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Trump Speaks At National Prayer Breakfast; Trump's Remarks at Prayer Breakfast; Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) is Interviewed about Trump's Remarks. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 05, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I really don't. And I know we have some here today. And I don't know why they're here because they certainly don't give us their vote. I certainly know that we're not going to be convincing them to vote for a little thing called voter I.D. It polls at 97 percent. And even the Democrat, the people, the voters are at 82 percent for voter I.D. But the leaders don't want to approve it. They said they will strike. They will not allow it to happen. It's polling at over 90 percent. It's called voter identification. When you go to the polls, you show us, yes, my name is so-and-so and I live in the country. I'm here. I can vote. They says, that's not allowed. And everyone's trying to figure it out. And they do something to win. You know what it is? They cheat.

But let's get on to another subject. No, at that they're the finest, probably anywhere in the world, I would say. But we're trying to pass voter I.D. and other things, and other things having to do with your religion. And getting the Democrats to vote is very, very tough.

But we're grateful to the co-chairs of the breakfast, Representatives Ben Cline and Jonathan Jackson, and Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

And I want to thank a man who's been with me, for a long time we've been friends, and I used to be interviewed by him, and all he wanted to talk about was war. I said, this guy, you know, he's very smart. Went to the top, top schools. Was a top student. He's like me. I was a very good student too but nobody would think so, you know? And nobody thinks Pete was a good student. No, they think of him as a tough cookie, a flamethrower, which I like, actually, in the position of secretary of war. I just -- but he has done some job. Pete Hegseth.

You know, he was very popular. He turned down a very large five-year extension contract for millions of dollars a year. Oops. I don't want to say that your wife is here. She's saying, are you crazy? He's got the greatest wife.

But it's true that Pete has just been incredible. And I used to go and be interviewed at "Fox and Friends." You remember those beautiful days? And I'd say, what do you want to talk about? Sir, I want to talk about releasing about 25 prisoners. They have arrested American soldiers because they taught them -- they taught them how to fight, and they fought really well. And they won every battle. And now they put them in jail because they said they were too tough. I said, so how many are there? Twenty-two. And some of these guys were on the -- they were fairly tough, wouldn't you say, Pete?

But you know, it's true, we teach people how to fight and then you put them in jail because they fought a little bit too hard. And we took care of a lot of business. But that's all -- we didn't talk about the things, the normal things that an interviewer would be talking about, right?

But I saw that and I saw his love for the military. That was obvious. He was always looking to protect soldiers. And I said, you know, this is a really smart guy. If I ever get this thing, I got to get it. It wasn't easy, you know, they rigged the second election. I had to win it. I had to win it. I needed it for my own ego. I would have had a bad ego for the rest of my life.

Now I really have a big ego, though. Beating these, beating these lunatics was incredible, right? What a great feeling. Winning every swing state, winning the popular vote.

The first time, you know, they said I didn't win the popular vote. I did. But they said -- so, they'd always saying -- what I always thought that introducing, while Donald Trump did not win the popular vote, you know, I'm sitting up being introduced by a Democrat or somebody, and he said, while Donald Trump did not win the popular vote, he won the presidency. Here he is.

I said, that was terrible. I said we got to -- and we won the popular vote by a lot. We didn't want to play any games. This has been a much different -- we had a great first term. We had the greatest economy in history. But this one's going to blow it away. Already it's blowing everything away. We have $18 trillion coming into our country. Blowing everything away.

But we had a great first term. We rebuilt the military. You know, Biden gave a little chunk of it to Afghanistan, brilliantly. He left tanks and planes and, you know, little things. They said, why didn't you fly the planes out? He said, well, nobody thought of it. You could have flown -- he says, it's very hard to remove the equipment. Really, you couldn't fly an airplane? Buy 150 brand new, $150 million, brand new airplane. Sir, I think it's better to leave it. Why? It's more cost effective. So, we leave them a brand-new jet. I said, these people are crazy.

But we have it under control now like you've never seen. And our military's never been stronger. And you saw that with the B-2 bombers in Iran and you saw it with -- recently with Venezuela, where we're getting along fantastically with leadership.

[09:05:11]

Really fast. Become a great relationship. I don't think there's been anything quite like it ever. In fact, we have 50 million barrels of oil floating right now over to Houston, and we're, you know, we're working with them really well. It's -- I don't think I've ever seen anything. The cooperation that we have is -- and it's great for them because they were -- they were in big trouble economically. And yet they have more oil than any other country in the world, I think, except us. But they have more oil, just about, than any -- and, by the way, us and them, we have 68 percent of the world's oil.

Now, I know that doesn't mean too much to people of great religion. I know you want to hear about -- but, you know, we got to keep our country strong and we're doing really good. But that's been an amazing operation. I would say when people saw that, I was just talking to a great leader from El Salvador, and he said, man, that was some attack. I've never seen anything like that one, right? Right. That was good. Even by your high standard, right? That was a hell of an attack.

But we have -- we have a great -- a great country. We have tremendous leaders. We have a fantastic cabinet. We have an unbelievable bench. And one of them is Attorney General Pam Bondi, who may be here. Where's Pam? Is she here? Where? Where are you, Pam? Where? See, she wants to keep it nice and low key.

You're really catching fire, by the way, Pam. You know, they were saying about Kristi Noem yesterday, I did the Super Bowl interview. Sir, are you going to relieve Kristi Noem of her duties? No. Oh. I said, why would I do that? We have the strongest border in the history of our country. We have the best crime numbers we've ever had, going back to the year 1900. That's 125 years. We have the lowest crime numbers, despite the fact that this horrible world's worst president -- this was the worst president we've ever had, Biden. He had no idea he was president. So, he doesn't take it personally. I don't want him to take it personally. Fortunately, he has no idea what the hell I'm saying. And he's watching right now. He's happy with what I just said, OK. This is what we had running our country.

But, no, he was our worst president. We had some bad ones. We had -- Obama was very bad. Terrible divider of our country. He divided our -- he was a divider. And believe it or not, we're bringing the country together. You know what's bringing it together? Tremendous success. We're having tremendous success. We have more investment being made in our country now than any country has ever had by many times. You go back ten years, a certain country, not us, three trillion. We have, in 11 months, because the 12th month is coming out next week, we have $18 trillion of investment coming in. The biggest ever was three many years ago.

And one of the reasons for it is Secretaries Doug Burgum and Doug Collins. They are drilling like, you know, my whole thing was, drill, baby, drill. Where are they sitting? I love those two guys. Come on. Stand up.

And there's Catherine there. That's Catherine. Yes. Hi, Catherine. Chris. What they are drilling like nobody. I spoke with Chris yesterday, Doug. I said, how we doing? Si, we're drilling more oil than anybody's ever drilled by double, right, by double. We're doing it. That's why I was in Iowa last week with the farmers who were doing very well. We just handed them $12 billion out of tariff money because they were taken advantage of by foreign countries, various foreign countries. And I said, how much was it that they got hurt for? Twelve billion. I said, good, let's write them a check. I gave the farmers $12 billion.

And they don't even want it. They just want to be treated fairly. But we're getting it from that. But we're getting it with nobody's ever in history. And it's -- we've never done it either, like anywhere close. We're taking out more energy out of our beautiful land, oil and gas, clean oil and gas. And I always say, clean, beautiful coal.

You know, I told -- the only thing I told these two guys they have to do, because they're the greatest energy people in the world, the best. I said, when you mention the word "coal," anytime you mention coal, c- o-a-l, anytime you mention it has to be preceded by two words, "clean" and "beautiful."

[09:10:05]

So, Doug was making a speech the other day, and I sort of tried to pass a note because he said -- he mentioned coal about 40 times and he kept saying, clean, beautiful coal, clean -- it really only works a few times, right? I said, no, no, when you say coal, clean, beautiful.

You know, we buy all that wind from -- we don't anymore. So, we haven't approved anything in wind, right, Doug? Nothing. Because it's, you know, just -- it's a quick way to losing money, losing beauty, losing your fields, killing your birds. And other than that, it doesn't work. And Europe is getting -- you know, Europe is so bad with the windmills. They're destroying their country with wind.

And I was over there. You know, it's not even recognizable what they've done. They've got a -- they've got a big problem on their hands between immigration and energy, Europe is destroying itself. And they better get smart. And I love them all. I'm friends with every one of every country over there. I've helped them a lot. Got the GDP up from two percent to five percent, which is, you know, for spending, for military spending. Nobody thought that was possible. Nobody thought two percent was possible. We got them to five percent.

But it's not recognizable, Europe. If you go through the different cities, it's a very sad thing. And I tell it. I went over to Davos. They invited me. And when I left, they said, that may have been the stupidest invitation we ever gave to somebody. Switzerland. But they have to -- I just say it like it is. They're destroying their country. They -- their energy is ridiculous what they've done. And the immigration is -- I'm telling you, it's a -- it's a place where many of these countries are not recognizable. And I'd like to see them straighten it out. Very soon it's going to be impossible for them to straighten it out.

We have our Director of National and International Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who's doing a great job. Where's Tulsi? She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in, at Pam's insistence, she went in and she looked at votes that want to be checked out from Georgia. They say, why is she doing it? Right, Pam? Why is she doing it? Because Pam wanted her to do it. And you know why? Because she's smart and she -- they said, well, this has to do -- her position has to do -- it's really not so, but her position has to do with international. I say, well, the same people that said that, they've been saying Russia, Russia, Russia has been screwing our elections, OK. So, let's assume Russia had something to do with it. They say, no, no, Russia didn't have. So, now they're saying, Russia had nothing to do with it. Because if I say Russia then it's perfectly fine. But you could add China and about five other countries to it.

But she's done a great job. And Pam has done a fantastic job. And we appreciate it, both. Haven't seen you in a couple of days.

And I have one of the greatest negotiators. I'm so proud of him. He's a great negotiator. He's smart and respected by everybody. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade. Where is Jameson? He's around here someplace. Thank you, Jameson. Boy, he's good.

We have a great team. We have a great economic team. A great military team. We have Raizin Caine, helps Pete. Raizin Caine. General Caine. He wiped out ISIS in three weeks. I was told by General Mattis and General Milley, sir, it will take five years. I said, what? Sir, it'll take five years. I said, do you mean we have the best equipment in the world, and we're finding guys that use bad rifles, knives, preferably. They're very good with a knife, but a knife shouldn't do it. And I said, why? And I flew over to Iraq and I met a guy named Caine. I came out of the plane and this handsome general standing there, I had three generals. I went there to find out why the hell we couldn't win the war. Why aren't we winning the war with -- against ISIS? They've been, you know, playing games with us.

So, I wanted to see. And I met -- that's where I met Raizin Caine. I said, what's your first name? Raizin, sir. They call me Raizin. I said, what the hell kind of name is that? Right? We've learned a lot about him. Now we get it. And his very quiet manner. He's brutal. Just ask Venezuela. Ask Iran. They're negotiating now. They don't want to -- they don't want us to hit them. You know, we have a big fleet going over there, Iran.

But, so, Raizin was there at the bottom of the plane. What's your name? Raizin. What's your last name? Caine. I said, so your name is, let's get this straight, your name is Raizin Caine, right?

[09:15:03]

Yes, sir, that's what they call me. You're the guy I'm looking for. And then he said, sir, if you'd like, you can go and sleep. You know, it's a 20-hour trip. If you'd like, you can go and sleep. We have quarters prepared for you. I said no, no, I don't have to sleep. I've been on a plane sleeping for 20 -- I mean I sleep in the plane. I don't sleep on planes. I don't like sleeping on planes, you know, I like looking out the window, watching for missiles and enemies, actually.

But he said, sir, we have a place prepared for you and we can meet after you've rested. I said, no, no, no, let's go right now. So, we did that. And I said to him, I said, they tell me it's going to take five years to defeat ISIS.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You've been listening to President Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast. A speech that so far has been going on for more than 20 minutes. Long on a lot of subjects, a little bit short on prayer.

We're going to take a quick break. More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:38]

BERMAN: All right, we're watching President Trump speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington right now. About a minute ago he was focused on portable airports.

I want to get to Jeff Zeleny, CNN chief national affairs correspondent, who has been monitoring this speech.

Coming up on 30 minutes shortly, Jeff, on a wide variety of subjects.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Look, we've seen many presidents address many National Prayer Breakfasts. Usually, prayer and faith is a central message of the prepared speech. That is not the case this morning. The president did jokingly say at the beginning of his remarks, talking about his path to heaven, but he did not dwell on that.

One thing I'm struck by here, John, is he started out by going after a Republican member of Congress, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, calling him a moron, using his words there, and really going after him for voting against many initiatives of the Trump administration. But particularly, this is making clear that the Epstein files are still very front and center in the president's mind. Of course, Thomas Massie was the Republican leading the charge on releasing the files, getting that legislation through the president ultimately signed. So, that was notable.

But also the president not talking much really at all about immigration. We heard him yesterday talking to NBC News about how he would use a softer touch going forward on immigration, citing the events in Minneapolis. That may have been something that you might expect the president to mention at a prayer breakfast. Immigration has been front and center on the minds of faith leaders. They've been, some of whom have been very critical of the administration's tactics in Minneapolis. But the president not talking about using a softer touch, which he used in his interview with NBC yesterday.

But, john, by and large, this president could be giving this address to any group in any city in the country. It certainly does not sound like a -- remarks usually directed at the Prayer Breakfast. And this is an annual tradition here in Washington. Democratic presidents, Republican presidents always address this group. But the president has done it many times before. They've heard these lines many times before. But again, not so much prayer coming out of this prayer breakfast.

BERMAN: No, you mentioned he did not talk about immigration in the United States. He did talk about it a little bit in Europe. I tried to keep a running tally of the subjects he was hitting after

he talked about the idea that probably he'll make it to heaven. He called Thomas Massie a moron, as you said. He talked about Pete Hegseth. He talked about the fact that he believes he did win the popular vote in 2016. He did not. He talked about Afghanistan, Venezuela, Kristi Noem, crime. He was critical of President Biden, President Obama. He talked about the investment in the U.S. He said farmers didn't really want the money, but they took it anyway. He talked about drilling and he gave V.A. Secretary Doug Collins credit for that, along with Doug Burgum. He talked about coal, wind, Europe not being recognizable, Davos, Tulsi Gabbard, the election raids. He talked about ISIS, portable airports. And then just before you came on, he was talking about rebuilding the military. That was my brief list. I'm sure I left some stuff out there, Jeff. So, he's kind of, I don't know, covering the spectrum.

ZELENY: Covering the spectrum. A potpourri of topics there. I think you got most of them. Good note taking this morning.

I did notice the Doug Collins as well. Of course he is the V.A. secretary. Secretary Doug Burgum is the Interior secretary who's also the head of the -- of the energy council there.

But look, the president, I think, he's speaking to -- just to make clear who he's talking to, a lot of Republican lawmakers in the room, faith leaders as well. But also talking about his narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

BERMAN: Yes.

ZELENY: That is something that is clearly weighing on the mind of the White House. That is really one of the biggest things that matters this year, that narrow majority will speak to the midterm election success, which really will guide the rest of his presidency. So, that also is notable. But it's unclear how any of the remarks so far will actually help Republicans hold that majority.

BERMAN: All right, Jeff Zeleny, stand by, if you will. We continue to listen to President Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast. More after a quick break.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I won't -- if you think of it, I won't be president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:29:27]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to continue listening to this and bring you any details. If there is news being made.

But, right now, we have Congressman -- Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz with us, who has been listening to some of this. I am curious, just first off, what you make of the speech, which seems to be quite rambling. He's talking about many, many different things. One of which was that he has brought the country together. Has he? REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): Well, good morning. Thanks for having me.

You don't feel united?

[09:30:01]

Oh, I mean, I just -- this is unity everywhere. I mean just look at Minnesota. They look -- they look united.

No, I mean the president said lots of different things there.