Transcript - Interview: Donald Trump Calls in to Fox Business' Mornings With Maria - June 26, 2019 | Factba.se

Maria Bartiromo

00:00:00 - 00:00:07 (8 sec)

Joining me right now by phone in a Fox Business exclusive is President Donald J. Trump. Mr. President, thank you so much for joining me this morning.

Donald Trump

00:00:07 - 00:00:09 (1 sec)

Good morning, Maria.

Maria Bartiromo

00:00:09 - 00:00:21 (13 sec)

So I want to get to China, obviously the markets are waiting so -- on every word that happens during your meeting. But first let me get your reaction to Mueller testifying after that subpoena.

Donald Trump

00:00:21 - 00:00:44 (22 sec)

Well my reaction is it never ends, we had no obstruction, we had no collusion, we had a report that was -- you know, considering it had 18 people that hated Donald Trump and you had Mueller that obviously was not a Trump fan, not a Trump person, how these people were picked is, you know, by itself incredible.

Donald Trump

00:00:44 - 00:01:14 (30 sec)

And yet the report is no collusion, no obstruction, which was ruled on by our great attorney general. He's great, he's doing a fantastic job in many other ways too. But he ruled on it, he read it, he saw it and he ruled on the report and based on the report there was no obstruction whatsoever. And of course it's hard to have obstruction when you have no crime, we can also add that, he didn't rule on that basis, he just ruled on it that there's no obstruction.

Donald Trump

00:01:14 - 00:01:20 (6 sec)

But you had no event. You didn't have crime, you had crime on the other side, OK, if you want to know the truth.

Maria Bartiromo

00:01:20 - 00:01:37 (18 sec)

Well actually some of the Republicans -- the Republican congressmen on those committees want to ask him about the Steele dossier, they want to ask him when he first knew that there was no collusion and why he didn't look at the connections between Hillary Clinton having paid for that dossier which as we know was nonsense.

Donald Trump

00:01:37 - 00:02:04 (27 sec)

Look, you had people spying on my campaign, that's very simple, OK. Before I used to say it could have been, you had people spying on my campaign, it's probably the first time in history it's happened. They got caught and they're running around going wild trying to do everything they can. But they spied on my campaign, it's as simple as that, it's so illegal it's probably the biggest political scandal in history and they got caught doing it and it was a reverse -- it was really a reversal of sorts.

Donald Trump

00:02:04 - 00:02:07 (3 sec)

But it's a horrible thing that happened.

Maria Bartiromo

00:02:07 - 00:02:08 (1 sec)

So how far up the chain --

Donald Trump

00:02:08 - 00:02:21 (12 sec)

The Republicans get it, the Republicans have been totally unified. They get it fully. Lindsey Graham is beside himself, he looks at things that happened, he can't even believe what happened. He looks -- he cannot believe it. And --

Maria Bartiromo

00:02:21 - 00:02:27 (7 sec)

Well we've reported on that for the last three years, you know that Mr. President, we knew it as well on this program and I was very vocal about it.

Donald Trump

00:02:27 - 00:02:29 (2 sec)

Oh I know. You knew it before anybody.

Maria Bartiromo

00:02:29 - 00:02:30 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:02:30 - 00:02:47 (17 sec)

I think you knew it before anybody. I know very well, I watch your program, in fact we set markets, we have to be extremely careful because I'm looking at that market up 113 so we just have to be careful that that ticker doesn't go up or down too much with this call. We want to be nice and even. We'll be very even keeled.

Maria Bartiromo

00:02:47 - 00:03:04 (17 sec)

So let me ask you about that, because the markets are trading higher because apparently there's this more optimism about your meeting this week with Xi Jinping. What would be victory to you, what do you want to see, what do you want the Chinese to do in terms of a trade deal?

Donald Trump

00:03:04 - 00:03:20 (16 sec)

Well we had a deal with them, and it was very close, we were just finishing it -- you know my whole life is deals, I know what we had and what we don't. Like Mexico, we made a deal with Mexico, they've been so helpful at the border. For 45 years they've been trying to make a deal with Mexico, I made a deal with Mexico.

Donald Trump

00:03:20 - 00:03:38 (19 sec)

It's a great deal, but it's a great deal for Mexico too. They're cleaning out the whole system because they have very strong immigration laws and they're using their military, they're using their people. And you have to see the flows have really stopped. They put 6,000 people on their southern border, now they've moved 16,000 people to our border.

Donald Trump

00:03:38 - 00:04:04 (26 sec)

They weren't even -- really they didn't have to do that. They do have to do a good job, otherwise I'm going to a tariff system, but they didn't have to do that and they did and you have to see the numbers, when the numbers start coming out, you know, reflective of what they're doing. But the Democrats are doing much more to hurt us -- I mean they're killing us on the border because they are not doing -- little things that are so easy -- asylum we could fix it so easy.

Donald Trump

00:04:04 - 00:04:13 (8 sec)

We could fix loopholes so easy, they don't want to do it because they think open borders is a good thing where crime and trafficking and drugs pour into the country.

Maria Bartiromo

00:04:13 - 00:04:17 (5 sec)

Yes, you've said it. The Mexican government is doing more than Democrats to help the crisis at the border.

Donald Trump

00:04:17 - 00:04:28 (10 sec)

They are -- they are indeed. They're doing far more than Democrats but -- but with we had a deal, and it was a deal that was -- was really close to being done it was almost done.

Maria Bartiromo

00:04:28 - 00:04:36 (8 sec)

Mnuchin said you were 90 percent there. Mnuchin said you were 90 percent there. Are you 90 percent there now or you were 90 percent there before they reneged?

Donald Trump

00:04:36 - 00:04:55 (19 sec)

Look, they know what we have to have and if we don't have intellectual property theft protections and we don't have the opening of China. You know China is not open. We're open but China is not open, so if we don't have the opening of China, if we don't have the things that were negotiated and maybe even more than that.

Donald Trump

00:04:55 - 00:05:28 (34 sec)

Look, right now we are getting 25 percent on $250 billion worth of goods; nobody ever heard of such a thing. It's massive amounts of money. Don't play -- don't let anyone tell you that we're paying. We're not paying, China's paying for it. China has devalued their currency in order to pay for it. They've devalued their currency and they're pouring money into their economy and pouring money into these companies which generally are Chinese owned indirectly or directly, and we're not paying anything for it. So they're paying us 25 –you know our consumer.

Donald Trump

00:05:28 - 00:05:43 (14 sec)

They always say China is different than other countries in some other countries that can happen, but I view tariffs differently than a lot of other people. And by the way, since tariffs have been on, our market has gone through the roof if you know what I'm talking about. I mean you never -- remember me saying about tariffs.

Donald Trump

00:05:43 - 00:05:48 (5 sec)

Since tariffs have gone on, I made the deal with Mexico only because of tariffs.

Maria Bartiromo

00:05:48 - 00:05:48 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:05:48 - 00:06:09 (22 sec)

We've been trying for 45 years to make a deal including me for the last year and I could get nowhere. When the tariffs were -- I was ready to put them in. They were supposed to start on Monday. We made the deal in one day that they couldn't make -- people couldn't make it in 45 years. Now when tariffs go on, we took in China -- so we're taking in billions and billions of dollars.

Donald Trump

00:06:09 - 00:06:33 (24 sec)

We never took in $0.10. Now you have another $325 billion that I haven't taxed yet. It's ripe for taxing, for putting tariffs on. This never happened to China. Now what is happening is people are moving out of China. Companies are moving out of China. By the way, some are coming back to the United States because they don't want to pay the tariff, et cetera, et cetera.

Donald Trump

00:06:33 - 00:06:35 (2 sec)

But it's been an incredible thing.

Maria Bartiromo

00:06:35 - 00:06:35 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:06:35 - 00:07:02 (27 sec)

Am I happy now? Absolutely. Now I would do additional tariffs by a very substantial additional tariffs if that doesn't work, if we don't make a deal. So when you say are we going to make a deal? It's possible we're going to make a deal but I'm also very happy where we are now. We're taking in a fortune and frankly not a good thing for China but it's a very good thing for us. A lot of companies are moving; they're dislocating.

Maria Bartiromo

00:07:02 - 00:07:32 (29 sec)

If you were to put that additional tariff on the remaining $325 billion, a lot of people feel that would be a game changer -- game changer for the economy. It would be a major disruption in terms of the supply chain. So do you think that they can do anything -- you can hear anything from this meeting on Saturday with Xi Jinping that would push you to put that aside and not put that remaining $325 billion in products on tariff.

Donald Trump

00:07:32 - 00:07:33 (2 sec)

No, it's possible; it's absolutely possible.

Maria Bartiromo

00:07:33 - 00:07:34 (0 sec)

What could he say?

Donald Trump

00:07:34 - 00:07:58 (24 sec)

But we have to get -- we have to get a good deal. Look, they have taken advantage of us as a country for so long. They're so far ahead. On average this country is losing more than $500 billion a year with China. We've rebuilt China. They've done a great job. They're smart. They're genius. They're great but you know what, they're so far ahead, we have rebuilt China.

Donald Trump

00:07:58 - 00:08:13 (15 sec)

We've given them $500 billion a year for many years and we've rebuilt China. Without that money you don't have the same China. I mean what they've done to us and primarily us. They've done well with Europe, they've done well but with the money they make with us -- I mean if I do what I'm doing, we'd totally cut that off.

Donald Trump

00:08:13 - 00:08:18 (5 sec)

We'd totally cut it off. There's no more $500 billion. It will go down to a trickle -- I mean to an absolute trickle.

Maria Bartiromo

00:08:18 - 00:08:34 (16 sec)

But what makes you think that the Chinese are going to do anything different than they did when the reneged? I mean back in April when you said -- when Mnuchin said that you guys were 90 percent there, close to a deal then they reneged. Why would they go back on it now? Why do you think they're going to see intellectual property theft any differently today than the day that they reneged?

Donald Trump

00:08:34 - 00:08:52 (18 sec)

OK, so we went in and we thought we had a deal and we went in and then they said, you know, we're not going to give you certain things that we agreed on and I said, "That's OK," I tell my people, "Leave the office right now. Don't talk anymore; no more talking. We're putting on a 25 percent tariff on a full $250 billion.""

Maria Bartiromo

00:08:52 - 00:08:52 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:08:52 - 00:09:15 (23 sec)

But we did it the following day, and that's it. That was the last conversation we had. Now we've had conversations over the last few days. They are negotiating, but, you know, my attitude is I'm very happy either way. The tariffs are -- there's no way you're going to beat the tariffs. There's no way. There's no way you can make that kind of money, and what it does is it really helps us in so many other ways.

Donald Trump

00:09:15 - 00:09:25 (10 sec)

It helps us in ways that nobody even wants to talk about, and I don't want to talk about them. Very, very powerful what we have right now.

Maria Bartiromo

00:09:25 - 00:09:45 (20 sec)

But -- is that -- let's say you put that money on the $325 billion of products from China. Will that affect the election in 2020, Mr. President? I mean, if you see that impact the economy because I see that the Chinese economy has weakened quite a bit as a result of this administration, your actions. But if --

Donald Trump

00:09:45 - 00:09:46 (1 sec)

To put it mildly. By the way --

Maria Bartiromo

00:09:46 - 00:09:48 (2 sec)

Exactly. Right, but the U.S. economy --

Donald Trump

00:09:48 - 00:09:56 (7 sec)

-- the Chinese economy's going down the tubes. They want to make a deal. They want to make a deal more than I do. Let me put it that way.

Maria Bartiromo

00:09:56 - 00:09:57 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:09:57 - 00:10:00 (3 sec)

They want to make a deal. They want to make it far more than I do --

Maria Bartiromo

00:10:00 - 00:10:03 (3 sec)

So you think they'll agree. You think they'll agree to make it part of their law --

Donald Trump

00:10:03 - 00:10:06 (2 sec)

-- because I could get used to getting --

Maria Bartiromo

00:10:06 - 00:10:08 (2 sec)

-- that they cannot steal intellectual property from America?

Donald Trump

00:10:08 - 00:10:32 (24 sec)

Look, we have lost billions and billions and trillions of dollars with China, right? We're now taking in billions and billions of dollars and I've only done phase one. Phase one is 25 percent of $250 billion. I haven't done phase two yet. Now, phase two doesn't have to be 25 percent. It could be 10 percent, which people can absolutely handle, but our people aren't going to pay for that either.

Donald Trump

00:10:32 - 00:10:55 (23 sec)

Really, this is a big misnomer. They devalue their currency like a ping pong ball. I mean, you know, they played the devaluation card for years and people don't call them on it and we're looking at calling them on it first time. I mean, you know, what's the difference? You call them on it, big deal. OK, but I want to have a good relationship with China, and I have a great personal relationship with President Xi. He's a friend of mine.

Donald Trump

00:10:55 - 00:11:01 (6 sec)

I mean, I think he's fantastic, and I think he thinks the same of me. Who knows. OK, I'm sure he's not thrilled.

Maria Bartiromo

00:11:01 - 00:11:10 (9 sec)

But there are national security risks here, right, Mr. President? I mean, you talk about Huawei and the national security risks that they represent. How do you get your arms around that?

Donald Trump

00:11:10 - 00:11:22 (12 sec)

Well, that adds to the complexity because they can take a chip the size of a pinhead and they can put it into a phone and nobody can see it, and they can do miracles with that chip.

Maria Bartiromo

00:11:22 - 00:11:22 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:11:22 - 00:11:39 (16 sec)

It's an amazing thing, so that plays into also, and 5G plays into it and many things play into it. Look, you know, this is -- you know, to the credible -- you know, if you're like me, if you love deals, it's the ultimate. It's sort of like -- it's a lot of fun, but I'm doing -- I'm having fun for a different reason.

Donald Trump

00:11:39 - 00:11:40 (2 sec)

We're doing great things for the American people.

Maria Bartiromo

00:11:40 - 00:11:41 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:11:41 - 00:11:57 (16 sec)

Look at June. They say that if we just sort of carry out June for a few days the way it is, it's the best June in 80 years, OK? The best June in the stock market we've had in 80 years. By the way, tariffs are on. You know, I tariffed steel 25 percent. I tariffed aluminum -- all aluminum coming into the country 10 percent.

Maria Bartiromo

00:11:57 - 00:11:58 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:11:58 - 00:12:07 (9 sec)

With all of that and we gave Canada and Mexico a break, by the way -- big break. We didn't have to, but a lot of people in Congress said, "please, please give them a break." You know, why they said that, who knows.

Maria Bartiromo

00:12:07 - 00:12:08 (1 sec)

In the meantime --

Donald Trump

00:12:08 - 00:12:09 (2 sec)

But I decided go with it because --

Maria Bartiromo

00:12:09 - 00:12:12 (2 sec)

-- I want to talk about the economy because that's --

Donald Trump

00:12:12 - 00:12:18 (6 sec)

-- some people in Congress really like me, so I decided to go along, but the fact is look what happened with steel. We tariffed it.

Maria Bartiromo

00:12:18 - 00:12:18 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:12:18 - 00:12:22 (4 sec)

The steel companies are going through the roof. The steel companies are going great.

Maria Bartiromo

00:12:22 - 00:12:24 (2 sec)

Yes, we had one of the steel --

Donald Trump

00:12:24 - 00:12:24 (0 sec)

They're doing great.

Maria Bartiromo

00:12:24 - 00:12:39 (15 sec)

-- CEOs on the other day and she actually confirmed that with us as well. She said that it's been night and day, but let me -- before I get to the economy, let me just wrap up here on China because in the meantime while you're dealing with the Chinese, you're also trying to do deals with some of the surrounding countries.

Maria Bartiromo

00:12:39 - 00:12:56 (17 sec)

I know that Secretary Pompeo is in India meeting his counterpart there. You've also spoken to a handful of the Southeast nations. Tell me what you want to see in terms of Japan, India, and Southeast Asia in terms of bilateral deals or however you see it.

Donald Trump

00:12:56 - 00:13:08 (12 sec)

Sure. OK, so let me start off with a general statement. Almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage of the United States. It's unbelievable, OK? I got here and it's unbelievable.

Maria Bartiromo

00:13:08 - 00:13:09 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:13:09 - 00:13:27 (18 sec)

Like even Japan on the treaty, we have a treaty with Japan. If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. We will go in and we will protect them and we will fight with our lives and with our treasure. We will fight at all costs, right? But if we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television, the attack.

Donald Trump

00:13:27 - 00:13:53 (26 sec)

So there's a little difference, OK, and all these things. Now, that's the only -- that's a military thing because there are many -- as bad as the economic things are, the military -- you take NATO. We pay for close to 100 percent of NATO. People don't know that. We pay for close to that because Germany doesn't pay what they're supposed to pay, and out of the 28 countries, seven are paid up. I got them to pay last year $100 billion more, Secretary Stoltenberg will tell you, my biggest fan of all.

Donald Trump

00:13:53 - 00:13:54 (1 sec)

Bigger than you, Maria.

Maria Bartiromo

00:13:54 - 00:13:56 (3 sec)

Right, yes, he has said that. Yes.

Donald Trump

00:13:56 - 00:14:16 (20 sec)

Bigger than you is Secretary Stoltenberg, OK, even bigger than you. He goes around saying if it wasn't for President Trump we wouldn't even have NATO. The numbers were coming down over 15 years so much, I got them like a rocket ship because I said hey folks, either you pay up or, you know, you can forget it. Why would we do that if they're not -- they're just taking advantage.

Donald Trump

00:14:16 - 00:14:41 (24 sec)

Anyway, but we still have a lot of countries -- Germany's taking tremendous advantage. How about this, Germany pays -- NATO is all about Russia, right. Protect Europe against Russia, I mean that's most of it. So Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy, OK, so they're giving Russia billions of dollars, and yet we're supposed to protect Germany and Germany's delinquent.

Donald Trump

00:14:41 - 00:15:03 (22 sec)

OK. So they don't pay NATO what they're supposed to pay and yet they're paying to -- and I don't call Russia an enemy, but they're a potential enemy. They're paying to a potential enemy that we're supposed to protect them from billions of dollars. So they're giving money to the enemy, we're supposed to protect them, and on top of that they don't pay -- they're way delinquent, they're paying one percent instead of two percent.

Maria Bartiromo

00:15:03 - 00:15:08 (5 sec)

So are you working on a deal with Europe? Is Europe going to be the next target after you're done with China? Where is the next deal being done?

Donald Trump

00:15:08 - 00:15:24 (15 sec)

Oh yes Europe is -- Europe is -- treats us worse than China. Europe is -- believe -- you know, look, I come from Europe, we come -- you come from Europe, OK, you're one of -- you're of the European nations. European nations were set up in order to take advantage of the United States. It was set up for trade in order to take advantage, and they have.

Donald Trump

00:15:24 - 00:15:41 (17 sec)

You know, they very smartly have. And they have Draghi who is -- we should have Draghi instead of our Fed person. Draghi as you know last week he said lower interest rates and we're going to stimulate the economy, they're going to put money into the economy, they're going to force money into the economy because Europe is doing, you know, OK but they're not doing great.

Donald Trump

00:15:41 - 00:15:50 (9 sec)

And with us, we have a Fed that keeps raising interest rates, I mean you explain that one. And this was not what I thought we had. So we have a Fed --

Maria Bartiromo

00:15:50 - 00:16:06 (16 sec)

But some people would say look, if things are so great in the U.S. and the economy is doing as well as it is, hey we're at a 51 year low on unemployment, 3.1 percent growth in the first quarter, why do we need interest rates to go lower? Why do we need a cut in rates if things are going so well, Mr. President?

Donald Trump

00:16:06 - 00:16:21 (15 sec)

Well one thing we have a lot of debt, I want to get it out, I want to pay it off. We have a lot of debt. But what we really have is we need to stay even with these people. These people are devaluing their currency because they're not doing well against us. So they devalue it, we can't, we are no longer on a level playing field.

Donald Trump

00:16:21 - 00:16:36 (16 sec)

When they stimulate their economy and we have -- we have a tightening, we have quantitative tightening. He was doing $50 billion a month he was tightening that he's taken it out, he's sucking it like from a vacuum cleaner he was taking it out. A lot of people didn't even know that. Now it's $25 billion a month.

Donald Trump

00:16:36 - 00:16:39 (3 sec)

That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money.

Maria Bartiromo

00:16:39 - 00:16:39 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:16:39 - 00:17:03 (23 sec)

So not only are we -- not only are we raising -- I've had nine interest rate hikes. Obama had nothing, he had cheap money. So my economy is far better than Obama's economy. Obama's economy was ready to crash. You couldn't do anything. The rules and regulations which I've gotten rid of, I have great rules and regulations but they're reasonable.

Donald Trump

00:17:03 - 00:17:08 (6 sec)

Obama -- under Obama you couldn't do anything. You couldn't do a Keystone Pipeline, you couldn't do anything. There was --

Maria Bartiromo

00:17:08 - 00:17:10 (2 sec)

Right well the regulations were -- yes.

Donald Trump

00:17:10 - 00:17:32 (21 sec)

The EPA had the whole country -- right. But now -- but Maria, now we're really rocking and rolling. My problem is that as they reduce their currency, in order to take advantage of the United States, we have a man that doesn't -- he doesn't do anything for us. We're sitting there and we stay. He should have -- he should have never raised the rates to the level that he raised it. And I've been right on that.

Maria Bartiromo

00:17:32 - 00:17:38 (7 sec)

Well he said he's not going to get pushed around by political. He said -- you know, he basically suggested yesterday --

Donald Trump

00:17:38 - 00:17:40 (2 sec)

I don't think so.

Maria Bartiromo

00:17:40 - 00:17:42 (2 sec)

-- I'm not going to get pushed around.

Donald Trump

00:17:42 - 00:17:56 (14 sec)

Now he's trying to prove how tough he is, because he's not going to get pushed around. Here's a guy -- nobody ever heard of him before, and now I made him and he wants to show how tough he is, OK. Let him show how tough he is. He's a -- he's not doing a good job, OK, let me -- let me be nice about it.

Maria Bartiromo

00:17:56 - 00:18:05 (9 sec)

Look I think the media got it wrong the other day when they basically said you said you wanted to demote him. I know you didn't say that, you were answering a question. But are you -- you're suggesting now that --

Donald Trump

00:18:05 - 00:18:15 (10 sec)

No, no, I have the -- I have the right to demote him, I have the right to -- I have the right to fire him. But I have the right to -- (CROSS TALK)

Maria Bartiromo

00:18:15 - 00:18:17 (2 sec)

Is that what you're thinking about doing? (CROSS TALK)

Maria Bartiromo

00:18:17 - 00:18:19 (2 sec)

Are you considering that right now?

Donald Trump

00:18:19 - 00:18:42 (23 sec)

-- I haven't -- I never suggesting I was going to do that. I do have the right to do it. But let me just tell you, he has to lower interest rates for us to compete with China, what they're doing is pouring money into the economy and they're -- and they're lowering rates. What Europe just did with Draghi who frankly did a great move, but he's been doing a lot of good moves, what Europe did with Draghi is they're forcing money in, we're doing the opposite.

Donald Trump

00:18:42 - 00:18:44 (3 sec)

We're taking money out and we're raising interest rates. It's insane.

Maria Bartiromo

00:18:44 - 00:18:45 (1 sec)

So are you -- are you --

Donald Trump

00:18:45 - 00:19:05 (19 sec)

He should have never raised the rates to the extent that he did. If he would have raised them half -- just half and if he would have not done the quantitative tightening, our market would have been up another 10,000 points. And I'll tell you GDP would have been up another point or two points. We could have hit -- we potentially could have hit five.

Maria Bartiromo

00:19:05 - 00:19:14 (10 sec)

Wow. Well, Mr. President, are you now working on -- what's your plan B should a deal with China not materialize? Are you doing work right now with Japan, India, and the Southeast nations?

Donald Trump

00:19:14 - 00:19:30 (16 sec)

OK, well let me just tell you about China. My plan B with China is to take in billions and billions of dollars a month and we'll do less and less business with them. We can just sort of say, "hey, whatever business.." You know, when you're losing $500 billion a year, if you didn't do business with them it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Donald Trump

00:19:30 - 00:19:36 (6 sec)

You know, when you're the loser of $500 billion -- when you were making --

Maria Bartiromo

00:19:36 - 00:19:36 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:19:36 - 00:19:50 (14 sec)

-- $500 billion, the worst thing that can happen to you is you stop doing business. It would be -- it would be really bad for China, and I don't want to be bad for China. I like him. I like China. I love -- I think China's an incredible nation for what they've done.

Maria Bartiromo

00:19:50 - 00:20:02 (12 sec)

Well, some people are saying, look, it was a mistake to get out of TPP. Now we see that front and center because China is so difficult. Are you working on a plan that could look at little like TPP with the other Southeast Asian nations?

Donald Trump

00:20:02 - 00:20:05 (3 sec)

TPP would have been a disaster. OK, you're ready?

Maria Bartiromo

00:20:05 - 00:20:06 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:20:06 - 00:20:17 (11 sec)

TPP was going to be a disaster. It would have been NATO -- or it would have been NAFTA on steroids. TPP would have been a total disaster. Besides that, we make individual deals with many of those countries --

Maria Bartiromo

00:20:17 - 00:20:18 (1 sec)

And you're going to do that?

Donald Trump

00:20:18 - 00:20:34 (16 sec)

-- and the biggest ones we -- yes, look. What you do with -- when you have that many countries in a deal, what you do is you're forced -- and we're the big bank. We're the bank that -- it was set up for us. I mean, it was set up really to take advantage of us. That was like the European nations. TPP was just the European nations.

Donald Trump

00:20:34 - 00:20:48 (14 sec)

That was set up to take advantage on trade in the United States. TPP, if I didn't end that we would have no car business left. The car business would be totally gone. That was going to be a sucking machine like you've never seen before.

Maria Bartiromo

00:20:48 - 00:20:48 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:20:48 - 00:20:53 (5 sec)

It was a disaster. TPP would have been a catastrophe. Look how well we're doing. I didn't do it.

Maria Bartiromo

00:20:53 - 00:20:54 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:20:54 - 00:21:02 (8 sec)

We have 12 factories. We have plants being built in the United States. Car companies are coming in from Japan and other countries. Mercedes Benz, we have --

Maria Bartiromo

00:21:02 - 00:21:07 (6 sec)

And now you've got some companies pulling their production out of China going to Vietnam. Is this something that you think American --

Donald Trump

00:21:07 - 00:21:08 (1 sec)

Maria Bartiromo

00:21:08 - 00:21:09 (1 sec)

-- companies should consider?

Donald Trump

00:21:09 - 00:21:16 (6 sec)

Right. Well, a lot of companies are moving to Vietnam, but Vietnam takes advantage of us even worse than China.

Maria Bartiromo

00:21:16 - 00:21:16 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:21:16 - 00:21:28 (12 sec)

So there's a very interesting situation going on there, but that's true. Many companies are pulling their things out. Look, some companies are pulling out and doing what they should really be doing. They're coming back to America. They're coming back to the United States.

Maria Bartiromo

00:21:28 - 00:21:29 (1 sec)

Do you want to tariff Vietnam?

Donald Trump

00:21:29 - 00:21:42 (12 sec)

Well, we're in discussions with Vietnam. Vietnam is almost the single worst at -- much smaller than China, much, but it's almost the single worst abuser of everybody.

Maria Bartiromo

00:21:42 - 00:21:42 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:21:42 - 00:21:50 (8 sec)

Now they're buying a lot of coal from West Virginia which makes me happy. You know, I love West Virginia and I love the coal miners and we just passed --

Maria Bartiromo

00:21:50 - 00:21:52 (2 sec)

Well, you've done a huge service to the coal companies, the industries.

Donald Trump

00:21:52 - 00:21:54 (2 sec)

Oh, they were gone.

Maria Bartiromo

00:21:54 - 00:21:56 (2 sec)

Donald Trump

00:21:56 - 00:21:57 (2 sec)

The industry was gone.

Maria Bartiromo

00:21:57 - 00:21:58 (1 sec)

Look, you mentioned --

Donald Trump

00:21:58 - 00:22:14 (16 sec)

They would not have lasted six months if crooked Hillary got elected. They would not have lasted for six months. It was gone. Now it's a vibrant industry again. It's doing well and we sell a lot of -- you know, West Virginia, our states, we have great coal and we sell a lot of coal to Vietnam, but Vietnam is an abuser.

Donald Trump

00:22:14 - 00:22:17 (3 sec)

But almost all nations are abusers just so you understand.

Maria Bartiromo

00:22:17 - 00:22:23 (6 sec)

Right. You called it the piggy bank and that's playing out. The world is seeing this now. Yes.

Donald Trump

00:22:23 - 00:22:42 (19 sec)

We are the big, fat piggy bank. We are the piggy bank, but we won't be the piggy bank forever because frankly, you know, you can only give so much. I can't believe how some of these deals were made. They were so bad, and NATO's no different. I'm not saying, you know, NATO's a bad thing. I'm saying it's unfair that Europe which kills us -- you know, with Europe --

Maria Bartiromo

00:22:42 - 00:22:42 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:22:42 - 00:22:48 (6 sec)

-- we lose approximately -- this for years -- approximately $180 billion - $181 billion, OK?

Maria Bartiromo

00:22:48 - 00:22:52 (4 sec)

Yes, but you're not going to give up -- you're not going to give up the chicken tax. You told me that months ago. You're going to keep on that --

Donald Trump

00:22:52 - 00:22:56 (3 sec)

I didn't give up the chicken tax. No, the chicken tax is a great tax.

Maria Bartiromo

00:22:56 - 00:22:56 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:22:56 - 00:23:17 (21 sec)

It's a 25 percent tax on small trucks. South Korea, it was expiring and South Korea was so happy. And I renegotiated the deal and I kept it, and it's the hottest market in our automobile industry. If you look at the only thing they make money on is small trucks because they have the chicken tax, because we have a 25 percent tariff on small trucks.

Donald Trump

00:23:17 - 00:23:18 (0 sec)

And because of that --

Maria Bartiromo

00:23:18 - 00:23:20 (3 sec)

Right, so if the Europeans come to you -- if the Europeans --

Donald Trump

00:23:20 - 00:23:22 (2 sec)

-- and I renegotiated -- I renegotiated the deal --

Maria Bartiromo

00:23:22 - 00:23:22 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:23:22 - 00:23:28 (5 sec)

-- with South Korea because they were so happy because they were going to get rid of the chicken tax until I came along.

Maria Bartiromo

00:23:28 - 00:23:29 (2 sec)

Yes, so if the Europeans come to you --

Donald Trump

00:23:29 - 00:23:33 (4 sec)

If I wasn't -- if I wasn't here, nobody else would have even known what the chicken -- it's just an expression.

Maria Bartiromo

00:23:33 - 00:23:42 (9 sec)

You're right. You're right. If the Europeans come to you and say, "Hey, Mr. President. We don't want any tariffs. Let's do no tariffs on both sides," you're not going to agree to that. You're not going to give up the chicken tax.

Donald Trump

00:23:42 - 00:23:47 (5 sec)

The Europeans have taken advantage of us. I'm serious.

Maria Bartiromo

00:23:47 - 00:23:48 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:23:48 - 00:23:56 (9 sec)

Worse than China. They have worse trade barriers than China. They have -- they don't take our product, we take their product. They send us cars.

Maria Bartiromo

00:23:56 - 00:23:58 (2 sec)

So is this the next big headline? Is that the next big headline?

Donald Trump

00:23:58 - 00:23:59 (1 sec)

They don't take our cars.

Maria Bartiromo

00:23:59 - 00:24:01 (1 sec)

What you're going to do with Europe?

Donald Trump

00:24:01 - 00:24:19 (18 sec)

Europe -- Europe has treated us very badly. Now I'll tell you the one thing I have. When I came in I said to Jean Claude, he's a fantastic gentleman, fantastic business person, extremely tough. And you have a woman in Europe, I won't mention her name but she's actually considered to take Jean Claude's place because Jean Claude at some point is retiring.

Donald Trump

00:24:19 - 00:24:22 (4 sec)

She hates the United States, perhaps worse than any person I've ever met.

Maria Bartiromo

00:24:22 - 00:24:23 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:24:23 - 00:24:41 (19 sec)

What she -- what she does to our country -- she's suing all our companies. You know, look, we should be suing Google and Facebook and all that which perhaps we will, OK. But you see Apple -- they're suing Apple for billions of dollars. They're suing everybody. They make it very -- almost impossible to do two-way business.

Maria Bartiromo

00:24:41 - 00:24:41 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:24:41 - 00:24:53 (11 sec)

So what happened, I said, "Folks, they are worse than China except smaller. It's smaller than China, but they're worse than China." The barriers they put up for our farmers are -- because they want to protect their farmers.

Maria Bartiromo

00:24:53 - 00:24:53 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:24:53 - 00:25:07 (14 sec)

They have a lot of farmers. You know those farms very well. You drive down a country road; you see the beautiful farms all over the place. I don't even say they're wrong but it's not fair to us. They send in Mercedes-Benz. They send in BMW; they pay virtually no tax.

Maria Bartiromo

00:25:07 - 00:25:07 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:25:07 - 00:25:15 (8 sec)

They take nothing; we give them -- it's so one-sided and they make approximately $180 billion a year, for years.

Maria Bartiromo

00:25:15 - 00:25:31 (16 sec)

I got to get to technology and also the border crisis. But Mr. President you just brought up NAFTA for a second. I just got to ask you, how are you going to get Nancy Pelosi to bring your USMCA to the floor? Most people will say if it comes to the floor, it will pass. Is she moving on it?

Donald Trump

00:25:31 - 00:25:36 (5 sec)

I think it will pass. I think we have tremendous Democrat support; she's got to bring it to the floor.

Maria Bartiromo

00:25:36 - 00:25:37 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:25:37 - 00:25:46 (9 sec)

I think she will. It's actually a bipartisan bill. The Democrats like it. The unions like it. I can tell you the farmers love it -- the farmers are just in love with it.

Maria Bartiromo

00:25:46 - 00:25:49 (3 sec)

You think it passes this year -- this year?

Donald Trump

00:25:49 - 00:26:01 (12 sec)

And I am talking about American farmers like it more than other farmers. The American farmers love it because we were being taken badly; we were taking serious advantage of by Canada. Nobody knows that. You know "O Canada," a beautiful song, right?

Maria Bartiromo

00:26:01 - 00:26:01 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:26:01 - 00:26:11 (9 sec)

Except they charge us 300 percent tariff for a little thing called agricultural products going into Canada; 300 percent tariff nobody knew that.

Maria Bartiromo

00:26:11 - 00:26:21 (10 sec)

People did not know that. Mr. President, you mentioned technology companies, how concerned are you that technology companies are censoring conservatives and they're going to do this right up to the 2020 election?

Donald Trump

00:26:21 - 00:26:38 (17 sec)

Well they are doing it to me on Twitter. I mean, what they did to me on Twitter is incredible. You know, I have millions and millions of followers but I will tell you, they make it very hard for people to join me in Twitter, and they make it very much harder for me to get out the message.

Maria Bartiromo

00:26:38 - 00:26:38 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:26:38 - 00:26:39 (1 sec)

They make it -- it is incredible, yes.

Maria Bartiromo

00:26:39 - 00:26:40 (1 sec)

So what are you going to do about it?

Donald Trump

00:26:40 - 00:26:42 (2 sec)

And I know it happens because --

Maria Bartiromo

00:26:42 - 00:26:50 (8 sec)

I mean these companies have enormous amount of power if they could even stop the president of the free world, in terms of getting his message out.

Donald Trump

00:26:50 - 00:27:12 (22 sec)

What are we going to do? What am I going to do about it? These people are all Democrats. It's totally biased toward Democrats. If I announced tomorrow I am going to become a nice liberal Democrat, I would pick up 5 times more followers. I was picking up, 100,000 followers every few days and all of a sudden -- I am much hotter now than I was a number of months ago.

Donald Trump

00:27:12 - 00:27:19 (7 sec)

But a number of months ago and then all of a sudden it stopped. And now I pick up a lot but I don't pick up nearly what I did.

Maria Bartiromo

00:27:19 - 00:27:24 (5 sec)

That's right. Devin Nunes -- Devin Nunes is suing Twitter. Devin Nunes is suing Twitter right now.

Donald Trump

00:27:24 - 00:27:26 (2 sec)

Maria, you and I know -- who's suing Twitter?

Maria Bartiromo

00:27:26 - 00:27:29 (2 sec)

Devin Nunes -- Congressman Nunes.

Donald Trump

00:27:29 - 00:27:43 (14 sec)

That's great. I think he's great; in a lot of ways he's great. And he'll probably do well. He's right about it. Twitter is just terrible what they do. They don't let you get the word -- I've had so many people come to me, "Sir, I can't join you on Twitter." I see what's happening, 100 percent.

Maria Bartiromo

00:27:43 - 00:27:48 (5 sec)

So would you rather see competition or do you want to see legislation coming down to actually --

Donald Trump

00:27:48 - 00:27:57 (9 sec)

Well you may need legislation in order to create competition. Look, it is amazing that I won the election, because you saw what happened yesterday with Google.

Maria Bartiromo

00:27:57 - 00:27:57 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:27:57 - 00:28:07 (10 sec)

Google was totally biased to the -- you know they talk about Russia because they had some bloggers -- and by the way, those bloggers some of them were going both ways; they were for Clinton and for Trump.

Maria Bartiromo

00:28:07 - 00:28:15 (7 sec)

Well, somebody at Google said they don't want what happened in 2016 to happen in 2020. They don't want it to happen again, right? Is that what you are referring to?

Donald Trump

00:28:15 - 00:28:30 (16 sec)

Let me tell you, they're trying to rig the election. That's what we should be looking at not the witch hunt, the phony witch hunt which has proven zero. You know not even a phone call. This is the biggest political disgrace in history. And you, I don't have to talk to you about it; you know what I'm telling you.

Donald Trump

00:28:30 - 00:28:32 (2 sec)

You picked it up so early and you got it so early.

Maria Bartiromo

00:28:32 - 00:28:33 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:28:33 - 00:28:36 (3 sec)

And I -- that's why I'm talking to you.

Maria Bartiromo

00:28:36 - 00:28:37 (2 sec)

And I told my viewers.

Donald Trump

00:28:37 - 00:28:42 (5 sec)

That's why I'm talking to you early in the morning as opposed to somebody else, to be honest with you.

Maria Bartiromo

00:28:42 - 00:28:47 (5 sec)

Thank you, Mr. President. Is what technology companies are doing, what they did to you, is that legal? Are they breaking the law, Mr. President?

Donald Trump

00:28:47 - 00:29:06 (18 sec)

Well I don't know whether it is. But I tell you what, they should be sued because what's happening with the bias -- and now you see it with that executive yesterday from Google, the hatred for the Republicans. It's not even like gee let's lean Democrat, the hatred. And actually, you know, I heard that all during my election.

Donald Trump

00:29:06 - 00:29:22 (16 sec)

It's hard that I won, they were -- they were swamping us with negative stuff. I mean think of it, she was spending hundreds of millions of dollars -- she was spending so much money because she -- she spent more than twice what I did. You know I never got credit for that, I won the election and I spent half the money.

Donald Trump

00:29:22 - 00:29:27 (5 sec)

You know, in the old days, my father taught me, Maria, if you spend less and win that's a good thing. But --

Maria Bartiromo

00:29:27 - 00:29:34 (8 sec)

I got to ask you about the border crisis, but first what about -- what about the Dems. Are you going to watch the debate tonight? I know you're going to be on a plane, you're on your way to Japan.

Donald Trump

00:29:34 - 00:29:48 (14 sec)

Well I'll be on a plane. Yes everyone said I'll be tweeting, I'll actually be on a plane and it just seems very boring, but I'm going to watch it because I have to. That's part of my life, you know, it's part of my life. Do I want to watch it? Do I want to watch these people? That's a very unexciting group of people.

Donald Trump

00:29:48 - 00:29:48 (0 sec)

Maria Bartiromo

00:29:48 - 00:29:54 (6 sec)

And is this -- is this election being set up, capitalism versus socialism? A lot of these programs --

Donald Trump

00:29:54 - 00:29:54 (0 sec)

It looks like it.

Maria Bartiromo

00:29:54 - 00:29:56 (2 sec)

-- yes, Medicare for All.

Donald Trump

00:29:56 - 00:30:03 (7 sec)

Except Biden, Biden is a lost soul. He doesn't know where he is I don't think. He's changing his views rapidly. He's going from --

Maria Bartiromo

00:30:03 - 00:30:10 (7 sec)

And yet he's getting the money on the Democratic side, right, Mr. President. He's in the lead, he's seen as the most moderate.

Donald Trump

00:30:10 - 00:30:23 (14 sec)

Well he didn't get -- he didn't get anything compared to what we did. My streets last week they took in I think $28 million and that's -- if you call that a poll, we have great polls, we've just had -- we just had a poll come out that's been fantastic. You know -- you know how well we're doing. We're doing good.

Maria Bartiromo

00:30:23 - 00:30:25 (2 sec)

So I mean the economy, you've done an incredible --

Donald Trump

00:30:25 - 00:30:29 (3 sec)

But he's different, he does seem to be different than the others.

Maria Bartiromo

00:30:29 - 00:30:43 (14 sec)

You've done a great job with the economy, Mr. President, but as Karl Rove and so many others come on this show and say look, an election is about the future, not about the past. Yes you're running on your record and the record has been strong on the economy, but what are you going to do to keep this going?

Maria Bartiromo

00:30:43 - 00:30:44 (2 sec)

What do you have in your bag in terms of the economy?

Donald Trump

00:30:44 - 00:31:19 (35 sec)

Well let me tell you -- let me tell you though, OK I've done great on the economy and I've done great with the military and I've done great with -- I've done great with everything. But here's where it's unfair, I have had 24/7 a phony witch hunt, a disgusting phony witch hunt that nobody else would have even been take -- a normal person couldn't have even taken it. I have been attacked for two and a half years with a phony, dishonest, crooked group of people in intelligence agencies and beyond that have been doing nothing but attacking your president.

Maria Bartiromo

00:31:19 - 00:31:22 (3 sec)

That's right, I know that, I know that, Mr. President.

Donald Trump

00:31:22 - 00:31:28 (6 sec)

And I have fought through that and now I hear Mueller's going to go yet again -- I mean how many times are we going to go through this stuff, five times now?

Maria Bartiromo

00:31:28 - 00:31:33 (5 sec)

Well the Republicans are going to ask him about the Steele dossier, about the fact that, you know, the number two person in Europe --

Donald Trump

00:31:33 - 00:31:43 (10 sec)

Well the Republicans are going to ask him plenty. Look I've had great Republican support, I have to say that and Mitch McConnell's been great and you know Devin, you mentioned Devin, but the guys in the House.

Maria Bartiromo

00:31:43 - 00:31:46 (2 sec)

Yes, John Ratcliffe and Kevin McCarthy.

Donald Trump

00:31:46 - 00:32:10 (24 sec)

You look at Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs. I mean there's so many of them, I mean I hate to name a few because there's so many. I've had great Republican support, but I will say that from the day I came into office they hit me with a phony deal. Everyone knows it's a phony deal. Now the shoe is turning and the Democrats are fighting like hell and the reason they're fighting so hard is they think that it's going to be revealed, the real stuff.

Donald Trump

00:32:10 - 00:32:13 (3 sec)

The real stuff is coming down. And I would be surprised that it did.

Maria Bartiromo

00:32:13 - 00:32:16 (3 sec)

So you think there's going to be accountability then, sir? You think there's going to be accountability?

Donald Trump

00:32:16 - 00:32:24 (8 sec)

I think so, yeah I think we have an Attorney General who is a very strong person and a very fair person and I do believe that, I really do. But think of it --

Maria Bartiromo

00:32:24 - 00:32:34 (9 sec)

All right so an extraordinary thing that had to happen with informants going at your campaign people and obviously the spying. Let me get your take on the border crisis.

Donald Trump

00:32:34 - 00:32:49 (15 sec)

The spies -- Maria you know what, I used to say well we'll find out. They spied on my campaign, and when you look at somebody saying listen, she's going to win, but if she doesn't we have an insurance policy. You know what the insurance policy is? We have an insurance policy to get him out of office. These are sick people.

Donald Trump

00:32:49 - 00:32:53 (4 sec)

The two lovers, I mean the two pathetic lovers, I mean there's two love birds. They sung like nobody's ever sung.

Maria Bartiromo

00:32:53 - 00:32:57 (5 sec)

Well Peter Strzok and Lisa Page wrote everything down, so we've got all the -- we've got all the texts.

Donald Trump

00:32:57 - 00:33:02 (5 sec)

Well wait until you see the rest -- wait until you see -- no, wait until you see the rest of their --

Maria Bartiromo

00:33:02 - 00:33:03 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:33:03 - 00:33:12 (9 sec)

Now here's the problem, Robert Mueller, they worked for him, and the two lovers were together and they had texts back and forth and e-mail back and forth.

Maria Bartiromo

00:33:12 - 00:33:16 (4 sec)

How come we haven't seen it all? I mean you did -- you gave William Barr the authority to --

Donald Trump

00:33:16 - 00:33:35 (19 sec)

He -- you know why? Because Mueller terminated them illegally. He terminated the e-mails, he terminated all of the stuff between Strzok and Page, you know they sung like you've never seen. Robert Mueller terminated their text messages together. He would -- he terminated them. They're gone. And that's illegal, he -- that's a crime.

Maria Bartiromo

00:33:35 - 00:33:41 (6 sec)

Well how come that has not been discussed? Where is that in the courts? I mean is this what -- are you going to see accountability for that?

Donald Trump

00:33:41 - 00:33:59 (18 sec)

Well I guess it will be and the Republicans owe it -- to me it was one of the most egregious things because you remember when they worked for Mueller, can you imagine what they said back -- how stupid they are and how -- can you imagine what they said, you know these stupid lovers, he's trying to show what a big man he is, you know, making statements, and she's back to him, "oh yes, darling.

Donald Trump

00:33:59 - 00:34:00 (1 sec)

Maria Bartiromo

00:34:00 - 00:34:00 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:34:00 - 00:34:05 (5 sec)

You know, how stupid they were. I just saw this. This was a love serenade going on, OK?

Maria Bartiromo

00:34:05 - 00:34:05 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:34:05 - 00:34:07 (1 sec)

I mean, if you -- if you want to --

Maria Bartiromo

00:34:07 - 00:34:11 (5 sec)

-- it's obvious what they were planning, sir. I mean, we've seen the texts, and you gave William Barr the authority to --

Donald Trump

00:34:11 - 00:34:27 (15 sec)

No, no. I went through this. But I went through this for 2 and a half years. Maria, on top of -- and then they say his approval is 51 percent. Rasmussen got it right, OK? So I think I'm at 51 percent with Rasmussen. But think of it. It's incredible that I'm at 51 percent. It's incredible that I'm leading --

Maria Bartiromo

00:34:27 - 00:34:27 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:34:27 - 00:34:44 (17 sec)

-- because for 2 and a half years I have had phony charges and stuff thrown at me. I had things that -- I love Russia. I wouldn't get in love with Russia. I don't love Russia. I love the United States. I had -- I had the worst things said about me, that I'm a spy. Me, a spy.

Maria Bartiromo

00:34:44 - 00:34:57 (13 sec)

Yes. And because the media went along with it, almost half the country still believes there's collusion. I mean, that's how significant it was because the media just relayed what your enemies were saying. Look, I've got to get your --

Donald Trump

00:34:57 - 00:35:17 (20 sec)

The media is crooked. The media is crooked. Much of the media is dishonest and much of the media is absolutely, stone cold crooked. And I blame the media more than I blame the democrats. The democrats, they laugh. When Schiff and when Nadler go into a back room to talk, they're laughing. They know nothing happened here.

Donald Trump

00:35:17 - 00:35:17 (1 sec)

This is just --

Maria Bartiromo

00:35:17 - 00:35:21 (4 sec)

Well, they want to take you down. Mr. President, it's pretty obvious.

Donald Trump

00:35:21 - 00:35:21 (0 sec)

It's a con job. Maria, it's --

Maria Bartiromo

00:35:21 - 00:35:24 (2 sec)

Jerry Nadler has said he wants to take you down.

Donald Trump

00:35:24 - 00:35:31 (8 sec)

Maria, it's a con job, OK? They go to a back room where they talk, you know, the democrats group.

Maria Bartiromo

00:35:31 - 00:35:32 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:35:32 - 00:35:33 (1 sec)

They laugh at what they're getting away with.

Maria Bartiromo

00:35:33 - 00:35:50 (17 sec)

Well, they weren't laughing yesterday. I mean, yesterday the House passed a $4.5 billion bill for humanitarian aid at the border. Then you've got the Senator Elizabeth Warren saying she wants to decriminalize border crossings. You were the first one to call this a crisis. I went to the border, took the whole show there.

Maria Bartiromo

00:35:50 - 00:35:57 (7 sec)

We saw children and the position that children are being put in. It was disgusting. What's your reaction to the $4.5 billion aid bill?

Donald Trump

00:35:57 - 00:36:18 (21 sec)

So everything -- I'm not happy with it because there's no money for protection. It's like were running hospitals over there now. You know, people are coming up -- what people don't understand is you had separation. Separation's a terrible thing of the families, and I said, "well, I'm going to put people together, but that's going to mean more people coming up." But -- and it has from that standpoint.

Donald Trump

00:36:18 - 00:36:28 (10 sec)

And we've done a great job. You know, they'll pick up one little site. We've done a much better job than Obama. You know, Obama built all those cells. Those cells were built by the Obama administration.

Maria Bartiromo

00:36:28 - 00:36:30 (2 sec)

The Obama administration put in those cages, right?

Donald Trump

00:36:30 - 00:36:42 (12 sec)

He put in all the cages, and I remember for awhile they had a fun with that. They had me for three days and then somebody said, "well, they were built in 2014. They were built by President Obama." And immediately it stopped. There were no apologies. It immediately stopped.

Maria Bartiromo

00:36:42 - 00:36:47 (5 sec)

So what do you want to see done? You've got these loopholes, the Flores agreement.

Donald Trump

00:36:47 - 00:36:53 (6 sec)

I had loop -- if I had the loopholes taken care of and asylum taken over, you'd have no -- zero problem at the border without Mexico.

Maria Bartiromo

00:36:53 - 00:36:54 (1 sec)

How can you get that done?

Donald Trump

00:36:54 - 00:36:58 (4 sec)

Right now, you're going to see the numbers drop because Mexico's been really strong.

Maria Bartiromo

00:36:58 - 00:36:58 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:36:58 - 00:37:16 (18 sec)

You're going to really see numbers drop, but we don't need anybody if they -- if the democrats would get rid of the loopholes. They're called loopholes for a reason. They're loopholes. They're loopholes to come into the country. If the democrats would get rid of the loopholes and would fix asylum, it would take an hour, we could sit there, we could make a deal.

Donald Trump

00:37:16 - 00:37:37 (20 sec)

They refuse to do it for two reasons. Number one, they want open borders. They legitimately want open borders. They want those people that you see in caravans, many of whom are criminals, OK? Just so you understand. Many of whom are criminals. In fact, you saw the other day 649 were people of crimes and people that committed crimes in the United States, many of them.

Maria Bartiromo

00:37:37 - 00:37:39 (2 sec)

They say they're families and they rented the kids.

Donald Trump

00:37:39 - 00:37:58 (19 sec)

Many of them are criminals. They want those people. Maria, you explain it to me. I can't understand it, OK? They want those people to come into the United States, so I say it must be politics. They must think that having a big, open border and have hundreds of thousands of people flowing into the United States is a good thing for our country.

Donald Trump

00:37:58 - 00:37:59 (1 sec)

It's ruinous to our country now.

Maria Bartiromo

00:37:59 - 00:38:02 (3 sec)

Well, what's the cost of that? I mean, there's a cost to having --

Donald Trump

00:38:02 - 00:38:16 (15 sec)

It's tremendously expensive because now you're dealing with schools, you're dealing with medical, you're dealing with everything. Look at California what they're doing. What they're doing is incredible. They're inviting everybody to come in. People are heading to California. California can't pay their bills already.

Donald Trump

00:38:16 - 00:38:18 (1 sec)

It's the highest tax --

Maria Bartiromo

00:38:18 - 00:38:21 (4 sec)

Well in New York -- in New York, Governor Cuomo wants illegals to have drivers licenses.

Donald Trump

00:38:21 - 00:38:32 (11 sec)

And people are leaving New York because the taxes are too high, OK? They want to take care of their medical expense. They want to care of -- how about schooling? Pretty soon they'll be sending them to private schools.

Maria Bartiromo

00:38:32 - 00:38:36 (4 sec)

So how are you going to deal with this, Mr. President? They're not dealing with the loopholes.

Donald Trump

00:38:36 - 00:38:50 (14 sec)

By the way -- how am I dealing with it? I want strong laws on the border. We're building a wall. The wall is being built very rapidly by the way. We'll have 400 miles of wall. Despite the fact that I have five lawsuits, we just won one last week. You probably saw that.

Maria Bartiromo

00:38:50 - 00:38:51 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:38:51 - 00:39:00 (10 sec)

We won a lawsuit in D.C., a very big one that would have stopped the wall actually. We got the total OK from the judge but -- which was shocking to people because, you know, when you get an Obama judge, you get a loss. When you get an --

Maria Bartiromo

00:39:00 - 00:39:06 (5 sec)

Well how are you going to get the money though to continue building the wall and change these -- (CROSS TALK)

Donald Trump

00:39:06 - 00:39:25 (20 sec)

This didn't happen to be -- by the way Maria this didn't -- yes this didn't happen to be an Obama judge, this happened to be a judge appointed by Trump. You know, I have judges now -- I have 145 judges that -- within another couple of months all 145 will be sitting judges, federal judges and we have two Supreme Court judges, a tremendous impact.

Donald Trump

00:39:25 - 00:39:42 (17 sec)

When I came in, President Obama had hundreds of judges that he was not able to place which was incredible, it was like a gift. We have 145 judges, we have two Supreme Court judges, and a lot of people think that's going to be a big part of the legacy. But it's very important.

Maria Bartiromo

00:39:42 - 00:39:46 (4 sec)

Do you think you're going to be -- do you think you're going to be naming another Supreme Court justice under your watch?

Donald Trump

00:39:46 - 00:39:53 (7 sec)

Well I don't want to say, I want everybody to live a long and beautiful life and be extremely healthy, because if I said yes to that answer you know what would happen, OK.

Maria Bartiromo

00:39:53 - 00:39:55 (2 sec)

I understand, Mr. President, I understand.

Donald Trump

00:39:55 - 00:39:57 (2 sec)

They'd say he's a very -- he's a heartless person.

Maria Bartiromo

00:39:57 - 00:39:59 (2 sec)

Mr. President let me -- let me move onto Iran.

Donald Trump

00:39:59 - 00:40:02 (2 sec)

I hope that everybody lives a long and happy life.

Maria Bartiromo

00:40:02 - 00:40:15 (14 sec)

Let me move on to Iran because this serious seems like this is getting deeper and deeper and a very dangerous situation. The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani says that the White House is, quote, "mentally retarded". You're reaction.

Donald Trump

00:40:15 - 00:40:29 (14 sec)

Well I don't think their leadership is smart, I don't think they have smart leadership at all. Look what's happened to Iran, Iran's going down the tubes. Their people can't eat, they're rioting all over their streets, their inflation rate is 60 percent or something like that, maybe even worse actually.

Maria Bartiromo

00:40:29 - 00:40:32 (3 sec)

Are we going to have a war with Iran, Mr. President?

Donald Trump

00:40:32 - 00:40:52 (21 sec)

Well I hope we don't but we're in a very strong position if we -- if something should happen, we're in a very strong position, it wouldn't last very long I can tell you that. It would not last very long. And I'm not talking boots on the ground, I'm not talking we're going to send a million soldiers, I'm just saying if something would happen, wouldn't last very long.

Donald Trump

00:40:52 - 00:41:09 (16 sec)

I've been very nice to them, I decided not to do -- they shot down our drone, I decided not to kill a lot of Iranians, I know a lot of Iranians, I like Iranians so much. And that plays into your decision too, I mean they're human beings, they're people. I didn't want to kill 150 people when they shot down an unmanned drone.

Donald Trump

00:41:09 - 00:41:12 (3 sec)

So I didn't -- I didn't do that. And a lot of people were very happy that I didn't.

Maria Bartiromo

00:41:12 - 00:41:17 (5 sec)

So the sanctions at this point -- the sanctions are enough in your view to fight back on Iran's provocations?

Donald Trump

00:41:17 - 00:41:34 (17 sec)

Well the sanctions are very biting, when I took over Iran was a terror. We had 18 -- 14 to 18 sites of confliction, Iran was behind every one of them. Look at what they did. They would have take over the Middle East and they were going to make it really very, very bad, very dead. They would have taken over Saudi Arabia, they would have -- (CROSS TALK)

Maria Bartiromo

00:41:34 - 00:41:36 (2 sec)

Well we know that nothing compares --

Donald Trump

00:41:36 - 00:41:36 (1 sec)

Had I not been elected president they would have taken --

Maria Bartiromo

00:41:36 - 00:41:37 (0 sec)

-- nothing compares to the --

Donald Trump

00:41:37 - 00:41:39 (3 sec)

-- over Saudi Arabia, they would have taken over the entire Middle East.

Maria Bartiromo

00:41:39 - 00:41:54 (15 sec)

Nothing compares to the American military, we know that. But Mr. President, as we speak, China is trying to replace the U.S. as the military superpower. You know this better than anybody they're -- they're pushing out submarines, they're putting -- they're putting military bases across the world, Djibouti.

Donald Trump

00:41:54 - 00:41:55 (1 sec)

Maria Bartiromo

00:41:55 - 00:41:57 (3 sec)

So I mean what about that with China?

Donald Trump

00:41:57 - 00:42:13 (16 sec)

They've been doing it for years, they've been doing a plane a day. Well with tariffs you don't do that anymore, Maria. If I did tariffs -- if I did 25 percent on $600 billion, that's the end of their -- they're building islands in the South China Sea, that's the end of --

Maria Bartiromo

00:42:13 - 00:42:16 (3 sec)

But is it the end of a four percent economy for the U.S.?

Donald Trump

00:42:16 - 00:42:38 (23 sec)

I think we'll do just great. Hey look, right now ready, we're losing $500 billion a year for many years OK. We've paid to China like a check -- cash, I'm not talking about deficits, I'm not -- I'm talking about the loss, real money loss. We've been handing China $500 billion a year forever. And I don't blame China, I blame our leaders.

Donald Trump

00:42:38 - 00:43:01 (23 sec)

Why would they allow this to happen, we didn't do anything. Obama did nothing against China, Biden doesn't know he's alive. These people, what China did to Obama is -- they -- it got worse under Obama. And then, you know, it was Bush's fault too, it was everybody's fault before me. Well I've stopped -- look, they've never paid us anything, now they're paying us a lot.

Donald Trump

00:43:01 - 00:43:05 (4 sec)

And I haven't even started. The big chunk I haven't even done yet. If you want to --

Maria Bartiromo

00:43:05 - 00:43:08 (3 sec)

There's a Bank -- there's a Bank of America report --

Donald Trump

00:43:08 - 00:43:12 (4 sec)

If you want to stop their military, if you want to stop their military you do exactly what I'm doing.

Maria Bartiromo

00:43:12 - 00:43:23 (11 sec)

Yes. There's a Bank of America report says a further deterioration in relations between the U.S. and China would set off a chain of events that would push oil down more than 50 percent to the low 30s. In other words --

Donald Trump

00:43:23 - 00:43:43 (20 sec)

That's OK with me. I don't know, you know, we're the largest oil producer in the world, but I -- I'm old fashioned when it comes to our country. I like low gasoline prices, OK. So we're the largest oil producer now, under me we're the largest in the world and when I get the pipelines approved in Texas, we'll go up by another 35 percent.

Donald Trump

00:43:43 - 00:43:53 (10 sec)

But you know what, if that happened, I'd -- by the way, I disagree with that, a lot of people would say it would actually drive prices up. But you know what does Bank of America know? I've watched them, they don't know too much.

Maria Bartiromo

00:43:53 - 00:43:54 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:43:54 - 00:43:59 (5 sec)

I mean if he's saying it's going to move them down, I would say it might have the opposite effect.

Maria Bartiromo

00:43:59 - 00:44:01 (1 sec)

I'm just saying..

Donald Trump

00:44:01 - 00:44:07 (7 sec)

If that happened -- if that happened, we're going to have nice low gasoline prices. That wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Maria Bartiromo

00:44:07 - 00:44:14 (7 sec)

So you have a plan B should you not do a deal with China. Going into this meeting, what is victory for you? What next week?

Donald Trump

00:44:14 - 00:44:46 (32 sec)

My plan B is maybe my plan A. My plan B is that if we don't make a deal, I will tariff and maybe not at 25 percent, but maybe at 10 percent, but I will tariff the rest of the $600 billion that we're talking about. We have much more than $300 billion worth of products. Now, what's going to happen, then all of those companies will move out of China, most of them, and they'll move to other places like Vietnam and other places that take advantage of us, and we'll start working on that, too, by the way, but I don't want to do too many at one time.

Donald Trump

00:44:46 - 00:44:48 (1 sec)

China's fine. We did Mexico and Canada.

Maria Bartiromo

00:44:48 - 00:44:48 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:44:48 - 00:44:52 (4 sec)

We have to get that approved by Nancy Pelosi. That's a great deal for us.

Maria Bartiromo

00:44:52 - 00:44:54 (2 sec)

You expect to get that approved this year, Mr. President?

Donald Trump

00:44:54 - 00:44:59 (5 sec)

Well, I hope we do. I mean it's up to the democrats.

Maria Bartiromo

00:44:59 - 00:44:59 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:44:59 - 00:45:12 (13 sec)

The deal is done, it's sitting in Congress. It's up to Nancy Pelosi to put it there. I would call it, I told her other day get it done because we will call it a bipartisan deal and if they want to make a couple minor changes, we can make some changes but it's a great deal.

Maria Bartiromo

00:45:12 - 00:45:18 (6 sec)

Mr. President, we got to -- we got to jump because we are cutting into your friend Mr. Varney's time, but me ask you this.

Donald Trump

00:45:18 - 00:45:22 (4 sec)

We can't do that. By the way, he's such a great guy, that guy.

Maria Bartiromo

00:45:22 - 00:45:37 (15 sec)

There was an op-ed in the "Journal" the other day, Mr. President, and it said basically advising you to take Nikki Haley as your running mate going into 2020. Are you locked in on -- on Vice President Pence for 2020 or would you consider having Nikki Haley as your running mate?

Donald Trump

00:45:37 - 00:45:56 (19 sec)

I love Nikki. She's endorsed me. She's my friend. She's part of my campaign, but Mike has been a great vice president. He's 100 percent and this was written actually by a friend of mine, but let me tell you, Mike Pence has been a great vice president. Nikki Haley represented us so well and our country so well.

Donald Trump

00:45:56 - 00:46:06 (10 sec)

I love Nikki and there's places for Nikki and Nikki's future's great but Mike Pence is the person, 100 percent. Yes, we won, we won together. We have tremendous evangelical support.

Maria Bartiromo

00:46:06 - 00:46:07 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:46:07 - 00:46:16 (9 sec)

We have tremendous support from every angle. And -- well you can't break up a team like that. That's a team that really -- and we get along well together. We get along really well together.

Maria Bartiromo

00:46:16 - 00:46:28 (12 sec)

Mr. President, it's a pleasure to talk with you today. Thank you so much for the time this morning Mr. President. We'll be watching you in Japan with President Xi on the heels of an incredibly successful trip a couple of weeks ago to France and to the U.K. Thank you, Mr. President.

Donald Trump

00:46:28 - 00:46:31 (2 sec)

Say hello to Stuart and everybody on your show. They're terrific. Thank you very much Maria.

Maria Bartiromo

00:46:31 - 00:46:36 (5 sec)

Thank you so much. Stuart Varney, there you go. The president sends his regards to you and I apologize for taking a few minutes of your show.