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Interview: Jon Stepanek of KTVQ-Q2 News With Donald Trump in Billings, Montana - September 7, 2018
Interview: Jon Stepanek of KTVQ-Q2 News With Donald Trump in Billings, Montana - September 7, 2018
Matt Rosendale
Montana
Canada
United States
Mexico
China
New York Times
people
way
coal
Positive
echo $back_button; ?>
Jon Stepanek
00:00:00 - 00:00:08 (8 sec)
Mr. President, thanks very much for joining us.
Mr. President
thanks
Positive
Donald Trump
00:00:08 - 00:00:10 (3 sec)
Thank you very much, Jon.
John
Jon
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:00:10 - 00:00:18 (7 sec)
It's very nice to have you here in Montana. Obviously, we like to say welcome to Montana --
Montana
Positive
Donald Trump
00:00:18 - 00:00:44 (26 sec)
Well, it was a beautiful scene. It was a great evening. And, as you know, Matt Rosendale is a fantastic person. That's why I'm doing it. I know how good he is. He's got a great heart. I hated to see what Jon Tester did to the Admiral. We have an admiral who's a world class human being , and they lied about him, and they demeaned him and they defamed him, and they, you know, a normal person I would say, they ruined him.
scene
Matt Rosendale
fantastic person
beautiful scene
Positive
Donald Trump
00:00:44 - 00:01:06 (22 sec)
And he'll... he'll be fine. But what they did to him was horrible. What they did to his family. I sort of call it, welcome to the world of politics, but it shouldn't be that way. But what Tester did to him was a terrible, thing terrible terrible thing. So I -- I came here for Matt, and he's a terrific person, really, a terrific person. He'll be a great senator for Montana.
Matt
senator
Montana
terrific person
great senator
Tester
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:01:06 - 00:01:11 (5 sec)
Okay, let's jump in to the news of the day. Good economic numbers out today
Good economic numbers
news
Positive
Donald Trump
00:01:11 - 00:01:11 (0 sec)
Yeah.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:01:11 - 00:01:15 (4 sec)
We saw the jobs report 200,000 plus --
jobs
Neutral
Donald Trump
00:01:15 - 00:01:15 (0 sec)
Right.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:01:15 - 00:01:18 (2 sec)
-- and unemployment rate at 3.9%.
unemployment rate
Negative
Donald Trump
00:01:18 - 00:01:18 (0 sec)
Right.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:01:18 - 00:01:19 (1 sec)
Holding steady there. What do you think?
Positive
Donald Trump
00:01:19 - 00:01:40 (21 sec)
And wages up. The first time in a long time. They said that couldn't be done. Wages up. Full unemployment. It's going to get better. We have tremendous potential. We're opening up our country. We're taking off regulations that are horrible. The big tax cuts, which the people of Montana really appreciate it. I saw that last night, because as soon as I mentioned the word tax cuts, they were going wild.
Montana
big tax cuts
word tax cuts
tremendous potential
Negative
Donald Trump
00:01:40 - 00:02:07 (26 sec)
That was a packed house. That was a beautiful place, by the way, but a packed house, and it's just all happening, but a very big thing this morning that is being covered that way actually, were wages, because wages have gone down for years. You know, I used to tell on the campaign, that for 18, 19 years, people were -- they'd work three or four jobs, they'd go out and just work all the time, and they were making less than they were making 18 and 20 years ago.
packed house
beautiful place
big thing
Negative
Donald Trump
00:02:07 - 00:02:13 (6 sec)
And now wages are finally going up, which is what I really wanted. So, to me, that was the biggest news.
wages
biggest news
Negative
Jon Stepanek
00:02:13 - 00:02:19 (6 sec)
What -- our biggest economic driver in this state is our farm and ranching community --
biggest economic driver
ranching community
Neutral
Donald Trump
00:02:19 - 00:02:20 (1 sec)
Right.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:02:20 - 00:02:32 (12 sec)
-- and we look at a -- an economic driver that's over $2 billion a year, and farm and ranch economy relies on exports.
ranch economy
economic driver
exports
Negative
Donald Trump
00:02:32 - 00:02:33 (1 sec)
That's right.
right
Neutral
Jon Stepanek
00:02:33 - 00:02:38 (4 sec)
And we need a good place for those goods and services to be shipped out.
good place
goods
services
Positive
Donald Trump
00:02:38 - 00:02:38 (1 sec)
Right.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:02:38 - 00:02:42 (3 sec)
There are some farmers and ranchers who are nervous with the new trade agreements looming out there...
new trade agreements
ranchers
farmers
Negative
Donald Trump
00:02:42 - 00:02:44 (3 sec)
But they're with me all the way because they know I'm doing the right thing.
right thing
way
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:02:44 - 00:02:45 (1 sec)
So tell me about it.
Neutral
Donald Trump
00:02:45 - 00:02:53 (7 sec)
I mean, I know exactly what you... and they are, they're a little bit nervous, but they have confidence in me. They have trust in me. We're opening up barriers.
confidence
little bit
barriers
Negative
Donald Trump
00:02:53 - 00:03:08 (16 sec)
You see what I'm doing with Canada as an example. Canada has not treated us well, and big barriers -- they pay -- you know, if there's a 300 percent -- think of it, 300 percent tariff -- if you sell dairy products into Canada.
Canada
300 percent
percent tariff
big barriers
dairy products
Negative
Donald Trump
00:03:08 - 00:03:23 (14 sec)
We're saying, we're not playing this game anymore. They have a tremendous -- you know, if we look at our surplus with Canada, it's not a surplus, it's a huge deficit. So we're changing, and we're being tough, and let them be tough, but we're making -- we're opening up countries.
Canada
huge deficit
surplus
game
Negative
Donald Trump
00:03:23 - 00:03:49 (26 sec)
We're opening up the EU -- that's Europe. We're opening up, probably, we're going to be opening up China. We're in a big, big fight with China. What I love about the folks in Montana, and they are important to you -- but, what I like about the folks in Montana, they know it's not right, what's been happening for many years China has been taken out 500 billion a year from the United States, and they've been rebuilding China. It's been bad for us. So, I'm in a very tough battle.
China
tough battle
big fight
Negative
Donald Trump
00:03:49 - 00:04:03 (15 sec)
We're going to win the battle. We're going to absolutely win it. And what I love about the farmers and ranchers and all of the people in Montana and other states, to be honest with you, because they're all seeing what's happening. We're winning all these battles. We're going to win against China. We're going to win against Canada.
Montana
China
Canada
ranchers
battle
battles
Positive
Donald Trump
00:04:03 - 00:04:18 (15 sec)
We're going to win against everybody, and ultimately it's going to be a win for them too, I assume, because there's got to be a two-way street. But, we have all the cards. Our country has all the cards. We've never had a president that wanted to play the cards. They were willing to accept a bad NAFTA deal.
president
bad NAFTA deal
two-way street
cards
Positive
Donald Trump
00:04:18 - 00:04:41 (23 sec)
If you look at farms over 15 years, before I got here, 15 years, they've been going down. If you look at soybeans and I tell this often, five years before my election, it cut in half, okay?So five years -- before the election, before that great day in November, two years ago, soybeans went down like this. So by the time I got elected, they had dropped 50 percent.
farms
soybeans
election
Negative
Donald Trump
00:04:41 - 00:04:57 (16 sec)
It wasn't good. You know that, and we're opening up markets because they were closing markets, and they were closing in for their farmers, and for other reasons, but they were closing markets. We say if you want to play the game, and if you want to be with the United States, you have to open up your markets to our farmers, to our ranchers.
United States
markets
farmers
Negative
Donald Trump
00:04:57 - 00:05:19 (21 sec)
You have to open up your markets, and the people of Montana, they know that, and you know, know it better than anybody? Matt Rosendale, because he's pushing me: make a great deal for our farmers for for all of our people and for the country. But Matt Rosendale, the first thing he said when I met him last night, is please make a great deal for the farmers.
markets
Matt Rosendale
great deal
farmers
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:05:19 - 00:05:22 (4 sec)
And our ranching community loves Mexico and Canada.
ranching community
Mexico
Canada
Positive
Donald Trump
00:05:22 - 00:05:22 (0 sec)
Right.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:05:22 - 00:05:24 (2 sec)
So they're also looking for you for a deal with Canada.
deal
Canada
Neutral
Donald Trump
00:05:24 - 00:05:46 (21 sec)
They're going to be happy. But we already have a deal with Mexico, which is a much better deal than we had. We had a horrible deal. We were losing a fortune. We were losing $100 billion a year on NAFTA with Mexico. It's just -- what country wants to do that? So now we have a fair deal with Mexico and we very well could have a fair deal very soon with Canada, or maybe not.
Mexico
fair deal
horrible deal
Positive
Donald Trump
00:05:46 - 00:05:53 (8 sec)
And if we don't, we're going to do just fine because we have another alternative that maybe is better to be honest. But we'll see what happens.
alternative
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:05:53 - 00:06:05 (12 sec)
Coal is another big economic driver in this state. We rely on it for state tax income. You're still bullish on coal, even though natural gas option --
big dynamic driver
big economic driver
natural gas option
Negative
Donald Trump
00:06:05 - 00:06:26 (21 sec)
Well, natural gas is good. Well, we need coal also. You know when we need coal too? As a military alternative, because you know they blow up a pipeline that's the end of your natural gas. With coal, you can dump it over there, you have two years supply at your -- at your big plants. You can truck it over the roads that are no longer in existence, you can do a lot of things. So, no coal is very close to my heart.
two years
natural gas
coal
military alternative
Negative
Donald Trump
00:06:26 - 00:06:48 (22 sec)
Clean coal. I won your state by 20 points. I won West Virginia by 42 points. I won every coal state by a lot. And, we just had a rally in West Virginia. It was unbelievable. Same thing as last night. You know, it's really -- it's really pretty much the same everywhere. They like what I'm doing, and coal -- I just looked out the window and there was a train, the longest train, I think, I've ever seen.
West Virginia
Clean coal
coal state
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:06:48 - 00:06:49 (1 sec)
110 cars.
cars
Positive
Donald Trump
00:06:49 - 00:06:55 (6 sec)
And every -- is that a standard thing? Like 110\. Could it be a little bit longer if they wanted? Why is that? Is that an actual standard?
thing
little bit
standard thing
actual standard
Negative
Jon Stepanek
00:06:55 - 00:06:56 (1 sec)
That's what -- that's what they roll.
Neutral
Donald Trump
00:06:56 - 00:07:10 (14 sec)
Oh, really? Okay, well then, it was 110 cars, and every one of them was loaded up with coal. And they say two years ago you wouldn't have seen that scene. So it's pretty good. The coal people like me and I like them, the miners.
coal people
miners
cars
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:07:10 - 00:07:12 (2 sec)
Let's talk about a couple of things current events --
current events
couple
things
Neutral
Donald Trump
00:07:12 - 00:07:13 (1 sec)
Okay. Sure
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:07:13 - 00:07:19 (6 sec)
-- right at this moment. I saw this morning on Twitter you mentioned Bob Woodward's book Fear --
Twitter
Bob Woodward
book Fear
moment
Positive
Donald Trump
00:07:19 - 00:07:20 (1 sec)
Yeah.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:07:20 - 00:07:25 (5 sec)
-- and calling it a sham. What did you see in that... that you didn't like, and...?
sham
Negative
Donald Trump
00:07:25 - 00:07:29 (4 sec)
Yeah, well, I'd say it's a scam, and a sham.
sham
scam
Negative
Jon Stepanek
00:07:29 - 00:07:30 (1 sec)
Okay
Positive
Donald Trump
00:07:30 - 00:07:47 (17 sec)
But I'll tell you what I didn't like him quoted as a fool, because if you look at the way, I don't speak that way. I'm highly educated. I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I don't speak that way. They're giving quotes -- now if these quotes even exist, I don't know.
Wharton School of Finance
Wharton School
way
speak
Positive
Donald Trump
00:07:47 - 00:08:09 (22 sec)
Do they make them up or what? They say they got them from a lot of people. Now, General Mattis, who is highly respected, said he never said that, and he gave the most beautiful renunciation of the book. General Kelly, the same thing. He said I never said that. And he gave -- and if you look, many of my Cabinet people, many of the people that were quoted said they never said that.
Mattis
beautiful renunciation
General Mattis
Cabinet people
Negative
Donald Trump
00:08:09 - 00:08:27 (17 sec)
They never said that, and I actually said in the tweet this morning, I said, look, if I spoke that way I'd never be president. I did it last night. I said if I would act like the way they say, I'd never be in front of you, and I'll speak for an hour to an hour and a half in front of massive crowds, usually without even notes.
president
massive crowds
tweet
way
Negative
Donald Trump
00:08:27 - 00:08:44 (18 sec)
You don't do that unless you are very capable, very, very competent and capable. So these books are terrible, where they can write anything they want. They can make up the most horrible statements. One person said he was in a room, and I was so good. So -- it was this morning he was -- he said I was at that meeting.
person
horrible statements
morning
Negative
Donald Trump
00:08:44 - 00:09:05 (20 sec)
He was so good -- it was a military meeting. But the way they phrase it -- it sounds like a fool. I don't talk that way, and if I did, you would have found it out over the last two years. You would have found that out during the campaign, where I took down 17 Republicans and Hillary Clinton, and I guess you could say Bernie too, because, in a certain way, I had to take him down.
two years
Hillary Clinton
military meeting
certain way
Negative
Donald Trump
00:09:05 - 00:09:08 (3 sec)
But I beat everybody and beat him badly.
everybody
Negative
Donald Trump
00:09:08 - 00:09:32 (24 sec)
A -- a foolish person wouldn't be able to do that. They would have been long gone. So, books are -- I've had some very good books written. Judge Jeanine. So many of them have come out, Greg. I'll tell you the book on the whole Mueller investigation, that the scam of Russia, this whole scam that's going on. There's no collusion.
Russia
foolish person
Judge Jeanine
Mueller investigation
Negative
Donald Trump
00:09:32 - 00:09:47 (15 sec)
Very interesting, in the book. They hardly talk about collusion. You know why -- and he would have loved to because that's his business right? You know why they don't talk about it, because there was no collusion with Russia. So, I'm -- overall I have to say the publicity we've been getting has been really good.
Russia
collusion
publicity
book
Negative
Donald Trump
00:09:47 - 00:09:53 (6 sec)
This letter that was written to The New York Times, with -- nobody knows who it is.
New York Times
letter
Neutral
Jon Stepanek
00:09:53 - 00:09:53 (0 sec)
Right
Positive
Donald Trump
00:09:53 - 00:09:58 (5 sec)
I think it's really turned around and hurt The New York Times. It makes them look so bad.
The New York Times
New York Times
Negative
Jon Stepanek
00:09:58 - 00:10:00 (2 sec)
You'd like to know who it was.
Positive
Donald Trump
00:10:00 - 00:10:23 (23 sec)
Oh but I think it's... but I think it's a disgrace, because normally, if somebody wants to write something bad, that's okay, because you can go back at them and you debate the issue, and somebody comes out on top. You don't know who this person is. It may be a low level person just writing a letter. You know, we have thousands of people working over there. So I think it actually has turned to a point where The New York Times is looking very foolish.
The New York Times
low level person
New York Times
somebody
Negative
Jon Stepanek
00:10:23 - 00:10:24 (1 sec)
All right.
right
Positive
Donald Trump
00:10:24 - 00:10:25 (1 sec)
And very bad.
Negative
Jon Stepanek
00:10:25 - 00:10:34 (9 sec)
One last one, just to kind of give us a sense of the State of the Union, and people seem to be divided in our country right now.
kind
sense
State
Neutral
Donald Trump
00:10:34 - 00:10:35 (0 sec)
Yeah.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:10:35 - 00:10:37 (3 sec)
And I'm sure that that weighs heavily on you.
Positive
Donald Trump
00:10:37 - 00:10:38 (0 sec)
Yeah.
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:10:38 - 00:10:42 (4 sec)
Tell me about how you look at trying to bridge that.
Negative
Donald Trump
00:10:42 - 00:10:59 (17 sec)
Well, it's a very interesting and a good question, because, in one way, it's the strongest we've ever been. The economy is the best we've ever been. Your coal miners are coming back like never before, you know that, they were -- they were out of business, but if I didn't win, they were out of business, there would be no more coal taken out of the ground.
strongest
coal miners
good question
business
Positive
Donald Trump
00:10:59 - 00:11:17 (18 sec)
I've taken regulations off by the hundreds and hundreds, and I've been thanked by everybody from the miners, to the owners of the mines that were going out -- literally -- out of business. We're doing fantastically, financially. We're doing fantastically militarily. We're doing well in every single way, other than there is a tremendous hatred.
tremendous hatred
single way
hundreds
Positive
Donald Trump
00:11:17 - 00:11:42 (25 sec)
I watch Judge Kavanaugh, who is central casting, a great intellect, top student at Yale. We just went through Justice, now Justice Gorsuch, number one in this class at Harvard. Number one in his class at Oxford. And it was nasty, but not as nasty as this one. And we have a man who is just an extraordinary man, a great intellect.
Kavanaugh
great intellect
Judge Kavanaugh
central casting
Positive
Donald Trump
00:11:42 - 00:12:02 (20 sec)
And I think, frankly, the other side's making fools out of themselves. But the level of hatred, the level of animosity, it's hard to believe. So, if I was going to say there's any one problem in this country, it is definitely that you have two sides and there's great division and there shouldn't be that division.
animosity
fools
level
Negative
Donald Trump
00:12:02 - 00:12:17 (15 sec)
But it seems no matter what you do no matter, how good -- look, wages are going up, such a big thing. Numbers are great. The stock market is at an all-time high. There's more people working in the United States today than ever before. Think of that, ever before, we have more people working.
United States
big thing
all-time high
stock market
Positive
Donald Trump
00:12:17 - 00:12:45 (28 sec)
African-American employment, you know, as you know is doing great. Asian employment, Hispanic employment, women's employment. Every single every single stat is fantastic. The only thing -- you hit it -- the only thing that troubles me is when you see an economy doing so well, the country doing so well and yet there's this level of division and hatred, and that's a shame. And maybe we can do something about it. I hope so.
single stat
African-American employment
Hispanic employment
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:12:45 - 00:12:46 (2 sec)
One more shout out to the people of Montana.
shout
Positive
Donald Trump
00:12:46 - 00:13:10 (24 sec)
Well, you're very special people. I want to thank you for that 20-point victory. And I will say this: Matt Rosendale is a winner. Successful, really loves you, loves this state. He's going to be a fantastic Senator. Jon Tester has done some very bad things, and things that cannot be rewarded especially, in hurting a great human being like the Admiral.
people
20-point victory
Matt Rosendale
fantastic Senator
Positive
Donald Trump
00:13:10 - 00:13:25 (15 sec)
He's a doctor, and he's an admiral, and he was hurt really badly by Jon Tester. And it all turned out to be false. So we want Matt Rosendale, and it's very important that he wins, and it's very important because Tester will never vote for any of our agenda.
admiral
Jon Tester
Matt Rosendale
Negative
Donald Trump
00:13:25 - 00:13:37 (11 sec)
When we talk about Second Amendment, when we talk about all of the things that we talk about -- even when we talk about coal and regulations, he will never vote for us. He's always going to stay with Schumer and Pelosi, always.
Schumer
Amendment
coal
Negative
Donald Trump
00:13:37 - 00:13:42 (5 sec)
So I just say: vote for Matt Rosendale.
Matt Rosendale
vote
Neutral
Jon Stepanek
00:13:42 - 00:13:42 (1 sec)
Alright, thank you very much.
Positive
Donald Trump
00:13:42 - 00:13:43 (1 sec)
Very good. Thank you. Great job.
Great job
Positive
Jon Stepanek
00:13:43 - 00:13:44 (1 sec)
Thank you.
Positive