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Donald Trump Addresses The Media at Mar-a-Lago. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 08, 2024 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, no, no. I mean, he said it two ways because he doesn't really know what he said. Why didn't he bring it up at the debate? You know, he had a chance for 90 minutes to bring it up at the debate. He could have talked about that at the debate, and he didn't do it. Everyone said, "Oh, he said this and he said that." He's just -- you know, they give him something to read it off. He read it very badly because he actually said it the opposite, then he had to go back and correct himself. He said the opposite. He should have brought this up at the debate. If he had a problem, of course there'll be a peaceful transfer, and there was last time, and there'll be a peaceful transfer. I just hope we're going to have honest elections, that's all. OK?

(CROSS-TALK)

QUESTION: You have not had a public campaign event for nearly a week now. (inaudible) and Montana was not (inaudible). Some of your allies have expressed concern that you're not taking this very seriously, particularly (inaudible) ...

TRUMP: What a stupid question this is.

QUESTION: ... (inaudible) enthusiasm on the other side. Why haven't you been campaigning (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Because I'm leading by a lot and because I'm letting their convention go through, and I am campaigning a lot. I'm doing tremendous amounts of taping here. We have commercials that are at a level I don't think that anybody's ever done before. Plus, in certain cases, I see many of you in the room where I'm speaking to you on phones. I'm speaking to radio. I'm speaking to television. Television's coming over here. Excuse me -- what we doing right now?

She's not doing any news conference. You know why she's not doing it? Because she can't do a news conference. She doesn't know how to do a news conference. She's not smart enough to do a news conference.

And I'm sorry. We need smart people to lead this country because our country's never been in this danger before, both economically and from an outside -- from an outside perspective, Russia doesn't respect us anymore. China doesn't respect us anymore. North Korea, Kim Jong-un liked me a lot. He doesn't like this group. We -- we are in great danger. We're in great danger of being in World War III. That could happen. (CROSS-TALK)

TRUMP: No, after their convention? Yeah, and I'm going out -- actually, I'm going out to certain places to help certain senators get elected. Not even for me; I'm trying to help -- when I go out to Wyoming or when I go out to Montana or -- I'm going to different places to help people, and I don't have to go there because I'm leading those states, as you know, by 35, 40, 50 points, I'm leading by record numbers. I'm going because I want to help senators and congressmen get elected - congressmen and women get elected.

Yes, please? Yeah, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. President, can you tell us a bit more about your upcoming interview with Elon Musk (inaudible)?

TRUMP: The up - upcoming what?

QUESTION: Interview with Elon Musk on Monday.

TRUMP: Oh, yeah.

QUESTION: ... (inaudible) Americans (inaudible) propaganda. What do you think (inaudible) ...

TRUMP: Yeah, the - Elon Musk - so yeah, sure. So Elon called me. As you know, he endorsed me full-throated. Great endorsement. I respect Elon a lot, he respects me. And not easy for him to endorse, to be honest with you. You know, it takes courage to endorse people. Many people have courage and many people don't. He does have courage.

And Elon endorsed me, and he asked me whether or not I'd do a show on Monday, and I think it's going to be Monday night. And I believe he's the host of the show. So it'll be very interesting. A lot of people are talking about it. I look forward to it. That'll be done on Monday night.

(CROSS-TALK)

QUESTION: ... different question - who do you think (inaudible) America (inaudible) combat potentially misinformation (inaudible) the Chinese?

TRUMP: Well, you have a lot of misinformation spread about China and you have a lot of misinformation spread about a lot of different places. I think I'm going to get along great with China. President Xi of China and I were very good friends. We met right here, right in that - except we had a beautiful sofa there as opposed to what we have right now. Right now, we have you.

But President Xi and I had a very good relationship until COVID. And I held him responsible for COVID. It broke up our relationship. And I think we're going to have a great relationship, and I think it's going to be mutually beneficial. But we cannot have it - with China is taking advantage of the United States, and that's what they were doing, as you very well know. Yes, please?

QUESTION: Mr. President, you were - you just said that it was a peaceful transfer of power last time when you left office. You didn't (inaudible) ...

TRUMP: What - what's your question?

QUESTION: My question is you can't (inaudible) the last time it was a peaceful transfer of power when you left office?

The second one (ph) ...

TRUMP: No, I think the people that - if you look at January 6th, which a lot of people aren't talking about very much, I think those people were treated very harshly when you compare them to other things that took place in this country where a lot of people were killed. Nobody was killed on January 6th.

But I think that the people of January 6th were treated very unfairly. And they - where - they were there to complain not through me. They were there to complain about an election. And, you know, it's very interesting. The biggest crowd I've ever spoken to, and I said peacefully and patriotically, which nobody wants to say, but I said peacefully and patriotically.

The biggest crowd I've ever spoken to. And you've seen, Maggie (ph), I was in - at the mall, I was at the Washington Monument, I was at - the whole thing. I had crowds - I don't know who's had - ever had a bigger crowd than I have, but I had it many times.

The biggest crowd I've ever spoken before was that day. And I'll tell you, it's very hard to find a picture of that crowd. You see the picture of a small number of people relatively going to the Capitol, but you never see the picture of the crowd.

The biggest crowd I've ever spoken - I've spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech - his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not - we had more.

And they said he had a million people but I had 25,000 people, but when you look at the exact same picture and everything's the same because it was the fountains, the whole thing, all the way back to - from Lincoln to Washington - and you look at it and you look at the picture of his crowd, my crowd, we actually had more people. They said I had 25,000 and he had a million people, and I'm OK with it cause I liked Dr. Martin Luther King.

Yeah, please?

QUESTION: President Trump, you said repeatedly on (inaudible) that it was unconstitutional for the Democrats to replace President Biden with Vice President Harris as their candidate (inaudible). Can you explain your constitutional analysis, which part ...

TRUMP: Yeah, sure. We have a Constitution. It's a very important document, and we live by it. She has no votes. And I'm very happy to run against her. I - I'm not complaining from that standpoint. And I hate to be defending him but he did not want to leave, he wanted to see if he could win. They said you're not going to win after the debate. They said you're not going to win, you can't win. You're out. And at first, they said it nicely, and he wasn't leaving, and then you - you know the - you know it better than anybody.

Wait a minute. So when you think about it, they said at first they were going to go out to another vote, they were going to go through a primary system, a quick primary system, which it would have to be, and then it all disappeared and they just picked a person that was the first out. She was the first loser, OK? So we call her the first loser.

She was the first loser when - during the primary system, during the Democratic primary system, she was the first one to quit, and she quit. She had no votes, no support. And she was a bad debater, by the way, very bad debater. And that's not the thing I'm looking forward to, but she was a bad debater. She did a - obviously a bad job.

She never made it to Iowa. Then, for some reason - and I'm - I know he regrets it, you do too - he picked her. And she turned on him too. She was working with the people that wanted him out.

But the fact that you can be - get no votes, lose in the primary system - in other words, you had 14 or 15 people - she was the first one out, and then you can then be picked to run for President? It seems - seems to me actually unconstitutional. Perhaps it's not.

Please?

QUESTION: (Inaudible) Vice President Harris campaign (inaudible) against her (inaudible) Joe Biden, are there any ways that you see her (inaudible) than those other two?

TRUMP: So I've run against Hillary and I've run against various other people. I would say that, in terms of intelligence, Hillary was far superior, I would say that. Hillary was smart. She was her own worst enemy in many ways, but she was smart, very smart, OK? If you ask me to compare them.

Please?

(CROSS-TALK)

QUESTION: Can you (inaudible) more popular (inaudible) Republican primary (inaudible). Given that (inaudible), how do you plan to (inaudible) abortion (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Would you repeat that question please?

QUESTION: I - I - I ...

TRUMP: You have to speak up.

QUESTION: Yes, sir, I did.

TRUMP: It's a hard room because it's very big, if you don't ...

(LAUGHTER)

... this is worth $18 million. Oh, I see.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: ... (inaudible) your position on abortion that it was probably more popular in the general election (inaudible) many of your Republican rivals in the primary (inaudible) you said (inaudible). Given that (inaudible) voting on (inaudible) ...

TRUMP: Yeah?

QUESTION: ... how - how do you plan to go (inaudible) ...

TRUMP: So I think the abortion issue has been very much tempered down. And I've answered, I think, very well in the debate, and it seems to be much less of an issue, especially for those where they have the exceptions, as you know.

And I think it's - when I - look, for 52 years, they wanted to bring abortion back to the states, they wanted to get rid of Roe v. Wade, and that's Democrats, Republicans, and Independents and everybody. Liberals, conservatives, everybody wanted it back in the states, and I did that.

Now the states are voting. And frankly, some of the votes are much more, if you could say, liberal than you would think. Ohio turned out to be - they had a big vote and it turned out to be a much more liberal standing than people would have thought. Kansas, the same thing. And then you have Texas and you have other places where it may be different.

But the issue's been brought back to the states now. And like Ronald Reagan, I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. I believe, you know, I believe strongly I think that that's a very important thing.

I think when you don't -- you have to follow your heart. But when you don't believe in the exceptions, I think it's much tougher, it's a much tougher issue. But about 82% of Republicans do believe in exceptions. I think the -- and a lot of them are changing their mind and coming even further.

I think that abortion has become much less of an issue. It's a very small -- I think it's actually going to be a very small issue. What I've done is I've done what every Democrat and every Republican wanted to have done, and we brought that issue back to the states. And now the states are voting on it. And frankly, some of the votes are a lot different than people would have thought, but it's the vote of the people that's taking care of it. And, you know, when you think about the radical, the Democrats are really the radical ones on this because they're allowed to do abortion on the eighth and ninth month and even after birth.

If you look at your new governor from Minnesota, he's talking about -- he's like the governor previous, the former governor. I don't want to get him mixed up because Glenn is doing a good job and he's leading our -- he's leading our whole campaign in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin.

But previous to Glenn, the governor, he said, "The baby will be born. We will put the baby aside and we will decide with the mother what we're going to do." In other words, whether or not we're going to kill the baby. The Minnesota gentleman, he -- this guy agrees with that. He is the most liberal.

Look, between her and him, there's never been anything like this. There's never been a combination. So, I'll use the word "progressive". You know, they want to go progress -- they don't like the word "liberal". I like liberal better.

I think it's more appropriate because nobody knows what progressive means. But they now like to use the word "progressive", but there's certainly never been anybody so liberal like these two or even close.

I think the abortion issue has been taken down many notches. I don't think it's of -- I don't think it's a big factor anymore, really. And when people hear what I said in the debate, and I think I said it very well during the debate, we brought it back to the states. Everybody wanted it in the states.

And very importantly, and you think about this, assuming you have exceptions, if you don't have exceptions, it's a more difficult thing. At the same time, there are people that strongly feel that way, and you have to follow your heart. And you should follow your heart, but that issue is very much subdued. You know? Thank you.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) ...

TRUMP: About who?

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: No, I didn't. Look, if you take away guns, she wants to take away everyone's gun. If you take away guns, you can't do it, because people need the guns for protection. Now, entertainment they wanted, hunting, you know, different things. But they need weapons for protection in this country.

People live out in the woods, and they're not going to have a gun. If you look at some countries, I don't want to go -- I don't want to get them in trouble, but some countries have actually gone the opposite way. They had very strong gun laws. And now they have gone the opposite way, where they allowed people to have guns, where in one case they encouraged people to go out and get guns, and crime is down 29 percent.

And remember this. What is the toughest gun law in the United States? Chicago. On July 4th, 117 people were shot and 17 died. The toughest gun laws in the United States are in the city of Chicago. You know that. They had 117 people shot.

Afghanistan does not have that. Afghanistan, by the way, was the lowest point in the history of our country, in my opinion. That was the worst embarrassment to the history of this country. And I say Putin would not have gone into Ukraine if that didn't happen. When he saw the incompetence of Milley and all these guys that are incompetent, when he saw that happen, when they took out the soldiers first -- they took out the soldiers first.

You know, if you go back and check your records, for 18 months, I had a talk with Abdul. Abdul was the leader of the Taliban, still is, but I had a strong talk with him. For 18 months, not one American soldier was shot at or killed -- but not even shot at. Eighteen months. And then we had the disaster of the lift, where people were falling off airplanes from three times the height of the World Trade Center. I mean, terrible. But now, our country has to be respected again.

Please? Go ahead, please.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: I'd be against that. That Kamala is in favor of not giving Israel weapons? Yeah. That's what I hear.

Look, she's been very, very bad to Israel, and she's been very bad to Jewish people. And I say it. If anybody I know is Jewish and they would vote for Kamala over me, they should have their head examined. If you think about it, I gave them Golan Heights, I gave them the capital of Israel, Jerusalem. I built the -- I even built the embassy.

I gave them no Iran deal. The problem is they didn't do anything with it. Iran was broke. We could have made a deal so easily. I would have had a deal done within one week after the election with Iran. Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. But we would have gotten along with Iran. I was looking forward to it. I was fine with Iran. You know, we hit them a couple of times pretty hard, but we would have been fine with Iran.

But I got them -- I terminated that deal. I got them the Abraham Accords. Everyone said that's impossible. I got them the Abraham Accords. She's been very, very bad to Israel and she's been very bad and disrespectful to Jewish people.

And any Jewish person that votes for Kamala and her friend, her new friend, who I don't know if she knew him before, but I don't think he's too good. But anybody that votes for them, if you're Jewish or if you love Israel, you have to have your head examined.

QUESTION: (Inaudible). TRUMP: Go ahead, please.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: They have. The FBI came to see me about the shooter. I think they've done a very good job. And I think they did a very good job with respect to this other lunatic that they have in custody.

Please?

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Yeah.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.

And Willie was -- he was a little concerned. So, I know him, I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven't seen him in years but he told me terrible things about her. But this is what you're telling me anyway, I guess. But he had a big part in what happened with Kamala. But he -- I don't know, maybe he's changed his tune. But he was not a fan of hers very much at that point.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Yeah, I do.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Go ahead.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: On what?

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Well, I'm going to announce that. I'm going to actually have a press conference on that at some point in the near future. So, I don't want to tell you now. But Florida does have a vote coming up on that. And I think probably the vote will go in a little more liberal way than people thought. But I'll be announcing that at the appropriate time.

Please?

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Yeah. We gave a tremendous and tremendous for child care and all of that. No, our tax -- our tax cuts, which are the biggest in history, our tax cuts are coming due, as you know very soon. And if the Democrats don't renew them or make it impossible to renew, because it's pretty close in terms of vote, if they don't renew them, it's the equivalent of having a four times tax increase from what you have right now. And it'll destroy the economy.

I think they're under tremendous pressure to do it. I've never seen -- you know, all my life, I grow up and I watch politics, and I used to be on the other side of politics then I run for office. But in all the years of studying politics, I've never seen people get elected by saying, we're going to give you a tax increase.

These guys get up -- think of it. We're going to give you no security. We're going to give you a weak military. We're going to give you no walls, no borders, no anything. We're going to -- all these things they're doing.

I mean, the transgender, the transgender became such a big thing. But they do all of these things. But they always say, "We're going to give you a tax increase." I never heard anybody campaign on a tax increase. A politician has always said, "I will cut taxes.

I'll give you one example. Social Security, they're going to destroy Social Security. I am going to leave Social Security. I'm not raising the years. I'm not raising the age. I will be saving Social Security. And I'm going to work it out that there's no tax on Social Security for seniors.

I'm also doing no tax on tips. No tax on tips. So, waiters, waitresses, caddies, people that drive cars, people that get tips who have been harassed by this government, we're going to have no tax on tips. That's a big thing.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Sure.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Because other people have done far bigger things in see a ban [ph] and sure, it's politically motivated. I think it's a horrible thing they did. Look, they've weaponized government against me. Look at the Florida case. It was a totally weaponized case. All of these cases.

By the way, the New York cases are totally controlled out of the Department of Justice. They sent their top person to the various places. They went to the AG's office, got that one going. Then he went to the DA's office, got that one going, ran through it.

No, no, this is all politics, and it's a disgrace. Never happened in this country. It's very common that it happens, but not in our country. It happens in banana republics and third-world countries, and that's what we're becoming. We have no borders. We have bad voting regulations.

Anytime you have mail-in ballots, you're going to have problems. France learned that lesson. You know, France had all mail-in voting, and they went back to paper ballots, voter identification, voter ID. They went back to a normal system, one-day voting. They don't want to be around, you know, voting for 64 days.

And look, the election, I keep talking about November 5th, but the election really starts on September 6th. That's when it starts, because it's early voting. We should have one-day voting. We should have paper ballots. We should have voter ID, and we should have proof of citizenship.

Please?

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: No, the gentleman in the back.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: For who? You're going to have to talk louder, sir.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Elon is a very different kind of a guy. He's a very big believer in the country, but he's very worried about the country. He's very worried about the country. And I don't know if it's good for him politically to have supported me, although I think we have a vast majority of this country does support me.

But Elon, more than almost anybody I know, I mean, he loves this country. He loves the concept of the country. But like me, he says, "This country is in big trouble. It's in big -- it's in tremendous danger." Okay, please?

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: I like this guy. I like him.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Yeah.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: The polls have suggested. There are some polls that say we're going to win in a landslide. People are voting with their stomachs. Meaning, they're going to the grocery store, they're paying 50, 60, 70 percent more for food than they did just a couple of years ago.

Look at what's happened to energy. Look at what's happened not only to their cars, where gasoline's gone from $1.87 - $1.87, and we had moments when it was below that. But it's gone from $1.87 to $5, $6, and $7. And they take the strategic national reserves and they take it out, even though it's peanuts compared -- it doesn't last long, but they're virtually empty now.

We've never had it this low. And he's using that to keep the gasoline prices as low as possible. He's sucked all of the oil out, essentially, the gasoline to keep the -- to keep the price down a little bit, and it's had very little impact. But you know what? We have no Strategic National Reserves now. He's emptied it. It's almost empty. It's never been this low.

And I had it at a good level, and I would have had it more if the Democrats would have approved the deal. You know, I had a deal to buy it at $22 a barrel, and now it's getting -- it's going to be close to $100 pretty soon, in my opinion.

And the Democrats didn't want to do that, but we bought a lot anyway. And we had it pretty good. And what they've done to the national reserves, the Strategic National Reserves is, as you know very well, because you cover it, but what they've done is incredible.

They've just -- for the sake of getting some votes, for the sake of having gasoline, you know, that's meant for wars. It's meant for like tragedy. It's not meant to keep a gasoline price down so that somebody can vote for Biden, or in this case Kamala, who by the way is worse than Biden. And she's actually not as smart. OK? She's actually not as smart. That's hard to believe, isn't it?

Yeah, please.

QUESTION: There are a lot of things the federal government do not just obtain (inaudible) to have access to (inaudible).

TRUMP: Sure, you could -- you could do things that will be -- would supplement, absolutely. And those things are pretty open and humane. But you have to be able to have a vote. And all I want to do is give everybody a vote.

And the votes are taking place right now as we speak. Yeah? But it's a very good -- there are many things on a humane basis that you can do outside of that, but you also have to give a vote. And the people are going to have to decide.

OK, yes, please? You?

QUESTION: (Inaudible) President Biden?

TRUMP: On what?

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: No, I think she's actually not as smart as he is. I don't think he's very smart either, by the way. I'm not a big fan of his brain. But I think that she's actually not as smart as he is.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) in the polls becoming a more competitive race since she's been...

TRUMP: Well, she's a woman. She represents certain groups of people. But I will say this, when people find out about her, I think she'll be much less. And I see it right now, I see her going way down in the polls now. Now that people are finding out that she destroyed San Francisco, she destroyed the state of California along with Governor Gavin Newsom. He's been a terrible governor, terrible, but they did it together.

And she was early, I mean, she was the first of the prosecutors, really. You know, now you see Philadelphia, you see Los Angeles, you see New York, you see various people that are very bad. But she was the first of the bad prosecutors. She was early.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) last weekend?

TRUMP: Who?

QUESTION: Did your (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Would you repeat that, please?

QUESTION: The White House.

TRUMP: No, you. Would you repeat what she said? You have to speak up. This room is very -- louder.

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Do you hear her?

QUESTION: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: Daily press briefing? Why would I do that? I would give you all the press briefings you want. Look what I'm doing here. But why would I do a daily -- a daily press? You'd get tired of me very fast. No, but I will give you total access and you'll have a lot of press briefings and you'll have - from me. Now, are you talking about from me or from a press secretary?

QUESTION: The press secretary.

TRUMP: Well, yeah, probably they'll do something. If it's not daily, it's going to be a lot. You'll have more than you want.

Yeah, please?

QUESTION: President Biden (inaudible).

TRUMP: I don't think it's appropriate for me to talk about it. I think it's a tragic story, if you want to know the truth. And I felt that with Hillary Clinton, too. You know, with Hillary Clinton, I could have done things to her that would have made your head spin. I thought it was a very bad thing, take the wife of a President of the United States and put her in jail. And then I see the way they treat me. That's the way it goes.

But I was very protective of her. Nobody would understand that, but I was. I think my people understand it. They used to say "lock her up, lock her up," and I'd say "just relax, please." We won the election. I think it would be very - I think - I think it would have been horrible for our country if I - and we had her between the hammering of all of the files.

And don't forget, she got a subpoena from the United States Congress, and then after getting the subpoena, she destroyed everything that she was supposed to get. I - I - I could - it - I didn't think - I thought it was so bad to take her and put her in jail, the wife of a President of the United States. And then when it's my turn, nobody thinks that way. I thought it was a very terrible thing. And she did a lot of very bad things. I'll tell you what, she was - she was pretty evil.

But in terms of the country and in terms of unifying the country, bringing it back, to have taken her and to have put her in jail - and I think you know the things as well as I do. They were some pretty bad acts that she did.

I think it would have been very bad for our country, and a lot of my people, a lot of the MAGA, as they call them, but the base - and I think the base is - I think the base is 75 percent of the country, far beyond the Republican Party because we're a party of common sense and I'm a person of common sense.

I want to have low taxes, I want to have strong borders, I want to have a strong military so that China and Russia - look, they've allowed China and Russia to do the impossible - combine. They're natural enemies, they always have been cause China needs more land and Russia has it. They've always been natural enemies, and because of Obama - it started with him - and then Biden, cause he didn't know what the hell he was doing, they have now become one force.