working with them and I'll tell you the job that the first responders, and FEMA, and the Navy, and the Army, Air Force Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, the Coast Guard in Texas and all over, but with the job they did in Texas, I said they saved 16,000 lives, 16,000 lives. I mean, they were going right up against that massive hurricane, and if you remember it went in and out, in and out, three times. And every time it went in that be right next to it saving people, and Coast Guard really was amazing, but all of them were incredible. So in one sense, you hate to see it in, another sense, you feel you can do a good job, you're really helping people, so it makes you feel good. There was so much of effusive praise for your visit to Puerto Rico, by the governor, by most of those mayors who said, "We've never seen this level of response from the federal government." This juxtaposed against some of the media, trying to say that you weren't attentive, but the people on the ground, the ones who were actually in the middle... Right. Thought your response was pitch perfect. Is that frustrating to you? It is. That you get it great from the local officials who actually know but different from the media? Well, it is, and we'll say this, it's fake news. It's -- there's nothing else you can say about it. I went to Puerto Rico, I came back, we had an incredible day. The governor is a terrific guy, who was praising the job we've done. He's a Democrat. And he said Democrat. Almost every mayor -- I think, there's over seventy, were praising us. In fact, I was with one of the mayor's who was a terrific person and we visited various homes and people that got hurt, but if they're going to be fine, and they were praising us. The congresswoman was terrific. Single congresswoman, represents, you know, Jennifer González-Colón, she represents 3.5 million people, actually the most of any congress person, but she has been incredible in her praise of the job we've done. So almost everybody, other than we have a mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who didn't attend meetings, who didn't work with FEMA, who really did not do a very good job, in fact, did a very poor job, and she was the lone voice that we saw and, of course, that's the only voice the media wanted to talk to.The -- and she's running for governor. Just -- you know, big surprise. I know you're shocked to hear that she's running for governor, but she's not a capable person. And my people were telling me that to start off with. So we did a great job and we weren't treated fairly by the media because we really did a good job. I mean, one example, they had these beautiful soft towels, very good towels, and I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people and they were screaming and they were loving everything and we were -- I was having fun, they were having fun, they said, "Throw them to me, throw them to me, Mr. President." and so, I'm doing some of the -- so the next day they said, "Oh, it was so disrespectful to the people." It was just a made-up thing. And also when they had -- when I walked in, the cheering was incredible. You were a rock star. I saw a video of it. It was crazy. The cheering was -- it was deafening. They turned down the sound so that you just heard the announcers, "Donald Trump" and I mean, look, the media's fake. In the meantime, I'm here, it's sort of amazing. So I'm here, and I some ask myself, "How did I ever get here with the horrible, unfair publicity." and I don't mind. Look, if it's fair -- if I do something wrong, treat me badly, but when we're doing good, it should be fair. The media is, is really the word. I think one of the greatest of all terms I've come up with is, fake. I guess other people have used it perhaps over the years, but I've never noticed it, and it's a shame. And they really hurt the country because they take away the spirit of the country. We're doing so well in so many ways and nobody talks about. I'll give you an example, the stock market today hit an all-time high. Unemployment is the lowest it's been in almost 17 years. You look at the enthusiasm for business and manufacturing, is the highest it's ever been in the history of these various indicators that do it, that's I think, 28 years, but decades, the enthusiasm. Companies are moving in, you read the other day, car companies are moving plants back to Michigan and back to the United States. So many things are happening, people don't want to talk about it. The media doesn't want to talk about it. So I was disappointed with what happened, very disappointed with what happened in Puerto Rico, from the standpoint of the media, but the people of Puerto Rico they got it, and they really -- I mean, you saw the love. There was love in Puerto Rico, for the fact that I went there. One thing that has become very apparent, is that in moments like that, one of your greatest assets is the First Lady. Yeah. People love her and her empathy just exudes forth, and you could see that she was connecting so personally with so many people. Does it sometimes bother you that she has fantastic approval ratings that are soaring above anybody else in the entire City of Washington? She is very popular. Yes, she is. Now -- now that people -- people really didn't -- she's a very private person and honestly, she loved her other life. You know, her other life was a good life before I decided to do this. And she has -- and she really did, she's a private per-, she doesn't need this. She doesn't need to -- you know, be adored by people, but she does like to help people, and she sees how important it is, and she -- and she's taking tremendous abuse. I mean, she goes and wants to look at a respect for the White House wants to look good, leaving the front entrance to the White House. So she dresses up and she puts on formal shoes, high-heels and she leaves the White House going to Texas or going to wherever we want to go. Florida, actually, twice. So walking through that front doors she did. Now, she has sneakers, in the meantime, with her, so she can change and to other clothing when were walking through, you know, a hurricane, were hurricane is just leaving, and she took tremendous abuse, but the good news is the people understand it. So I was making a speech, and women are holding up, "We love your stilettos, we love you." You know, they really do. They love her, and she's a very good person. It's amazing how she's taken to this, but she's taken to it because she loves to help people. We walked through hospital rooms, a lot of hospital rooms yesterday, and it was incredible to see people that were just for no reason were, you know, shot through the back, shot on the forehead, sho- It's -- it's just one of the really horrible acts, but they were so happy to see both of us, but there was so happy to see her, and so she understands that she really sees it's very important being the First Lady. You have a lot of things out there on the horizon, including North Korea and Kim Jong-un, or is -- you like to call him Rocket Man, which I thought was a freak monic... Yeah. Little Rocket Man, yeah. It's a... But one question that I'd love to find out, I mean, there's one American who has seemingly had a better relationship with this Korean leader than anybody, Dennis Rodman. Yeah. Have you called upon him? Asking him to be, sort of, a secret ambassador to go to North Korea? Well, you know, my attitude on him is that for almost 30 years, through numerous administrations, I mean, if you look at President Clinton, paid billions of dollars, gave them billions more and the day after the agreement was done, he was,you know, meaning his father was the same thing over many years, but same attitude. I think this one's the worst of the group, but they started doing what they were doing, and now we got to a point they should have been handled 25 years ago, should have been handled 10 years ago. It should have been handled during the Obama administration. I mean, the truth is, Mike, I was handed a mess, not only there. I was handled a -- handed a mess in the Middle East, just a total mess, and you see how well we're doing with ISIS. You see how well we're doing overall in terms of that, but, you know, if it weren't to me I would have not gone into Iraq. That was a big mistake. That was one of the truly big mistakes in the history of our country, because it was like throwing a rock in the hornet's nest, but Obama should have never gotten out the way he got out. That's how ISIS formed. It formed in the vacuum, and I was given things that are tough, but I'm getting them done, I'm getting them done. We have a great military. We're going to be doing record numbers in terms of orders of new equipment and new everything. You see the budget and what took place just recently with respect to almost $800 billion for the military, this year, 800 billion, and we have to have a very strong military. Maybe now almost warm and look, obviously there was some pretty tough times, but almost more than any other time, we need a great military, and the people in the military from top to bottom are incredible. So many I know, I've become friends with, they're working for the country, I get to know them. The generals, these are great people. You mentioned the Middle East. Evangelicals are very interested in support for Israel. Yes. Something near and dear to your heart. You've campaigned on it. You're the first American President to ever go as a sitting President to the Western Wall. Ambassador Friedman recently indicated that the embassy will be moved to Jerusalem. Do we have a time frame? Or do we... Well, we're going to make a decision in the not-too-distant future. Right now, we are actually working on a plan that everybody says will never work, because for many many years it's never worked. They say it's the toughest deal of all, is peace between Israel and the Palestinians. So we're going to work that, and if that doesn't work, which is possible that it won't, to be totally honest, I mean, most people say it's an impossible deal. I don't think it is impossible and I think it's something that can happen, and I think it's something that -- I'm not making any predictions, but I want to give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem, so we'll see. But as you know I'm very, very strong on Israel and I want to see if we can make peace. If we can make peace between the Palestinians and Israel. I think it'll lead to ultimately peace in the Middle East, which has to happen. I went to Saudi Arabia, as the guest with 54 Muslim countries. It was maybe the most incredible two days that I've ever witnessed, I've ever been a part of, and there was a lot of love being brought together, and so many of those leaders of various countries, Kings and Amirs. So many of them would tell me and unrelated, this wasn't, you know, getting together and let's say this, that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is so important that it can really lead to peace in the Middle East. So we'll see what happens because the Middle East, when I took over with a mess, and it's much less of a mess now but we have problems. The Iran deal is terrible, should have never been made. It shouldn't ne- It leads to nuclear weapons for Iran in a short period of time. And so well see what's going to be happening with that in the not-too-distant future, but we are making a lot of progress on a lot of different fronts. Will we get rid of the Iran deal? Keep it, modify it? I won't say that, because, you know, one, there are a few days from now, almost a week and I have to be exact, you'll see exactly, but I can tell you I'm very unhappy with the deal, I'm very unhappy with their attitude. The spirit of the deal certainly is not there because they're all over the place causing trouble. They are literally causing trouble predominantly in the Middle East. I believe they're funding North Korea, I believe they are trading with North Korea, I believe they're doing things with North Korea that is totally inappropriate. That doesn't pertain to the deal, but in my opinion, it does, because it's called the spirit of a deal and you will see what I will be doing in the not too distant future. But Iran is a bad player and they will be taken care of as a bad player. On the domestic front, taxes front and center, the Republicans have got to come up with this, I mean, this is every single Republican has campaigned to reform and reduce taxes. Are you confident that this time they will get this lift done? Well, I'm very disappointed with a few people, because, honestly, we have some great people in the Republican Party and they're getting hurt because of a few people that wouldn't raise their hand for health care. And we're gonna get health care too, we're gonna get health care. We'll have health care before the election, but we're gonna get health care, and block granting the money back to the states. So the states can take much better care. It's a smaller form of government. It's, you know, in theory, I want to focus on North Korea. I want to focus on Iran. I want to focus on other things. I don't want to focus on fixing somebody's back, or their knee, or something, let the states do that the, states should. So the Block Grant concept is a very good concept and if you have good management, good governors, good politicians in the state, it'll be phenomenal. If you don't, it's like everything else. So we are -- I could almost say we are just about there in terms of the vote. So I expect to be getting health care approved. But I'm disappointed. I thought that when I ran, you know, I've been hearing like you for seven years, repeal and replace, repeal and -- for seven years I was a civilian, I wasn't even thinking about doing this. I was doing my nice buildings all over and I was leading a very nice life. believe me. And then I decided to do the -- and so for two years I've been saying we're going to repeal and replace. That's what's going to happen, we will repeal it replace, but I thought that when I got to the Oval Office, I would have a bill sitting on my desk, repeal and replace a beautiful Health Care Bill, and it didn't happen. But remember, it didn't happen because of a lot of Republicans, It didn't ha- You know, that happened, that horrible thing happened because of a few people. Really, a few people. And the problem we have is we have 52 senators and they have to get rid of the just absolutely crazy voting, where you need 60 -- it's called the filibuster rule. It's a disaster. Okay, it's a disaster for the Republicans. They have to get rid of it. If they don't get rid of it, It's just a death sentence. And we should go back to a majority, and we'll get the votes one after another. But if you need right now, you need eight, and we can do that, we can do that, we did it with respect to the judges. That's why proudly we have Justice Gorsuch on the bench. If we didn't have that, you wouldn't have justice courses, who's been great and he, by the way, he's -- he's been incredible in the months that he's been there already people are saying it's -- he's going to be fantastic for many years to come, maybe for 40 years and maybe for longer than that, but we have to get rid of the filibuster rule. If they don't do it -- and that's not me, that's them. Some of these people say that, you know, they want to keep it for -- it's almost like old times sake. Well, if you really go back to 17, it was 1789 that they started taking the votes, and that was a majority, a simple majority. You get 50%, you get above 50%. So we have something where you need 60 votes and we have 52 people, and If you have 52 you always have one or two that no matter what you do they're gonna vote against you, no matter what you do. So I told Mitch McConnell the other day and, you know, frankly, he's at this point, he's not there, I'll be honest with you. But there are close to 300 bills sitting right now in the Senate, and you need Democrat support, and you're Just not gonna get it. You know, it's very obstructionist, you're not gonna get it. And they have to do something about the 60 votes. They have to get it down to the 51, and if they do that, they can actually pass legislation, which is a good thing, and why they're not doing it, I'm not sure how you feel about it, I've never asked you. You probably agree with me. I do. But if they want to pass these bills, like we have some great laws. Kate's law. Yesterday, you know, what passed having to do with abortion. Right. Right to life. It was a big thing. They're not gonna get it passed because you're not going to get eight Democrats to vote for it. But there are literally hundreds of different bills that we'll never see any light. It won't happen. So they they must do something with what's called the filibuster rule. We're talking about the economy, and you mentioned before, lowest unemployment numbers in 17 years, highest stock market, which means retired teachers and retired police officers, actually have a retirement fund now that is worth something. Right. But in tax reform, this would be a rocket fuel for the economy and you've already seen almost a tripling of the GDP. Just since the beginning of the year, that's huge. How does reducing taxes and reforming taxes transfer into an economic boom? So, I mean, this is the thing I love. I love this. This is my wheelhouse and I understand it so well and I actually got to understand health care. I had, you know, thousands of employees in my other world and my other life, so I knew health care anyway, but this is something that is just -- I believe this is going to work so easily because, basically, we're cutting taxes and these people, these incredible people with the highest tax nation in the world, these incredible people that we have are treated unfairly. The -- the companies within our country are treated unfairly and frankly, they're leaving, they leave, they're starting to come back with me. Already, they're starting to come back because of the enthusiasm, love, because they think this is going to happen. We are going to have more money to spend. It's like handing people money, we're gonna have more money to spend on buying product and on doing things. And we're gonna do -- it's gonna be very, very special. I mean, just one element, we have more than $3 trillion overseas. You can't bring it back because of the tax rules and the tax, frankly, the tax rates. Nobody would ever do it under our plan. And in all fairness to the Democrats, for years the Democrats have said bring it back, and some of the Republicans, and they could never work it out, it's pretty sad. In other words, they all agree, bring it back. Who wouldn't agree? You have maybe $3 trillion overseas, outside of this country. Let's all bring it back. Everybody agrees. They'd never got it done, because there was nobody to tell them to get it done. So we're putting that as our plan. We'll bring trillions of dollars back, but most importantly, its tax cuts. We're going to be cutting taxes of people and I'm really focused on the middle class, and I'm really focused on companies, because companies create jobs, so we're gonna have the largest tax cut ever, and I think it's going to, you know, we hit, as you know, 3.1 GDP last quarter. Everybody was shocked. They said it wouldn't happen for years. I hit -- and a lot of that had to do with all of the regulations that were cut and we've cut more regulations than any President in history, and we have a long way to go. And I believe in regulation, you need certain regulations, we want immaculate crystal-clear water, we want clean air, all of those things, but we've cut more regulations than any President in history by far, it's not even a contest, okay, and this is all now getting our economy going. So we hit, as you know, 3.1 and you were shocked by the number, everybody was shocked by the number and, frankly, the quarter coming up other than the hurricanes, which believe it or not, are a big drag. We would have been even higher, in my opinion. We would have been even higher, and we'll still do very well but, you know, we had these hurricanes are very costly, they're very, very big and they're very nasty, and they're very costly. So we are doing really well. The tax cut will be -- it will be fantastic, and all of that money will be coming back in and will flow back into the economy, and I'll tell you what, we'll hit numbers that we have never hit before. Mr. President, your press secretary was telling me I've got to wrap this up. Oh, good. Well she's the boss. You know, she's a -- she's pretty tough with me. So, a real quick, final question. In the tax package, is it possible, rather than wrap it all into one great, big bill that gives everyone an excuse to not vote for it saying, "Oh, I'm for 99 of the hundred things." Right. Will it possibly be done a la carte, where each piece of it, and force these guys to say yes or no to each element of the tax plan? We could do that. For instance, it would be easier, believe it or not. You know, the Democrats want to raise taxes because they want programs that many people don't want. They want a big increase in taxes and we want a big cut in taxes. So for business, we could do it much easier, if it was separate, but I don't like that because I think it looks unfair to people in the country. You know, the business. Now, even though it's going to create jobs they're not looking into that way. So I want to do it this way, could we do it that way? Absolutely. Some people prefer doing it that way. I think you would agree, if we can get it, doing it the way we're doing it is better, because I want to give the middle income people in this country. And this is not a tax for the rich. Now, everybody's going to benefit. But this is what we're focused on more than anything and even more so, we're actually adding things in as we speak, because you know the plans being adjusted etc, but this is for the middle class. So the answer is, yes. it would be easier if I cut it down into the middle income people or the working people, as I call them, because they are, they're working people. If I do that, and business would be easier, but I'd like to do it as one. Mr. President, you've been very generous with your time. I appreciate opportunity to come and visit with you. You're, our very first guest on our very first show. It's very nice. I can't think of any better way to start it. And I'm so grateful. Thank you so very much. And thank you for your support over the years. You've been so fantastic. You are most welcome. Thank you. Appreciate it.