Full: Former President Trump speaks at the Economic Club of Chicago

Let me invite on onto the stage president [Music] Trump thank you thank you very much thank you very much have a [Applause] seat I like that crowd that's a nice thank you very much standing evation thank you um president Trump thank you for Doing this as we said and you had the reception there the business people of Chicago like everywhere else they like a lot of the things you want to do in terms of tax cuts and some of the spending proposals but like many business people what they're often worried about is the cost mhm

and the committee for responsible federal budget which is a bipartisan outfit put out some predictions the other day if you add up all the promises you've made and Your plans would add $7.5 trillion doar to the debth that's more than the twice the total for vice president Harris you're on course to push up debt up to 150% of GDP this is a very business-like audience why should they trust you with that because we're about growth she's got no growth whatsoever and we're all about growth we're going to bring companies back to our country you look

at even today as I was driving over I See these empty old beautiful like steel mills and factories that are empty and falling down some have been converted to senior citizens homes but that's not going to do the trick and we're going to bring the companies back we're going to lower taxes still further for companies that are going to make their product in the USA we're going to protect those companies with strong tariffs because I'm a Believer in tariffs I'm not sure that you are I don't think you are but I Congratulate you on your

career but to me the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff and it's my favorite word it needs a public relations uh firm to help it but to me it's the most beautiful word in the the Tariff tariffs do you think that will bring in the revenues to use another bipartisan group P Institute they say they only bring in $200 billion that is only that's barely The cost of two of your promises yeah but that's like for for what company are you talking about okay look I've I've brought in with tariffs and I was

just getting started then Co came and we had a what you know because I tell you what I did a very good job in Co nobody knew what the hell it was I call it the China virus because I like being a little more accurate but uh when that came but we we got hundreds of billions of dollars just from China alone and I hadn't even Started yet but tariffs are two uh two things if you look at it number one is for protection of the companies that we have here and the new companies that

will move in because we're going to have thousands of companies coming into this country we're going to grow it like it's never grown before and we're going to protect them when they come in because we're not going to have somebody undercut them and I could give you an example of this if you want would you Like me to CU it just give a quick example then I will come back I just found out about it so I've been talking about for the last year uh about Detroit and how horribly it has been you know it's

just horrible cuz we've been talking about Detroit's coming back for 40 years and it's never come back and it's very dependent on the car industry well they've lost uh 60% of the business over a long period of time and what happened is uh I found out friend of Mine builds autop plants that's all he does he builds autop plants that's what he's good at he doesn't want to build an apartment all he wants to build is and he builds the biggest in the world and for the last year and a half of anybody has heard

me speak I would I was talking about Mexico is a tremendous challenge for us right now tremendous China is building mass of Auto plants in Mexico and they're going to build them and they're going to take those cars and Sell them into the United States they're very near the border and they're going to have all the advantages and none of the disadvantages and that's going to be the end of Michigan it's going to be the end of frankly South Carolina going to be the end of everything so I've been talking about this and I said

to him about nine months ago I said you know what I want you to do me a favor John his name is John I don't want to give his last name because he might not like It but I said I want to see an auto plant I want to go and see one of these you know you press a button and everything works right uh I want to see one of the big ones he said all right good I said where do we go I'd like to go to Michigan I'd like to go to someplace

in the United States he said no we can't do that why we're not building anything big in the United States that's not we don't build the big ones here I said where are you building The biggest ones he said in Mexico we're building giant plants the biggest plants anywhere in the world in Mexico I said so you mean they're going to make cars cheaply they have advantages over labor and other things and they're going to sell them into the United States and they're going to put Michigan out of business is that what I don't know

anything about that all I do is build the plants if you want to see a plant we'll go to Mexico I show you the Biggest plant in the world that was nine months ago I saw him and I talked about it all the time because I think it's a serious threat to our country because not only autos with other things so then I see him two days ago I was talking at another club very nice club and like this except uh I don't know I think you people are probably even wealthier okay this was this

was in Detroit okay which was appropriate and I was talking I was showing them all sorts of charts about How their car you know it's just gone down it's like terrible and I saw him and I said oh how are you doing how have you been I said could I ask you how are those plants that you mentioned those giant plants that you're building in Mexico how is that coming along have you finished them no sir they abandoned the project when they heard you're running they abandoned the project when they saw that you were winning

and doing well I said Wow all the same because I told them I told them and I said it publicly they're not going to sell one car into the United States I said if I run this country if I'm going to be president of this country I'm going to put a 100 200 2,000% tariff they're not going to sell one car into the United States because we're not going to destroy our country by so when because I know you're an anti-ar guy but I'm I'm the exact opposite if if I had there is no other

Way I could have stopped them other than what am I going to do negotiate with Mexico or China you're not going to get anything from that I said I'm going to put a 100 200 or 30 00 I'm going to put the highest tariff in history meaning I'm going to stop them from ever selling a car into United States so I just see the guy by accident I see him he says sir they've abandoned those and by the way they built foundations they were really rocking they were going to do it They thought that I

was going to win or maybe they're just holding up I tell you this if I don't win those factories are going to wipe out this country they're the biggest factories ever built for cars they're going to wipe out our country if she wins and she won't if a isn't a What The Hell she's doing if she wins she's and she's not going to be thinking about I I couldn't every speech I made having to do with cars but every speech I made having to do with Tariffs I'd mentioned that our country is being threatened by

Mexico now all of those things Beyond even the car companies all of those things are now dead they're dead I asked them will they start probably not they're dead is a door nail if she gets in it'll start up again president Trump I let you give your example you talked a lot about tariffs you look at the American economy 40 million jobs rely on trade it accounts for 27% of GDP okay if you cut That off that's also going to have an effect on many many business people here yeah tariffs also have another side isn't

that something that you have to acknowledge you could be plunging America into the biggest trade War since smoo Hall there are you're going to stop you're going to there are tariffs already no there are no tariffs all you have to do is build your plant in the United States and you don't have any tariffs but people A lot of places lot of places like this they rely there are a lot of jobs that rely on foreigners coming here you're going to basically stop trade with China you're talking about 60% trade on that 60% tariffs on

that you're talking as you said 100 200% on things you don't really like you're also talking about 20 10 20% tariffs on the rest of the world that is going to have a serious effect on the overall economy and yes you're going to find some people who would gain From Individual tariffs the overall effect could be massive I agree I agree it's going to have a massive effect positive effect it's going to be a positive not a negative let me just no no let me tell I know how committed you are to this and it

must be hard for you to you know spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you're totally wrong it'll have a Nega it will have I'll go a step further if you don't Do pres 40 million jobs is a lot of jobs to rely on they're all coming back you those are 40 million jobs in America that rely on TR are you ready John Deere great company they announced about a year ago they're going to build big plants outside of the United States right they're going to

build them in Mexico you threaten they're also going to build that's right I said if John Deere builds those plants and not selling anything into the United States They just announced yesterday they're probably not going to build the plants okay I kept the jobs jobs here and I'll keep the John Deere will stay here and I'll tell John Deere if if you do build outside of the United States you can if you want for instance India is a very tough country it's not only China you know China is is the I would say probably the

toughest but there there are a lot of tough you know what's very tough European Union our beautiful European countries wonderful wonderful if you add them up they're almost the size of us they treat us so badly we have a deficit I said to Angela Merkel when she was there she's not there anymore I wonder why but when when she was there I said Anga how many Chevrolets do we have in Berlin why Donald uh you have none I said that's right how many Fords do we have in Frankfurt uh I don't know none I said

that's right you know how many cars we Have mercedesbenz and BMW and all of the different Volkswagen millions and millions of cars and then I said farm products you know they don't want our farm they don't want anything from us we have deficits that are are crazy and we're not g to have them anymore we're going to put tariffs on them and they're going to do and you know what they can do the Mercedes-Benz will start building in the United States and they have a little bit but you know what they really Are assembly like

in South Carolina but they build everything in Germany and then they assemble it here they get away with murder because they say oh yes we're building cars they don't build car they take them out of a box and they assemble them we could have our child doing can we come back let's let's come back to the Europeans in a second what what about consumers people out there they're going to be the biggest benefici yeah critics say your tariffs will end Up being like a national sales tax no no the country is if you have America

at the moment has $3 trillion dollar worth of imports you're going to add tariffs to every single one of them that is going to push up the cost for all those people who want to buy foreign Goods now what's going to happen simple mathematics president Trump it's not yeah it is but not the way you figured I was always very good at mathematics let me tell you you're saying 3 trillion Those companies Tron worth and they don't have to pay and if by the the higher the Tariff the more likely it is to have them

come into the higher the Tariff the more you're going to put on the value of that those goods the higher people are going to pay in shops ready the higher the Tariff the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States and build a factory in the United States so it doesn't have to pay the Tariff if I have That will take that will take many many no oh it will goly in fact I'll I'll tell you you know another theory is that uh uh the Tariff you make it so high

so horrible so obnoxious that they'll come right away when I do the 10% 10% is really first of all 10% when you collect it is hundreds of billions of dollars the numbers that you're talking all reducing our deficit but really so there's two ways of looking at a tariff you can do it as a money-making Instrument or you can do it as something to get the company now if you want the companies to come in the Tariff has to be a lot higher than 10% because 10% is not enough guys they're not going to do

it for 10 but you make a 50% tariff they're going to come in let me tell you the other thing about tariffs that's great our steel companies as you know three four years ago they were all go when I was in office I saw a man from a big Steel Company and he was devastated I knew him for a long time and it's been a tough business it was a great business many years ago and I would not let us steel be sold to Japanese by the way it's too it just psychologically I think it

would be that's nion steel as you know yeah I wouldn't let yeah I would have let it be so but I would if this I would stop it if it hasn't been completed by the time I'm president because I think it sets a horrible tone but I I had a lot to do With steel we were going to lose all our steel companies because China as you remember was dumping steel at levels that nobody's ever seen before and I put a 50% tax on that and uh ter on that all dumped steel and it was

also bad steel it was dirt what they call Dirty steel it wasn't good steel which is a bad thing for structural components of buildings and planes and things like that they were dumping crap into our country and I put a 50% tariff I started At 25 I raised it to 50 because the 25 didn't quite do it I raised it to 50 and that did it they stopped dumping steel and I saved our steel Ms by having that we saved it we saved our Steel now what was left because we've lost so much but there

are certain companies you have to have there are certain things you have to have steel you have to have if you go to war you know there's a possibility to go to war I kept this out of War I was the only president in 82 years that kept You out of a war except I defeated Isis but I inherited that one there no Wars and by the way by the way and I think it's very important you can go you know I call it the weave you can call it it got to you have the

weave as long as you end up in the right location at the end but uh while we're talking about it we have never been so close to World War II as we have are right now uh with what's going on in Ukraine and Russia and the Middle East well let's let's I had no Wars in the whole world think of it and I talked to them out of Wars I took plenty of countries out of Wars I had the whole world other than Isis which I inherited and I knocked out Isis in a matter of

weeks it was supposed to take four to 5 years I did it in a matter of weeks we actually have a great military we don't know how to use it but we have a great presid with great respect you I was asking about tariffs you've gone off about that seeing you bought up tariffs And foreign policy many people would say the biggest problem with your tariffs is actually geopolitics you in your first term you got some credit for effectively saying was a cold there was a cold war against China that's what America was in you

look at the last Cold War against the Soviet Union America won it in part because it rallied allies to it you're talking about slamming allies with 30% 20% tariffs isn't this time you're going to End up trying to Rally the west and you're dividing it instead isn't that the real problem with tariffs even beyond all the problems due with the economy where you you keep on bringing out these individual examples but the overall effect is going to be dramatic no the overall answer first about foreign policy yeah I'll do that how does it help you

take on China turning all your allies against tremendously because China thinks we're a stupid Country a very stupid country they can't believe that somebody finally got wise to them not one President Bush uh Obama Barack Hussein Obama have you heard of him not one president not think of it not one president charged China anything they said oh they are third world nation they are a developing well we're a developing Nation too take a look at Detroit take a look at our cities we're a developing Nation we we have to develop more than they do they

we're way Behind them you take a look at what's happened to our cities so what I'm saying my question was about your allies not about China you are going to annoy the our allies R behind you but our allies have taken advantage of us more so than our enemies our allies are the European Union we have a trade deficit of $300 billion doll with the European Union our allies are Japan you know ABI was a very good friend of mine he was a great guy great and I said to him in Japan he was assassinated

and he was a great man he really was I didn't see too many like him uh and he was he got very sick and he had to take off and then he was he was actually making a comeback he was going to make a comeback and he would have won easily but he was a great gentleman handsome wonderful man respected by everybody and uh he I went to him and I said chinzo we have to talk what trade and he goes I'll never forget it I know I said' What do you know I knew you'd

come to me why do you say that because I can't believe I wouldn't tell the story he was alive actually said I can't believe how many years it's been that nobody even negotiated with us in America I said chinzo you have to pay for your cars you're sending millions of cars you don't accept a car from us you don't have one car that you accept and yet we're selling three million four million of your cars I said Shinzo on Agriculture you won't even accept our Agriculture and I renegotiated the whole trade deal from a little

disadvantage because I was stuck with a bad deal I mean I I got stuck we have trade deals that were so bad that I said who are the people that are doing it they're either very stupid or they're getting paid off okay it's one or the other it's very simple we had the worst trade deals all over the world uh South Korea I love South Korea they're wonderful people Extremely ambitious they have a money machine we protect them from North Korea and other people North Korea is very nuclear I got along with him very well

Kim Jung but wait they don't pay us anything and I said this is crazy if I didn't put tariffs on you know the uh the motor comp the car companies they make most of their money at small trucks I put tariffs on China but I put 27.5% otherwise we we'd be flooded with Chinese cars and and all of our Factories would closed we' have no jobs at all in the Auto industry that goes for electric by the way which is a killer which I've explained and I don't think I have to bore anybody by talking

about it but I put tariffs on South Korea because they were sending in trucks and I put tariffs on fairly substantial tariffs do you know that our car companies make almost all of their money with the small trucks SUVs and small trucks if I if I took those Tariffs on you would be inundated every car company would be out of business and I got calls from Ford I got calls from everybody saying sir I can't believe you're doing this for us you saved our company we were going they make all their money with us if

they make most of their money with a small truck and you know the SUVs many consumers ended up with more expensive cars but let me just let me just come at you on foreign policy you wouldn't have a car company You have said that Taiwan should pay for us protection I asked because this morning you just mentioned North Korea the Chinese Army literally as we speak are engaged in rehearsals for a full Naval blockade of Taiwan so I suppose my question to you if China invades Taiwan would you send American troops to defend it well

the reason they're doing it now is they're not going to do it afterwards okay it's you know so they're doing it now they want to do a CH now look I had A I had a very I had a very good relationship with President she and a very good relationship with Putin and a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un who is a nuclear force that you won't even believe and by the way today it was announced for those that he just blew up the railroad going into South Korea that means South Korea is now cut

off from Russia and China and various other places I mean cut off by real Trump you Just mentioned no but these are big things I have to mention them yeah you just me you just mentioned Putin though this has been this controversy of the past week can you say yes or no whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president well I don't comment on that but I will tell you that if I did it's a smart thing if I'm friendly with people if I have a relationship with people that's a good

thing not a bad thing in terms of a Country he's got 2,000 nuclear weapons and so do we China has a lot less but they'll catch us within five years that sounds if I have a relationship I I don't talk about I don't talk about no I don't talk about that I don't ever say but I can tell you what Russia has never had a president that they respect so much but more importantly or less importantly I guess uh I went into Russia and people said oh he likes Putin and Putin likes him let me

tell you the First thing I did was terminated nordstream two nobody ever heard of nordstream I it's a pipeline from Russia to Germany and all over Europe I said wait a minute to Nato I said so let's get this straight my first meeting I said so Putin's building the biggest pipeline in the world he's going to Germany but all over Europe and you're paying him billions of dollars a year of billions of dollars a month you're paying Germany's paying Billions of dollars a month and we're supposed to protect you against the guy that you're paying

all this money to so is there something wrong with my thinking so he's building a pipeline to Germany and we're spending and by the way until I got there we were spending almost 100% for NATO because we had all these delinquent countries they weren't paying when I got there I said you know what and and by the way my biggest fan is Stoltenberg just leaving Secretary General of NATO he said when Bush came in he made a speech and left when Obama came in he made a speech and left when Trump came in he made

a speech and he said let me see your books and I found out in the books that nobody was paying there were only seven countries that were paying we were supporting NATO they screw us on trade so bad the European nations and then on top of that they were screwing us on the military so They're taking a tremendous advantage of us $350 billion deficit on trade and we're then supporting them in other words it's not sustainable you can't keep doing this you can't have that China all of these countries and stupid people may these deals

I I saw trade deals that were so stupid that you'd have to be excuse me that was so bad that you'd have to be an idiot to sign them and we signed them for years we had we had I could tell you trade deals that I have never seen anything I said who would agree to this they had to be corrupt they had to be corrupt to make those deals they had to be corrupt because there is no way a rational human being I always say either corrupt or extremely stupid because there's no way a

rational human being would ever sign the trade that this country signed and I got out of many of those deals I told South Kore I'm sorry you're going to have to pay for your military we have 40,000 troops over there you're going to have to pay you become a very wealthy country just to finish you become a very wealth they said no no no we will not pay we will not we haven't paid since the Korean War I said no you got to pay I said would $5 billion a year to start off with no

no we're they went crazy they agreed to two I got $2 billion doll for nothing and I said here's what we're going to do they said we can't agree to this because we have to go through Parliament they have the parliament or whatever their legislature is I said that's okay I fully understand that make it $2 billion but next year I'm going to talk to you again and I was going to make it five billion and they knew it was coming the happiest people to see that it was Biden instead of trump with them South

Korea you know what they did they cut off the deal that I made where they were paying us they backed to nothing because They went back to Biden and they gave it to him for nothing they were willing to pay we have 40,000 troops In Harm's Way very serious because you have North Korea's a very serious power they have tremendous nuclear power and I said to South Korea you got to pay and they agreed to do it and Biden then cut it back and it's a shame and and I could tell you 50 deals and

if I were there now they'd be paying has $10 billion a year and you know what they'd be happy To do it it's a money machine South Korea you're going to mention Taiwan you wanted to mention Taiwan you me you mentioned Taiwan you said you would defend them you also seem to imply that Putin you would not you Putin you seem to imply that you had talked to him without actually I said I don't comment on those things what about can I can I ask you a particular thing about the dollar you've actually you talked

about wars the New York economic Club you said That if you lost the dollar as a reserve currency it would be like America losing a war yeah you look at what you're going to do in terms of protectionism Drive countries to use the other currencies and all that debt is also going to lessen the Dollar's status as the world's Reserve currency I'm the dollar is so secure your reserve currency is the strongest it'll ever be and uh you you said that President Trump at the moment there is a thing called the Trump Trade in the

markets do you know what that is the Trump trade is very simple people are betting that your policies are going to drive up debt they're going to drive up inflation so they're going to drive up inflation interest rates are the investors wrong yeah I had four years no inflation I had four years no inflation but that was that was when you had much I had four years it's better than that and Biden who has no idea where the hell he is okay Biden went two Years with no inflation because he inherited from me and then

they started spending money like drunken Sailors they spent so much money it was so ridiculous to money they were spending they were spending on the green new scam a green new scam the green New Deal you know it was conceived of by AOC plus3 she never even studied the environment in college she went to a nice College uh she came out she just said the green news scam she just named all these things President Trump the the markets are looking at the fact you are making all these promises latest one was car loans you're flooding

the thing with I giving giveaways but we're going toow I was actually quite kind to you I used 7 trillion the upper estimate is 15 trillion people like the Wall Street Journal who's hardly a communist organization they have criticized you on this as well you are running out enormous debt what is the Wall Street Journal now I'm meeting with them tomorrow what is the Wall Street Journal they've been wrong about everything so have you by the way you've been wrong about you're trying to turn this you're trying to turn this you've been wrong no you're

trying to turn you're trying to turn this into debate there's a there are business people but you're wrong you've been wrong you've been wrong all your life on this stuff you've been let me tell you about currency you could you Know you're going jump in a lot of a lot of different subject the reserve currency let's stick to the reserve currency that's where you started right the reserve currency is under threat because you have Iran you have Russia you have China wants China is the one that you have to worry about because they want it

yeah they want to have the wand be the the the you know thing of power so here's what I'm doing again I hate to go back to it if Somebody says and I know countries want to get out because they don't respect our leadership they look at this guy they say you got to be kidding and she's worse than him by the way she's I never thought I'd say this she is not as smart as Biden if you can believe this is not what we had four years of this this this lunacy and we can't

have it anymore we're not going to have a country left okay currency very important yes and if you want to go to third world if you Want to go to third world status lose your Reserve currency we have to have that we cannot lose it if you go to you'll go to third world status in this country because you take a look at the way things are running if a country tells me uh Sarah we like you very much but we're going to no longer adhere to being in the reserve currency uh we're not going

to uh salute the dollar anymore I'll say that's okay and uh you're going to pay a 100% tariff on Everything you sell into the United States and we love you your product I hope you sell a lot of it into the United States but you're going to pay 100% tariff uh he will then follow it up by saying sir it would be an honor to stay with the reserve currency I will be that will be like just playing that's not even chess that's Checkers but you don't have other listen to this you don't you don't

have other people that can talk that way you know a lot of People say we love Trump's policy but we would like to have another messenger because we don't like him he's a little bit crashed and then actually it was Lindsey Graham I must say he was a progressive in all fairness but Lindsey grah said but Trump's policy doesn't work without Trump and there's a lot of Truth to that uh macron was going to nice guy Emmanuel he's a wise guy but he's for France and wither the USA you know this story he was going

to tax American companies doing business in France a very substantial tax and I told my people I'm not I didn't even like the companies but I I I'm representing American companies and this so I said call macron and call his people and say we're not going to stand for that and I got minuchin and you know a lot of guys smart guys if I can finish yeah I'll go longer if you want if it helps because you got to be able to you move too now you got to be able to Finish a thought because

it's very important you know this is big stuff we're talking about you can't go that quickly from the so let me just tell you so I said no I'm just telling you basic uh it's called The Weave it's all these different things happen so let me just say so I said to minuchin call him up and say no way he did and he came back to see me he said they won't do it sir it's too late I said to somebody else you call then I said let me do it and I Called him and

I said Emanuel you're taxing American companies very substantially you're not doing it with other companies you must think with stupid it's not going to happen but d d I cannot do anything it's too late or it was approved by A legislature I said that's okay here's the story every bottle of wine and champagne that you send into the United States effective immediately and I'm signing it as I speak uh I'm charging you 100% on every Bottle of wine and champagne you know they like the wine and champagne right every bottle of wine and champagne that

comes into the United States of America has a tax on starting on Monday morning this was a Friday of 100% And that's better than you're doing okay and he said no no no you cannot do that I said I've done it it's already signed Monday morning goes may I call you back yes he calls me back in about 3 minutes we have decided to remove the tax from the Conference this I did this all day long but you don't have you think Biden does that I don't think so let me let me let me change

let me ask you a very factual question the Federal Reserve yeah you say you don't want interest rates to go higher you've gone backwards and forwards about whether you want whether you want to keep jome parl as chair of the Federal Reserve his term as chair runs on to May 2026 would you seek to remove remove or Demote him look I think it's the greatest job in government you show up to the office once a mon month and you say let's see flip a and everybody talks about you like you're a God oh what will

he do I mean before the guy used to walk into my office he was like begging he was a he was fine you did you did talk about you talked about removing him once I did because he was keeping the rid too high yeah and I was right and you would do That again in fact he actually dropped them too much when I did this because I said I was threat threatening to terminate him there was a question as to whether or not you could and there was an article in the New York Times two

half pages one page said I can do it by lawyers one half page said I couldn't and that was enough for him and he dropped the hell out of the r he dropped them too much he went so was he dropped them actually too Much okay uh here's the story I think that if you're a very good president with good sense you should be able to at least talk to him I don't say make the decision at all but I I mean I've been a very successful businessman I've done really good much better now people

are understanding how good I've done because they're seeing it real much better than the fake news wants to give me credit for a you would I think I have the right to say as a very good Businessman and somebody that's used a lot of uh sense I think I have the right to say that you know I think I'm I think I'm better than he would be I think I'm better than most people would be in that position I think I have the right to say I think you should go up or down a little

bit I don't think I should be allowed to order it but I think I have the right to put in comments uh as to whether or not interest rates should go up or down when you when you looked at The Supreme Court you came up with a list of people I did who you thought of replacing bringing in a supreme court justices would you do that with the federal well I no longer need it when I it was a great thing in fact a lot of people said I got elected because of that I was

an unknown quantity I was very known as a business guy but I wasn't known as a political person or the leader of a country and people were very worried about you know actually They were worried am I going to be liberal if you want to know the truth and somebody said would you come up with a list of 20 or 25 justices in this case mostly judges that you'd put in in case it were necessary now it's amazing because I got three in four years most people get none because you know you put them in

the Young you tend to put them in young uh only super people put old you know you don't put old in because they're there for two Years or three years put so I got I got three most a lot of Judges a lot of presidents get none I got three and uh I think they've been three great choices too by the way but by the way I think they I think they have been really great choices but I got three judges and and and you know what they want to do they want to put up

they want to now put up up to 25 justices into the Supreme Court the radical left and that can't happen so I think I've Done a great job on putting in justices and 300 judges and that made a tremendous difference in the country you know I was a little lucky because Barack Hussein Obama did not get his judges approved a lot of them so I ended up with 125 judges before I got there so Mo again most presidents don't even get to put a Supreme Court judge in because it's nine and you know they're there

for a long time most of them are there for a very long time and I got three which is A very unusual situation I got three in four years maybe maybe we can change the subjects technology seeing you wouldn't answer about the Federal Reserve the US justice department is thinking about breaking up alphabet as Google likes to be known now should Google be broken up I I just haven't gotten over something the justice department did yesterday where Virginia cleaned up its voter roles and got rid of thousands and Thousands of bad votes and the justice

department sued them that they should be allowed to put those bad votes and illegal votes back in and let the people vote so I haven't I I haven't gotten I haven't gotten over that a lot of people have seen that they can't even believe it the question is about Google president Trump yeah look Google's got a lot of power they're very bad to me very very bad to me I mean I I I can speak from that standpoint uh they only have Bad stories in other words if I have 20 good stories and 20 bad

stories and Everyone's entitled to that you'll only see the 20 bad stories and I called the head of Google the other day and I said I'm getting a lot of good stories lately but you don't find them in Google I think it's a whole rigged deal I think Google's rigged just like our government is rigged all over the place break them up in other words I do something but you have to have look I I give them a lot of Credit they become such a power it's such a power and you got to give them

credit for that uh how they became a power is you know really the discussion at the same time it's it's a very dangerous thing because we want to have great companies we don't want China to have these companies right now China is afraid of Google right now you know China is a very powerful very smart group of people I will tell you That from very person there's an example of a Chinese tech company at the moment Tik Tok yeah you initially wanted to ban Tik Tok now you like it apparently for some reason to do

with Facebook yeah there was a decision coming up if you became president yeah it's Chinese parent would have to sell it I think it's by January the 19th would you force them to do that so I originally uh had it all done and then I said to Congress your decision I I said I'm not going to You know pull any strings nothing your decision you make it but I had it all done and I said you make it and they decided not to make it I didn't care if they made it or not because to

me it was a flip of a crime you know you have some real first amendment problems you have a lot of problems you you just talked about Chinese technology the need to defend against it yeah Tik Tok and the threat people see to many kind American children and things like that yeah but Why do you no longer see wellat I think it is a threat frankly I think everything's a threat there's nothing that's not a threat but sometimes you have to fight through these threats you know you can't just like Google I'm not a fan

of Google they treat me badly but if you are you going to destroy the company by doing that if you do that are you going to destroy the company what you can do without breaking it up is make sure that it's more fair They do treat me very badly oh and he told me no way you're the number one person on all of Google for stories I mean which probably makes sense to be honest with you I actually Brave most of them are bad stories but these are Minor Details right and it's only bad because

of fake news because the news is really fake we that's the one we really have to straighten we have to straighten out our press because we have a corrupt press that's the one we Really can I can I can I ask you can I ask you about um silicon I was in Silicon Valley recently you talked to the tech bosses there and the tech people and there seems to be a real fear that what you would do with tech is you would hand it over to Elon Musk and say you sort it out no no

I have great respect for Elon uh look I saw that rocket ship come in yesterday and go right back to where it took off to the Gantry I guess they call it and I said What the hell I I was I was on a phone talking about probably politics and the television and the televisions on and I'm seeing this big thing where the white paint was burned off it from the you know thousands of miles an hour the Heat and I see this big massive tube that's 10 stories 20 stories tall come down I I

I told the person on the phone wait a minute I'm seeing something that's I don't believe it neither does anybody else here and I said wait a Minute I put the I forgot the guy was on the phone he waited for a half hour and I watched I watched that come down and I watched it come down and come right in between those big levers and I said and it looked to me like it was going to crash it was coming in hot and all of a sudden boom you see the motor the the the

fire kick in and I called Elon I said that's the most incredible thing I said Can Russia do that nope I said can the United States do it nope he's the only one that can do it and I you you now want to put him in charge of deregulation not deregulation uh cutting cutting wasteful spending cutting every single includ deregulation when you every every president comes in and talks about cutting wasteful spending oh there's tremendous work what give me an example of something you will do that will get rid of government spending let me give

you an example when I came into Government I was the first thing example going forward this this is going forward because it's the same thing when I first sat down a general came into my office and he said sir it's nice to meet you would you please sign I said what is it it's a contract for a new Air Force One which is actually two planes not one two Boeing 747 and I said how much is it $5.7 billion it's a hell of an expensive plan but there's reasons for that he said Nope I'm not

signing it I said who negotiated Barack usus and Obama I said I'm not signing it why because he because you there's a lot of fat I said I'm not sorry it's got to have a three on it anyway long story short some of you have heard this I got it down to because first week they cut off 400 million he said I'll cut I met with the head of Boeing wait Dennis I said Dennis you got to have a three 5.7 is too much 5.7 billion he said the most I'll take Off is $400 million

I said well that's not bad for one conversation so I got it down I said nope I'm not accepting then he took off two more then he took off anyway two months went by three months went by I thought we blew the deal and I was okay with me I didn't care but we should have a new Air Force One when we see these planes from Saudi Arabia from different countries brand new and ours is like 32 years old and it's a very different plan it's much smaller plan You the whole thing the United States

should have the best plane I will tell you not for me but we should have let me let me let me just finish would you would you so he said he calls up after like two three months I didn't call him which is the best way to buy something don't call back and he goes in fact when he called me I said I wonder what the hell he wants that's good way to negotiate let me tell you so calls back said Sir 3 b999 milon 99999 and 99 one penny above below $4 billion so I

said you got yourself a deal then I said to him let me ask you a question so you had a deal at 5.7 billion and in a period of two months I got got 1.7 billion off that means you're going to make $1.7 billion profit on an airplane did nobody ever negotiate with You well not really sir they just this is the price and they said we'll take it and I said you know and then I learned that was my first experience you know from that but then I learned everything is like that there is

so much way so I'm getting think of this the exact same plane for 1.7 billion less exact except they have a better paint job okay much better paint job a different color red white and blue is beautiful uh and if you look at every contract that's one Contract and relatively small compared to most think of it you save 1.7 billion because you negotiate every deal is like that we're building ships that are costing two three times more than there's tremendous waste Fraud and Abuse in our country and if you could cut it you would have

a surplus without even going into growth but growth we will grow we're going to bring companies and jobs in at levels that you've never seen and you would never be able to do it Because you're not a believer in ter only way let me tell you the only way you can do it is through the threat of tariffs it's the only way you can do it can we can we come back to one thing on that deal making you look out across this room there are a lot of there are some big businesses but a

lot of small ones lot by the way you you've us you've given us a lot of examples of things where you've negotiated with the heads of big businesses right give you an Example when you put the tariffs on China much smaller than you're planning to do at the moment when you put them on Apple came you you negotiated a difference for them I did that's much harder for small business people isn't the problem with the way that you do these kind of deals you're bound to deal with the big companies it's the small companies who

get hit by all these different things and can't find exceptions oh we have exceptions no no We had an exception rule I gave Apple an exception Tim Cook is a greats apple is not a small company and please please but but but here's what happen question is about small business yes but I would do for them no but we have a very talented group of people Bob ligher did a very good job we had great people we had Central Casting these are great and a large group of people we made exceptions uh in the case

of Apple they need an exception you know why Because of Samsung he came to me he said Samsung makes a product similar to ours very good product the phones and other things and because they're in South Korea they don't have the tariffs because we're in China we have the tariffs I said you happen to be right you're not going to be able to compete I said look I'm going to give you a one-year break but I want you to start building your factories in this country Whether it's Texas or any other place anywhere in the

country and he said what does that mean I said you have everything in China I want you to move it from China back to our country and he started doing that and he built a factory a big one in Texas he built another one and this was all a process it was all happening but I did give him an exception and the reason was he said as soon as he said Samsung I said how is that product compared to you he said It's a good product I said then you really can't compete you can't have

a 25 or 50% tariff and compete right yeah and I said I'm giving you an exception and I did it for many companies we had small the small businesses come and see that was the question but we do it for small businesses too we do it for small business I give you another example we have a man who I didn't know but he came to me he was at a meeting and he built kitchen cabinets and he was you know Pretty big in the business that's all he did is build kitchen cabinets he said sir

China and South Korea are building kitchen cabinets for onethird of what I can make them I said what's the quality they're not as good but they're good enough I can't complete I'm going out of business I have 2,000 people that work for me I'm going out of business I put a 25% tariff still on on kitchen cabinets I saw the guy two days two three days Ago he said I'm the man that's saw you about kitchen cabinets you saved my company when you did the Tariff and you saved thousands of jobs and my company is

now doing very well and he started to cry start to cry and this guy hasn't cried too much I will tell you he said you saved my company there's nobody that could have done that maybe I can ask you V about something else business people here in in in this room business people Capital Markets they all like the rule of law they like certainty the Chinese who you mentioned other dictators right they don't like it when things goong they like when things go wrong in America if you look at the events of January the 6th

2021 it showed to many people America's democracy was unruly and violent only 3 weeks to go to the election will you commit now to respecting and encouraging a peaceful transfer of power well you Had a peaceful transfer of power you had a peaceful transfer of power you had a peaceful come on President Trump you had you had a peace you had a peaceful transfer of power compared with Venezuela but it was by far the most the worst transer of power for a long time thank you I I appreciate that CU this is the you know

what they like to do this is what they like to do uh you know it's very interesting question question president Trump is Would you respect yeah the decision when I found out about this interview I did a little check he's a man that has not been a big Trump fan over the years so I had a choice do I do this interview or not I'm glad I did it but do I do this interview or do I disappoint a lot of people cuz I know a lot of people in the audience but his view is

very different than mine let let me just tell you march we had a term peacefully and patriotically these Were people if you think an election is crooked and I do 100% if you think the day it comes when you can't protest you take a look at the Democrats they protested 2016 they're still protesting it nobody talks about them but if we protest we want to have honest elections you think the last election was honest all do you think it all the times it went to courts the courts it didn't go they they went to court

and the courts all said you don't have standing nobody Had standing and it's hard frankly after an election for a judge but they all said you don't nobody ever had standing uh but the facts if you take a look I'd show you hundreds of pages of facts people were angry people went there and I'll tell you what uh they never show that the primary scene in Washington was hundreds of thousands the largest group of people I've ever spoken before and I've spoken and it was love and peace and some people went to the capital and

A lot of strange things happened there a lot of strange things with people being waved into the capital by police with people screaming go in with that never got into trouble you know I don't want to mention names but you know know who they are a lot of strange things happened but you had a peaceful very peaceful I left I left the morning that I was supposed to leave I went to Florida and you had a very peaceful transfer this was not a uh and and I'll Tell you what those people that did go that

which was a tiny fraction of the people that went to Washington I mean you're talking about a of very very small cuz hundreds of thousands of people and I don't know what you had 5 six 700 people uh go down to the capital but those people that was not that was not one of those people had a gun nobody was killed except for Ashley babbit she was killed she was killed she was shot in the head by a policeman that was had No what he did was horrible presid Trump so I think we should be

allowed to disagree on that and obviously you see by the reaction in room let's return to one other big subject you bring up repeatedly immigration yeah I know it's a very emotive issue for you but just from the point of view of business people here you look at the full effect of taking a lot of people out of the workforce removing a lot of people the federal the The Congressional budget office is banking on the fact that there' be9 trillion added to the GDP of America over the next 10 years by immigrants you want to

stop that process for all the people who run businesses in the audience yeah just focusing on the economic thing are you prepared to say look it's fine to have a slightly smaller economy in exchange for having the immigration control okay simple answer I want a lot of people to come Into our country but I want them to come in Legally I don't want to have murder that that but that means that means you will have that means you will have to deport you know you are talking about deporting 11 million people that that is a

lot of people it came out last week that 425,000 people are horrible criminals at the highest level but it came out that 13,099 were LED in during their Administration they tried to say long or Wrong during the over the last three and a half years 13,000 plus people came in murderers they're in jail for murder some were having the death penalty they were all released into our country 13,099 people were released into our country we had drug dealers released we had street gangs released look at what's happening in Aurora but now I don't have to

go with Aurora anymore look at what happened yesterday last night in Times Square where rough vi migrants from all Over the place you know it's not just South America we have people coming in from the Congo large numbers from the Congo in Africa they came in as of last night I was speaking to Tom Holman 180 countries people came in they came from prisons and jails they came from mental institutions and insan asems the step above they came from the terrorists we had large numbers of terrorists come in when I was present we had the

Strongest Border in the history of a country I built hundreds of miles of wall and walls work by the way hundreds of miles we had the best numbers we've ever had now we have the worst numbers and here's the problem we have some of the worst criminals in the world coming in now Venezuela their crime has gone down at levels that nobody's ever seen before because they've taken their street gangs and their drug dealers and and they've emptied their prisons not Fully because they can't get enough buses they've emptied their prisons they load up the

buses and they drive them into the United States and they're dropping their prisoners into our country their crime is down their numbers are are crazy how low it drops I heard 72 74% they've taken their they've taken their gangs they've taken their criminals off the street they've taken uh their people out of mental Institutions which cost them a fortune and they've taken them and dropped them into the United States of America those people have to be returned can't live with thousands of murderers and not the issue the issue the issue I the issue I asked

you about was the idea that if you reduce immigration every Economist will tell you if you have fewer people there is a smaller economy I don't I like immigration but it's they've got to come in Legally okay okay well let's let's Finish on two two no I want to make sure look I don't want to I don't want to have people that have killed nine people and they're you know a sadistic crazy nut job we have to have people that that can love our country that can you know that will obey the laws everything else

you have hundreds of thousands of criminals being dropped in and Venezuela is one country look at what they have done though in Aurora they've taken over apartment complexes they've taken They've gone into the real estate business see they're like us except they've done it with MK whatever the hell they're called right I mean they have they have taken they have weapons that are so sophisticated on military doesn't have them they've taken over parts of of cities in Colorado you have a place called Beautiful Aurora take a look at what's happened to Springfield Ohio where they

dropped 30,000 people into a community Of 50,000 people and it's total bedum the hospitals can't be used anymore by the residents the schools can't be used by the children that were there last year because other people that don't even speak speak the language the issue I asked you about many companies here have a shortage of Labor yeah that's that's good we're going we'll take care of that we're going to get people in here rapidly and they're going to be people that want to be in here and They're going to be people that can love our

country and won't kill people because they have because they don't like the way they look these are killers by the way these these some of these killers are among the most evil killers they will look at you down the beautiful woman there they'll look at you and they will kill you these are seriously sick people and no I don't want them in our country and they are in our country right now and they're in there because Because Camala Harris whose our borders are is an incompetent person FR for the record as you know as you

know the crime rate is is lower can I can I finish with two questions the first you just said it you don't do old you own and run businesses would you appoint a CEO who was 78 you give you oh yeah some of this yeah would depend I've met people like like Biden who's in bad shape I wouldn't appoint him he's 81 or 82 he's four years older but at Appoint uh I I know some of the smartest people I know I know a man that made all of his money from the time he was

80 to 90 and he was a failure all his life uh he was in the uh the drinks business the different strangely you didn't bring this up when but you were running against Joe Biden no I never attacked him for his age in fact I used used to defend him on his age I attacked him for his lack of confidence I asked you I've asked you all these questions I never by The way just for the because I think it's important and I know you do too I know so many people in their 80s that

are among Bernie Marcus is 95 the founder of Home Depot you have that conversation with him he's just as sharp as he mentally he's just as sharp as he ever was he's 95 I I could tell you in their 90s I don't want to get into the '90s stuff but you know what I know many people in their 80s I know guys in their 80s that won't leave the company like family companies where they don't want the kids to take over because they're much more competent than their kids I know them both right so no

I would have no problem and you do have another Factor you know we've had some of some of our great on the Supreme Court you just said some of our great world leaders are in the 80s and if you look throughout history some of our greatest world leaders were in their 880s no that Would bother me but you know I took two cognitive tests and I I aced them both I think that frankly people regardless should take if they're 50 or 40 or I think people should take cognitive tests not because of the age but

because of something else now here's the problem they say it's unconstitutional okay but I would love to see cognitive tests I don't think she could pass a cognitive test I mean I've watch I don't think she could pass a Cognitive test president Trump you gone over many issues on this we I asked you many questions about things one one thing I haven't asked at all about is the state of the race yeah I had a question for you on Election night which state would you look at first which state do you think this race is

going to be decided by so they say Pennsylvania I would say most uh I think we're doing very well there um I think you look at Miss too And uh I'm doing very well there you know we don't have to look necessarily the votes are starting to come in now so we you look at polls but you can also look at the votes that are being cast right now people get a pretty good indication and based as we discussed backstage you know based on the votes that are coming in so far we're doing very well

I mean we're way up in Pennsylvania we're way up in Michigan uh we're doing very well in Arizona I saw Arizona in fact somebody said they're going to pull the plug in Arizona going to give it up because it looks like we're quite a quite a ways ahead I think we're doing well look this is a party the Republican party of Common Sense forget about conservative liberal we're let's say conservative but we're really a party of we need borders we need Fair elections we don't want Men playing in women's sports we don't want transgender Operations

without parental consent you know it's there's so many things but it's 99.9% is common sense it really is common sense and I like to say it I don't know if anyone said it in the past but I I say we're really a party of Common Sense and we want to have great people in our country I want to have a lot of people come in so that you have your choice and so that they have choice I want to you know I have a good heart I Have a heart where I want people to be

taken care of but I don't want to take in people where they millions of people 21 million people at least have come in in the last 3 and A2 years unvetted unchecked we don't know anything about them we don't how about this Gavin nusum he's the governor of California n he signed nusum I call but do you you think no he corrected me he corrected me I said that's the first time I've there are CEOs out here if they were said those sort of things about a rival coo they' be they' be sacked do you

think but they don't have to survive like me they don't have to go through what I have to go through I there's never been a president that's been treated like me so I have to fight my own way well you made a You made a You made a very good he signed a bill in California two days ago that you don't even have the Right to ask a person for voter ID and if you ask a person for voter ID of course you have to show voter ID the only reason you wouldn't do because they

want to cheat the bill says you you cannot it's against the law for you to ask a person may I please see your voter ID when he votes what is our country coming to well you've you've given us a a t der reason of where that country might be going to thank you very much thank you very much appreciate it thank [Applause] you good job