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Inside Politics

Trump Speaks One Day After Congress Certifies Election Win; Trump: Russia-Ukraine War Could "Escalate" And Get "Much More"; Trump Says He Encouraged Wayne Gretzky To Run For Canadian PM; Trump: "All Hell" Will Break Out If Gaza Hostages Are Not Freed; Trump: "We Need Greenland For National Security Purposes"; Trump Vows To Change Guld Of Mexico To "Guld Of America"; Trump: Will Use "Economic Force" To Influence Canada; Judge Aileen Cannon Blocks Public Release Of Jack Smith Report. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 07, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL- ELECT: We lost 38,000 people. It cost us the equivalent of $1 trillion, maybe more than -- probably the most expensive. They say it was the most expensive structure, if we call it a structure, which I guess you can ever build. And giving that away was a horrible thing. And I believe that's why Jimmy Carter lost the election, even more so than the hostages. Those are two things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I could just follow-up on Ukraine and Iran, the two negotiations you'll be heading into -- on Ukraine, you said just before, it's a lot more complicated, now?

TRUMP: Much more complicated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe --

TRUMP: Because it would have never started, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it has started. It's you --

TRUMP: We not only started, the cities are largely knocked down, so they're like --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you've got what you've got. At this point, would you -- to hold on the leverage in dealing with President Putin. Would you make a commitment to the Ukrainians that you will keep supporting them during the negotiation?

TRUMP: Well, I wouldn't tell you if that were the case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And would you make a commitment to provide a security guarantee if they do enter into an armistice or a cease fire along the lines of the French and the Germans?

TRUMP: So, you know, a big part of the problem was Russia for many, many years, long before Putin said, you could never have NATO involved with Ukraine. Now, they've said that that's been like written in stone. And somewhere along the line, Biden said, no, they should be able to join NATO. Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep. And I could understand their feeling about that, but there were a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation.

And when I heard the way that Biden was negotiating, I said, you're going to end up in a war, and it turned out to be a very bad war, and it could escalate. That war could escalate to be much worse than it is right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because they can never join NATO.

TRUMP: Well, my view is that it was always understood. In fact, I believe that they had a deal, and then Biden broke it. They had a deal which would have been a satisfactory deal to Ukraine and everybody else, but that Biden said, no, you have to be able to join NATO. And that's always been, and nobody knows more about NATO than I.

You know, years ago, when I first started this, I didn't know too much about NATO, but I got it right anyway. I said they're taking advantage. I'm the one that got, and the secretary general was here, as you know, two weeks ago, saying that, if it weren't for me, NATO wouldn't even exist right now because I raised from countries that weren't paying their bills.

At that time, 28 countries -- 20 of them were not paying their bills. 21 to be exact. They weren't paying and or they were paying a very small portion. And I raised over $680 billion, that was the number he gave by saying, if you don't pay, we're not going to protect you. And as soon as I said that the money came pouring in.

But Obama could have said it. Other people could have said it. Bush could have said it. Nobody said it, but me. I took a lot of heat. They said, Oh, that's a threatening statement. Well, they weren't paying their bills. I said, we're not going to protect if you're not paying the bills.

So, in a true sense, I saved NATO, but NATO has taken advantage of us. And one of the problems that I have, and I've said it openly. I said it to President Zelenskyy, Europe is in for a tiny fraction of the money that we're in now. Whether you like that situation or not, Europe is much more affected than the United States. We have a thing called the ocean in between us, right?

Why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe? And you know, they're a similar size, a little smaller, but they're a similar size economy as the United States, when you add them up. And yet, Europe is in for a small fraction of the number of the United States is in.

Now, Biden could have called them up during the term. That's what I did. I said, you have to pay your bills. And they all -- one stood up. I won't say who, you'll probably have it because the media hated to report on it. But a prime minister up from a country, you know, a famous meeting of 28 nations with no press, no anybody in the room, he stood up. He says, does that mean if we don't pay our bill. And at that point it was 2 percent it should be 5 percent -- it should be 5 percent, not 2%, but at that point it was super. Many people didn't pay, some people didn't pay anything, but many people were way, including Germany. Germany was at less than 1 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to press to 5 percent --

TRUMP: Well, I think NATO should have 5 percent, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want to --

TRUMP: Well, you can't do it at two. I mean, at 2 percent every country, if you're going to have a country and a regular military, you're at 4 percent. I think they should be, you know, they're in dangerous territory. I think you should be. They can all afford it, but they should be at 5 percent, not 2 percent.

I'm the one that got up to pay 2 percent, but a gentleman stood up, a prime minister stood up, and he said to me, sir, could I ask you a question. You're saying we have to pay our bills. If we don't pay our bills, will the United States protect us from Russia? I said, if you don't pay, you mean you're delinquent. He said, yes. He said, if you're delinquent, we will not protect you.

I took a lot of heat. Although it was somewhat closed door, I took a lot of heat from the media. And you know what happened? The money started pouring in. That's why NATO has money. And the secretary general said, it was the most incredible thing he had ever seen in a negotiation. Now, if I would have said yes, we will, nobody would have paid. If I would have loved to say yes, we'll protect you even if you don't pay. But that's not the way life works.

[12:05:00]

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, two questions related to each other. First, you said, on your first day of office, you're going to pardon January 6 defendants. Are you planning to pardon those who were charged with violent offenses?

TRUMP: Well, we're looking at it, and we have other people in there. And as you see, I guess 24 or 28 people came now from the FBI, that came out very quietly. Nobody reported it, but they had people in some form related to the FBI. They had four or five people that were strongly related to the FBI.

We have to find out about that. We have to find out about Hezbollah. We have to find out about who exactly was in that whole thing because people that did some bad things were not prosecuted. You know, I see it all the time, and you see it too.

People that were doing some bad things weren't prosecuted, and people that didn't even walk into the building are in jail right now. So, we'll be looking at the whole thing, but I'll be making major pardons. Yes, please. (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Jack Smith's report --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good afternoon, Mr. President. It's good to see you again. Two questions about Syria and the ongoing war in Gaza. About Syria, the Pentagon disclosed last month, the U.S. has some 2000 troops in Syria. That's almost double the number initially we were told of 900. Will you keep that troop capacity the same upon taking --

TRUMP: Well, I won't tell you that because that's part of a military strategy, but I will say it was Turkey. Turkey has been after that country in different names and different forms and shapes for 2000 years. Those people that went in are from Turkey. And President Erdogan is a friend of mine. He's a guy I like, respect. I think he respects me also. He's the one that didn't go after certain people after I requested that he not. You know who I'm talking about, the Kurds.

I don't know how long that's going to because they're natural enemies. They hate each other. But he didn't do that yet, and he didn't do it in the past also. He started and I said, please don't do that. And he didn't do it.

So, but if you look at what happened with Syria. Russia was weakened, Iran was weakened. And he's a very smart guy. And he sent his people in there through different forms and different names, and they went in and they took over, and that's the way it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have concerns about HTS taking control --

TRUMP: By the way, I have the envoy here -- is that in the back, standing with my son, Eric, is Steve Witkoff, who's just got back from the Middle East, and he's done a fantastic job. He's a -- he's a great deal maker. I said what we need there is a deal maker because nobody makes a deal.

We have people that understand where the rivers are and where the meats are bound and bounds are, but they can't talk. They can't make deals. Steve's done a great job. I just want to thank you, Steve. You've been working endlessly for months. And he's working specifically on the hostages, trying to get him back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, my second question is --

TRUMP: Steve, come up for a second. Maybe you might want to say a couple of words. I didn't --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said, Hamas released another hostage.

TRUMP: I didn't know Steve was going to be here actually. He's done a fantastic job, and it's a dangerous job too, and we appreciate it. He didn't know about this kind of danger and the other deal making he does. Now, he sees a lot of big danger. Come on up, Steve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can I ask you second part of that?

TRUMP Yeah. Just one second. I'm going to give you a little report on the hostages, if I can, Steve. Thank you very much.

STEVE WITKOFF, AMERICAN INVESTOR & LANDLORD: Thank you, Mr. President. Wow. Well, I think we're making a lot of progress, and I don't want to say too much because I think they're doing a really good job back in Doha. I'm leaving tomorrow back to go to Doha. But I think that we've had some really great progress, and I'm really hopeful that by the inaugural we'll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president.

I actually believe that we're working in tandem in a really good way, but it's the president, his reputation, the things that he has said, that are driving this negotiation. And so hopefully It'll all work out and will save some lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (question inaudible)

WITKOFF: I believe we've been on the verge of it. I don't want to discuss sort of what's delayed it. That no point to be -- to be negative in any way. But I think it's the president, his stature. What he said he expects, the red lines he's put out there, that's driving this negotiation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going back to (inaudible)

WITKOFF: I'm going back probably either this evening or tomorrow night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you confident there will be a deal before January 20, or is that something that's likely to happen? If there's a deal even at all, we've been hearing this now for the better part of --

[12:10:00]

WITKOFF: I know. I would say --

TRUMP: They better be.

WITKOFF: Right. I would say that the president is exasperated. I don't want to talk for him, but look, I don't know anyone who delegates better than President Trump. He gives us a lot of authority to speak on his behalf and he exhorts us to speak emphatically. And emphatically means, you better get it -- you better do this, because the alternative --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think they're waiting for President Trump to take office?

WITKOFF: No, I think they heard him loud and clear. Better get done by the inaugural.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, like we say, all hell --

TRUMP: Before I took the office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All hell must be paid. They don't release (inaudible)

TRUMP: Do I have to define it for you? All hell won't break out. If those hostages aren't back, I don't want to hurt your negotiation. If they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East. And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out.

I don't have to say anymore, but that's what it is. And they should have given them back a long time. They should have never taken them. They should have never been the attack of October 7. People forget that, but there was, and many people are killed. They're no longer hostages.

I have people from Israel and others calling, begging me to get -- you know, we had also people there from the United States, just so, you know, they're holding some so-called hostages from the U.S. But I've had mothers come to me and fathers crying, can I get the body of their son back? Can I get the body of their daughter back?

That beautiful girl, where they threw in the car, pulled her by her ponytail and threw in the car like she was a sack of potatoes. I said, what happened to her? Sir, she's dead. Like a 19, 20-year-old, beautiful girl, and the way they treated her.

And I just say it this very simply. Steve's got a job to do. He's a great guy, great negotiator, great person. They respect him over there already. It's what we needed over there. We have people that know everything about the Middle East, but they can't speak properly. They don't know, he's a great negotiator.

That's what I needed. I could have sent that gentleman right over there, who say, he's a great negotiator. There are people, they're rare. Great negotiators are very rare, like a great surgeon, but we have the right person. But I tell this, I don't want to hurt the negotiation. If the deal isn't done before I take office, which is now going to be two weeks, all hell will break out in the Middle East.

WITKOFF: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Thank you. You've done a great job.

WITKOFF: Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than 140 police officers were injured by rioters on January 6. Will you pardon anyone who attacked a police officer?

TRUMP: Well, you know, the only one that was killed was a beautiful young lady named Ashli Babbitt. She was killed, and there was actually somebody else that was killed also, a MAGA person. But people don't give it 100 percent credibility. I'm going to find out about it and we're going to find out.

But Ashli Babbitt was killed. She was shot. Should have never been shot. She was shot for no reason whatsoever. In fact, they say that she was trying to hold back the crowd, and the crowd was made up of a lot of different people, so we'll see. But I will tell you this, the person that was killed was Ashli Babbitt.

The other thing is, when they talk, you know, there was never charges of insurrection or anything like that. But if there were, this would be the only insurrection in history where people went in as insurrectionists with not one gun. OK?

And let me tell you, the people that you're talking about have a lot of guns in their home for hunting and for shooting and for entertainment. Lot a -- lot of good reasons, but there wasn't one gun that they found. And why didn't they find the bomber, the pipe bomber? You know, they know who the pipe bomber is. The FBI knows who it is.

The status of the FBI has gone down so far, and the status of the DOJ, or as I call it, the Department of Justice, it's the Department of injustice being laughed at all over the world, and hopefully with Pam Bondi and with Kash Patel, and with other people that were putting in that will all come back.

If you do a poll in the FBI, I guarantee I'm at like 90 percent with the agents of the FBI. But they have hurt that incredible place, law enforcement. I mean, you think of the FBI. They raided this house, by the way, they could have told me, could I see this guy? I would have given him.

I actually told them, come in anytime you want. You could see anything. They raided the house, and the case was dismissed, and now I'm in litigation. I'm suing them for doing that. And I feel so badly doing it. I'm the president of the United States. So, I'm suing up United States, but I'm suing them for other things too.

[12:15:00]

The FBI has gone so -- its reputation has been so horribly hurt between Comey, who is the worst, and all of the others. What's happened to the FBI is and we're going to make it great again. We're going to make the FBI great again. We're going to make the Department of Justice fair and strong, but fair again. Because all they did was attack me because I'm their political opponent, and that includes with local judges like Merchan.

You got to find out. Why do -- I ask them. Why do I have a gag order where I'm not allowed to speak? Think of it. I'm the president of the United States and I'm not allowed to speak. Why? Because if I did speak, people would understand the scam. It's a scam, and we have very dishonest judges, and New York judges very bad. We had one that valued this house at $18 million because it was good for that case.

He actually valued -- that chandelier is worth more than $18 million. He valued this house as $18 million and we have another one who was so nasty, so horrible, such a brute, most vicious, vile person. These are New York judges, but we've won most of the cases, so we're very happy about that.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your position is clear. Have you drive staff taking specific actions to drop plans. And can you elaborate? Again, you didn't rule out military coercion --

TRUMP: Well, we need Greenland for national security purposes. I've been told that for a long time, long before I even ran, I mean, people have been talking about it for a long time. You have approximately 45,000 people there. People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it. But if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. That's for the free world. I'm talking about protecting the free world.

You look at -- you don't even need binoculars. You look outside, you have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We're not letting that happen. We're not letting it happen. And if Denmark wants to get to a conclusion, but nobody knows if they even have any right title or interest, the people are going to probably vote for independence or to come into the United States. But if they did -- if they did do that, then I would tariff Denmark at a very high level.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If U.S. has got to draw plans for acquisition, are you at --

TRUMP: No, we're not at that stage, but we have people -- I haven't even entered office yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Sir. Elon Musk has drawn some criticism and a lot of attention for some of his actions and provocative statements about foreign affairs, including in Europe. Your reaction to that, is that appropriate for --

TRUMP: You mean, where he likes people that were -- that tended to be conservative. I don't know the people. I can say Elon is doing a good job. Very smart guy. I don't know the people you're talking about. He was -- I know he said some negative things about a couple of people that are running for office, but it's not so unusual. Yes, please.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wanted to ask you about Ukraine and Putin. How soon do you anticipate going to meet with Putin to discuss the Ukraine situation?

TRUMP: Well, I can't tell you that, but I know that Putin would like to meet. I don't think it's appropriate that I meet until after the 20th, which I hate because, you know, everyday people are being -- many, many young people are being killed, soldiers. You know, the land is very flat, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers from each -- many hundreds of thousands from each side are dead, and they're laying in fields, all over the place. Nobody to even collect. This land mines all over. It's a disaster. But it's very flat. It's great -- it's farmland, and it's very, very flat. And the only thing that stops a bullet is the human body, and the human body is stopping a lot of bullets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we think --

TRUMP: I hope to have six months. You know, I would think -- I hope long before six months. Look, Russia is losing a lot of young people, and so is Ukraine, and it should have never been started. That's a war that should have never happened. I guarantee you, if I were president, that war would have never happened.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You like to nominate -- you like to replace Michael Barr as vice chair to the most part?

TRUMP: I'll be announcing somebody.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, if you're working under the assumption that you're serious about making Canada 51st state of the United States. The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada said, under no circumstance -- ever be the 51st state.

TRUMP: Maybe he won't win, but maybe he will, I don't care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The question, for David's point, you had suggested --

TRUMP: Listen, I don't hear what he says --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since you're considering military force to acquire Panama and Greenland. Are you also considering military force to annex an acquired?

[12:20:00]

TRUMP: No, economic force because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security. You don't forget, we basically protect Canada.

But here's the problem with Canada. So many friends up there. I love the Canadian people. They're great. But we're spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We're spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We lose in trade deficits. We're losing mass -- we don't need their cars.

You know, they make 20 percent of our cars. We don't need that. I'd rather make them in Detroit. We don't need the cars. We don't need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don't need their lumber. We have to un-restrict them because stupid people put, you know, restrictions on, but I can do that with an executive order.

We don't need anything they have. We don't need their dairy products. We have more than they have. We don't need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada. And I said that to -- as I called him, Governor Trudeau, I said, listen. What would happen if we didn't subsidize you? If we didn't -- because we give them a lot of money.

We help them. As an example, we're buying ice breakers, and Canada wants to join us in the buying of ice breakers. I said, you know, we don't really want to have a partner in the buying of icebreakers. We don't need a partner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (question inaudible)

TRUMP: I have no right. Nope, no, right. Here's what we have. We have a right not to help them with their financial difficulties because we are $36 trillion still. We're going to start knocking it out pretty fast, but we're going to be able to do it because of energy and other things. But no, no, no right, no, no, no right.

But why are we supporting a country 200 billion plus a year. Our military is at their disposal. All of these other things, they should be a state. That's why I told Trudeau. When he came down, I said, what would happen if we didn't do it? He said, Canada would dissolve. Canada wouldn't be able to function.

If we didn't take that 20 percent of our car market. You know, we -- again, they send us hundreds of thousands of cars. They make a lot of money with that. They send us a lot of other things that we don't need. We don't need their cars. We don't need the other products. We don't need their milk. We got a lot of milk. We got a lot of everything, and we don't need any of it.

So, I said to him, well, why are we doing it? He said, I don't really know. He was unable to answer the question, but I can answer it. We're doing it because of habit and we're doing it because we like our neighbors and we've been good neighbors, but we can't do it forever, and it's a tremendous amount of money.

And why should we have a $200 billion deficit and add on to that many, many other things that we give them in terms of subsidy. And I said, that's OK to have if you're a state, but if you're another country, we don't want to have it. We're not going to have it with European Union either. European Union, we have a trade deficit of $350 billion. They don't take our cars, they don't take our farm product, they don't take anything. And so, we're not going to have it with them either.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Brian, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Happy New Year, by the way. TRUMP: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have some breaking news. You may not be aware of this but looks like Cannon has blocked the DOJ from releasing the Smith report until further court proceedings. Get your thoughts on that.

TRUMP: Well, that's a big story, So, if I get it right, the fake witch hunt started by the DOJ having to do with books and records, and Biden had many more, and he wasn't protected by the Presidential Records Act like I was. But all of that fake stuff that took the lives of people, I mean literally, destroyed people. People are destroyed because of what they did, destroyed.

But we got to be president, but Biden did it for 40 years. He did it when he was a senator. That was illegal, and they ruled it was illegal. How about that? They said, it's illegal, but he's unfit to stand trial.

So, he can stand and be president of the United States, but the prosecutor found that he's unfit for trial. I was going to use that as a major talking point, but I never got to use it, because all of a sudden, I had a new candidate who was also sort of unfit to stand trial, right?

But so, what you're saying is that the judge just blocked the -- so Cannon was thrown off the case. They dropped their appeal because he had no case, they dropped all of that, the lawsuits against us. They lost the lawsuit. So, this is Doreen Jack Smith, so he dropped the lawsuits.

[12:25:00]

He was told to by the DOJ, because they had no lawsuit. They lost in court in front of a very strong and a very brilliant judge, they lost in court, and that pertained to other cases in other courts. So, he wanted to do a report just before I take office, probably. So, he'll do like a 500-page report, and it will be a fake report, just like the investigation was a fake investigation.

And I said, well, wait a minute. This guy was thrown off in disgrace. In disgrace, he's going back to the Hague, or wherever they're going to send him in disgrace, because he failed so badly, because it was a fake case against a political opponent. They thought they were going to use this to beat me.

So, what you're saying is the -- and I'm just hearing that that they're not allowed to issue the report. So, if they're not allowed to issue the report, that's the way it should be, because he was thrown off the case in disgrace. Why should he be allowed to write a fake report? It will only be a fake report. That's great news. Good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I can just follow up real quickly. You want to comment, many Americans are angry that we're sending millions of dollars every month to the Taliban. Do you anticipate? TRUMP: It's not even believable. Billions of -- not millions, billions. We pay billions of dollars to essentially, the Taliban, Afghanistan, and that's given by Biden. That's the same man that took away $50 to $60 trillion worth of value from the United States. Think of it. Probably our most valuable asset, took away our most valuable asset. This can't be allowed to happen.

We are now a nation of common sense. When he does that, 625 million acres, this can't be allowed to happen. I'm thank you for the information. Most other people probably knew about it, but they wouldn't have told me, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President are the campaign trail? You vowed to bring down the prices at grocery stores very fast.

TRUMP: Yeah. We will do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But that you recently told Time magazine that bringing down prices would be very hard. So, what can the American people expect when you get into office? Like, do they go into --

TRUMP: It's always hard to bring down prices when somebody else has screwed something up like they did, but we'll bring them down. We'll get them down. Energy is going to bring down prices. We're going to have a lot of energy, and energy is what brought it up, energy and their bad spending is what brought it up. And energy is going to bring it down.

We're going to have prices down. I think you're going to see some pretty drastic price reductions. As an example, food, bacon, ham, apples, everything has gone through the roof. It's one of the reasons I won. So, as you know, I said it, inflation was one of the reasons I won. But I think the biggest reason I won was the fact that they are allowing prisoners to come into our country. They released their prisoners, their murders.

Thousands of murders are now walking around the streets of our cities and farmland, all over murders, people that have killed many, 32 percent have killed more than one person. They released them from their jails, their prisons and their mental institutions and insane asylums into our country. I believe that's the reason we got such a large vote. Maybe one or two more questions. Yeah, please. Go ahead. Go ahead. Can you -- you go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you -- President Carter is laying in state today in Washington and you had some harsh words for him about the Panama Canal. Is there any disconnect there? Do you feel a little bit bad about doing that on the stage?

TRUMP: No. Look, I liked him as a man. I disagreed with his policy. So, he thought giving away the Panama Canal was a good thing. I think it cost him the election, that and the hostages. I actually think that was a bigger factor because that's a deal that just should not have been made.

But again, this was a question that was asked of me. I didn't bring it up. I didn't want to bring up the Panama Canal because of Jimmy Carter's death, but people don't bring it up. But you know, you and other people have asked me about it. No, it's a deal that I was very strongly against. I was a young guy when this took place.

But just why would we spend all of that money, lose 38,000 people to malaria, the mosquito? They were dying. It was horrible what was happening. They paid them four times more than they would make in the United States, but they knew they were going -- to go over there and die, and they died in the jungles of malaria. There was nothing we could do to stop it 30, and then we gave it away for $1.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That bring the judgement from Congress. You appeared to open the door in your radio interview yesterday for a two bill approaches. Still, your preference for one big, beautiful bill, as you have said.

TRUMP: Well, I like one big, beautiful bill. And I always have, I always will. But if two is more certain, it does go a little bit quicker, because you can do the immigration stuff early. Now, you have to understand, for immigration and for the wall, we won the case on the wall. You know, they tried to sell the wall for five cents on the dollar, by the way -- and we had fortunately a judge that stopped that, but they were already discarding the wall and five cents on the dollar.

And you know what they were doing? They were calling us up and saying, we'll sell it back to you at 200 cents. In other words, its double what we paid for it. So they were going to buy it from this guy for five cents in the dollar. They were making deals.

[12:30:00]