FULL INTERVIEW — President Trump the First 100 Days: The Interview in the Oval Office

[0:00] This is an ABC News special from inside the White House. [0:04] When you step back in the Oval Office after you were re-elected, what went through your mind? [0:10] Triumphant when you walked back? [0:12] Yes, there's a feeling of triumph. [0:13] President Donald J. Trump on his 100th day in office from the number one issue, The Economy. [0:20] People are worried, even some people who voted for you saying, I didn't sign up for this. [0:26] So how do you answer those concerns? [0:28] Well, they did sign up for it, actually. [0:30] To immigration. [0:31] It is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted a staggering decline. [0:39] But there are questions about your methods. [0:42] To Elon Musk. [0:43] Did Doge go too far, too fast, too reckless? [0:47] And the concerns from many Americans about the impact of tariffs. [0:51] Everything's going to be just fine. [0:53] President Trump, the first 100 days, the interview in the Oval Office. [0:57] With ABC News anchor and senior national correspondent, Terry Moran. [1:03] Earlier today, I sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an exclusive interview on his 100th day of his second term. [1:12] It was a great opportunity to ask him some wide-ranging questions about the issues that most concern so many Americans. [1:19] We talked about the economy and his tariffs. [1:22] We talked about immigration and those deportations. [1:25] And you can see here the White House has put up some posters that they say show some of the violent criminals that have so far been deported. [1:32] We talked about a lot more as well. [1:34] The president's answers were provocative, at times combative, and always he was strong in his convictions about his policies. [1:43] But before we get to the interview, we begin tonight with a look inside the Oval Office that Donald Trump has transformed. [1:51] Hello, everybody. [1:55] How are you? [1:55] This is the Oval Office. [1:59] This is the resolute desk, which is really something very spectacular. [2:03] There's nothing quite like it, and they give you a choice of about seven different desks, but this is the one I chose. [2:10] Ronald Reagan had it. [2:12] FDR had it. [2:13] A few people had it, but I found it to be the most beautiful. [2:17] It is amazing. [2:18] This is an amazing space, and amazing, maybe architecturally wonderful, but amazing for what it represents. [2:27] It represents the U.S., and if properly used, a lot of good things can happen. [2:33] I see Ronald Reagan over there. [2:35] Yeah, Ronald Reagan. [2:36] Right to your left. [2:37] Being in the Oval Office is very important. [2:40] You see Ronald Reagan here, and they put him a little bit larger. [2:44] It sort of seemed to fit very nicely. [2:47] You have Democrats a little bit. [2:50] You have Franklin Roosevelt. [2:53] Franklin Roosevelt. [2:54] So you look at that picture, and people say, well, what's he doing up there? [2:57] But look, he was a serious president, whether we like it or not. [3:01] He was a four-termer, and went through a war. [3:07] You have Lincoln, you have Washington, but you look over here, that's Monroe, the Monroe Doctrine. [3:12] Why is he up there? [3:13] I think the Monroe Doctrine was pretty important. [3:16] You know, that was his claim to fame. [3:19] Over here, you have the original of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and of course, you have the Declaration of Independence. [3:25] What does it mean to you? [3:28] Well, it means exactly what it says. [3:30] It's a declaration. [3:31] It's a declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot, and it's something very special to our country. [3:40] Lincoln's portrait up there, I'm not familiar with that one, but I think when I'm looking at that famous line in the second inaugural, [3:48] with malice toward none, with charity toward all. [3:52] Well, he was a great president. [3:56] He went through a lot. [3:57] And the Oval Office is always changing between presidents, and that says something? [4:02] It changes you, it does. [4:02] What does this say about how you feel about the country and the office? [4:06] Well, I think it says I love the country. [4:07] I mean, I'm putting pictures of presidents up that have never been up, pictures that weren't largely used in many cases. [4:16] You know, great men, in this case men, but great men of great achievement. [4:22] And you're every detail, it seems. [4:25] Yeah. [4:25] This is your office. [4:27] I'm a very detailed person. [4:29] I'm a very clean person. [4:31] I like cleanliness. [4:32] I like to see this space be treated properly. [4:36] I've added a lot to the space in terms of beautification, in terms of modernization. [4:43] That's a gallery of presidents. [4:45] It really is. [4:45] It really is. [4:46] So, and it's an honor to have you people with us. [4:49] Mr. President, thank you for doing this. [4:51] Thank you very much. [4:52] Here in the Oval Office. [4:53] It's special. [4:54] A hundred days into your second term. [4:57] So, what's the one thing, just one thing, that you think is the most significant thing you've done so far in these hundred days? [5:07] Well, I think maybe the border is the most significant because our country was really going bad. [5:11] They were allowing people to come in from prisons, as you know, and you've heard me say it, but you've heard a lot of people say it. [5:18] Prisons, mental institutions, gang members, murderers. [5:22] We had many murderers, 11,888, they think. [5:26] Some murdered more than one person. [5:29] So, you had murderers coming in. [5:30] You had everybody coming in, and not just South America, from all over the world. [5:34] They were emptying their prisons into our country, and now it's totally closed down. [5:39] And you've seen just yesterday, they announced 99.9%. [5:43] Nobody thought that could happen, and it happened quickly, very quickly. [5:47] And I think that's very significant, but we're doing other things that are very significant. [5:52] The results will take a little bit longer because it's one of those, you know, it's complicated. [5:57] It's many years of trading abuse. [6:00] We've been abused by other countries for years and years. [6:03] They laughed at us. [6:04] They thought we were stupid people, and we're fixing it. [6:07] And I think that's going to be very, very important. [6:10] But I have a lot of ground to cover. [6:12] Yeah, I would really say that the border is so important. [6:15] And we'll get there. [6:17] Immigration is huge. [6:18] And we're going to get there. [6:19] But I want to start. [6:20] Sure. [6:20] With the economy, the number one issue for so many people, just about everybody. [6:24] It's one of the main reasons that you're back in this office. [6:28] And now we have this trade war with China that Moody's and other analysts say is going to cost American families thousands of more dollars per year. [6:38] And there is a lot of concern out there. [6:40] People are worried. [6:42] Even some people who voted for you are saying, I didn't sign up for this. [6:46] So how do you answer those concerns? [6:48] Well, they did sign up for it, actually. [6:50] And this is what I campaigned on. [6:52] I said that we've been abused by other countries at levels that nobody's ever seen before. [6:58] We were losing $3 to $5 billion a day on trade. [7:03] We were losing a trillion and a half to $2 trillion a year, not sustainable. [7:11] They were taking advantage of us like they've never. [7:14] I could have left it that way. [7:15] And at some point, it would have been an implosion like nobody's ever seen. [7:20] But I said, no, we have to fix it. [7:22] I've wanted to do this for many years. [7:24] You know, I had the best economy during my first term. [7:27] We had a tremendous economy, tremendous success. [7:29] And we did tremendous numbers of tariffs on. [7:33] We took in a lot of money from tariffs, China in particular, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. [7:40] We had no inflation. [7:41] As you know, we had an incredible economy. [7:43] We're giving credit for a great economy. [7:45] But I said, we have to fix this. [7:47] Otherwise, it's just not self-sustaining. [7:49] One of the things you ran on was you said you'd bring prices down on day one. [7:55] And that it would happen fast. [7:57] And that it would happen fast. [7:58] I have. [8:00] Most economists will tell you that tariffs will raise prices. [8:03] So don't your tariffs cut against that promise you made to bring prices down? [8:08] No, because I had massive tariffs on China, if you remember, in my first term. [8:13] And we had essentially no inflation, like around 1% inflation, which is like a perfect number. [8:20] And then when Biden took over, it went through the roof. [8:23] It went to probably the worst inflation we've ever had. [8:26] I mean, we had an inflation nightmare. [8:29] Now, if you look at what's happening now, we're only there for 100 days, as you say. [8:35] And in 100 days, we took over. [8:38] We had bad inflation for four years, for two years, especially two years of his administration. [8:45] I would say record-setting, like we've never seen. [8:49] They say 48 years. [8:50] The worst in 48 years. [8:51] I say it was much worse than that. [8:53] Right. [8:54] So now, if you look at what's happened, energy is down. [8:58] Gasoline hit $1.98 in a few states during the last couple of days. [9:05] It was $3.50 and $4 and $4.50. [9:10] But gasoline is way down. [9:12] When I took over, you remember the big thing with eggs. [9:15] They hit me the first week. [9:16] Eggs, eggs, eggs. [9:17] Like it was my fault. [9:18] I said, I didn't cause this problem. [9:20] This problem was caused by Biden. [9:22] What's the problem with eggs? [9:23] And they said, they've doubled. [9:25] Well, eggs are down 87% since I got involved. [9:30] A lot of that is bird flu. [9:30] And by the way, there were plenty of eggs for Easter, which we just went through. [9:34] There were plenty of eggs for Easter. [9:36] They were saying, you won't have enough eggs for Easter. [9:39] We and my secretary did a fantastic job on eggs. [9:43] Groceries are down. [9:45] Everything's down. [9:46] Interest rates are the same. [9:47] Interest rates should be down. [9:49] But we have a Federal Reserve that wants to be stubborn. [9:51] They want to be cued. [9:52] We'll get to that. [9:53] You said something a couple weeks ago that struck me. [9:57] You said concerning the tariffs, which economists say are going to raise prices, [10:02] you said, quote, hang tough. [10:05] It won't be easy. [10:06] You said that to the American people. [10:08] Is that what Americans should expect? [10:09] Some hard times? [10:10] I've said that during my campaign. [10:11] Look, we won a campaign by a lot. [10:14] We won all seven swing states. [10:16] We won the popular vote by a lot. [10:18] You know, we had a tremendous campaign. [10:19] I said all of these things during my campaign. [10:22] I said, you're going to have a transition period. [10:25] We've been ripped off by every country all over the world. [10:28] They're laughing at us. [10:29] They thought we were stupid people, and we were. [10:31] And I said, that's not going to happen. [10:33] But hard times? [10:34] Hard times are ahead? [10:35] I don't think so. [10:36] Hang tough. [10:36] Great times are ahead. [10:37] Look, since I came in, gasoline is down. [10:41] Groceries are down. [10:42] Egg prices are down. [10:43] Many things are down, just about everything. [10:46] You know, you don't have the drop in fuel and energy and oil like we did. [10:51] I took it from maybe $3.20, maybe more than that, down into a much lower number. [10:59] When you have that kind of a drop, you're not going to have inflation. [11:03] Not now. [11:03] But it's the tariffs, right? [11:05] We still have 145% tariffs on China. [11:07] Your Treasury Secretary said we basically have an embargo on China. [11:10] Look, you're trying to say something's going to happen, Terry. [11:13] No, no, no. [11:13] Okay, well, you know business. [11:15] I want to ask you. [11:15] I want to ask you. [11:16] I do know business. [11:17] Yes, so 145% tariffs on China. [11:20] And that is basically an embargo. [11:23] They deserve it. [11:23] It'll raise prices on everything from electronics to clothing to building houses. [11:28] You don't know that. [11:29] You don't know whether or not China's going to eat it. [11:31] That's mathematics. [11:31] China probably will eat those tariffs. [11:33] But at 145, they basically can't do much business with the United States. [11:37] And they were making from us a trillion dollars a year. [11:41] They were ripping us off like nobody's ever ripped us off. [11:44] And by the way, we have other countries that were just as bad. [11:47] If you look at the European Union, it was terrible what they've done to us. [11:51] Every country, almost every country in the world was ripping us off. [11:54] They're not doing that anymore. [11:56] I want you to think about the boom that this country has had in small businesses. [12:00] Mom and pop, Etsy stores, small businesses that became big businesses. [12:04] They haven't had a boom because of inflation. [12:06] Well, you know what they've done. [12:07] The boom was inflationary boom. [12:09] The people were wiped out with inflation. [12:11] I mean, you read the news. [12:12] You do the business stuff, I assume. [12:14] Now a lot of them built those businesses on the trading model before you. [12:19] Yeah, and they're going to make more money now. [12:20] They sourced their products overseas. [12:23] And now they're looking at an extinction event. [12:26] I've been here. [12:27] There's a disaster for them. [12:28] I've been here for three months. [12:30] I've taken a trade deficit down to a number that's very, very starting to get really good. [12:37] I've only, I just got here. [12:39] We had a country that it was not sustainable, what Biden did to this country, between the open borders where criminals poured into our country, between every country in the world ripping us off on trade, it was not sustainable. [12:52] So your message to those small businesses who are saying, we can't live a month, two months with these tariffs, Apple got a big deal. [13:01] Is there something for them? [13:02] No, no, not only Apple. [13:03] Well, we've got $7 to $8 trillion being invested in our country in two months. [13:08] Biden didn't have that over a year. [13:10] I mean, if you look at Biden, nobody was really investing in this country. [13:15] Everybody was ripping off our country. [13:17] Apple's putting up $500 billion, but that's only one of many companies. [13:21] Companies are flooding into our country right now. [13:24] So your answer to the concern about the tariffs is everything's going to be hunky-dory. [13:28] Everything's going to be just fine. [13:30] It wouldn't have been if I didn't do this. [13:32] I had a choice. [13:32] I could leave it, have a nice, easy time. [13:34] But I think ultimately you would have had an implosion. [13:37] Our country had inflation that was worse than they've ever had it before. [13:44] You don't mention that. [13:45] Why don't you mention that? [13:46] We had the worst inflation probably in the history of our country. [13:49] People say 48 years. [13:51] Probably in the history of our country we had the worst inflation. [13:53] And people were dying over the inflation. [13:58] You know that. [13:59] Now the grocery prices are coming down. [14:02] The energy prices are coming down. [14:04] Gasoline's coming down. [14:05] It's all heading in the right direction. [14:08] Okay. [14:08] Let's move on to immigration. [14:11] Coming up. [14:11] It is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted a staggering decline. [14:19] President Trump, the first 100 days, continues. [14:32] Let's move on to immigration. [14:33] And as you said, it is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted a staggering decline. [14:42] But there are questions about your methods. [14:46] And so I want to ask each. [14:46] About my message? [14:47] Methods. [14:48] About your methods. [14:49] How you're accomplishing this. [14:49] Well, they seem to work. [14:52] Do you acknowledge that under our law, every single person who gets deported gets a hearing first to make their case? [15:01] Well, are we talking about people that are citizens of our country or not? [15:05] No, you're not deporting citizens at this point. [15:07] Well, let me ask you, did they get hearings when Biden allowed 21 million, because I think the number is 20 million people to flow into our country? [15:16] You had 21 million people that came into our country through a stupid open border, and they were prisoners, and they were people that you don't want in many cases in our country, right? [15:28] They came from all over the world. [15:30] They came from the Congo. [15:31] They came from south. [15:32] They came from all over the world. [15:34] We're talking about some of the roughest countries in the world they had here, including terrorists, by the way. [15:42] Now, did we give them a hearing when they came in? [15:45] Well, the law requires that every single person who is going to be deported gets a hearing first. [15:51] Do you acknowledge that? [15:52] Well, I'll have to ask the lawyers about that. [15:54] All I can say is this. [15:56] If you're going to have 21 million people, and we have to get a lot of them out because they're criminals, we're going to have to act fast. [16:02] Do you think we can give 21 million trials? [16:07] Let's say each trial takes two weeks. [16:10] Is that what you want us to do? [16:11] The law is the law, sir. [16:12] The law is the law. [16:13] The law doesn't say anything about trials. [16:15] No, not trials. [16:16] Hearings. [16:17] These people came in. [16:18] They're not citizens. [16:19] They came in illegally. [16:21] They came into our country illegally. [16:22] We have to get them out. [16:23] There's a legal process for that. [16:24] I can't, sure, and we follow the legal process. [16:27] I can't have a trial, a major trial, for every person that came in illegally. [16:33] We have thousands of murderers that came in. [16:37] They're going to murder people. [16:38] They already have murdered people in our country. [16:41] We have to get them out. [16:42] They're bad guys. [16:42] And we have to get them out fast. [16:43] Really bad guys. [16:44] But in our country, even bad guys get due process. [16:47] If people come into our country illegally, there's a different standard. [16:52] These are illegal. [16:53] They came in illegally. [16:54] But they get due process. [16:56] Well, they get a process where we have to get them out. [16:59] Yeah. [17:00] Okay. [17:00] Let's talk about the Venezuelans. [17:01] They get whatever my lawyers say. [17:03] Right. [17:04] All right. [17:04] Let's talk about the Venezuelans. [17:05] You deported more than 200 Venezuelans to that prison in El Salvador. [17:11] You say they're violent, they're gang members, they're terrorists. [17:14] Many of them don't have a criminal record at all. [17:17] Well, I'm not so sure about that if you take a look. [17:20] I want to read you something. [17:21] Excuse me. [17:22] When you look at those people, they were violent people. [17:27] They were violent people. [17:28] But many of them don't have a criminal record at this point. [17:30] Go ahead. [17:30] I want to read you something. [17:32] Well, it's based on their lawyer, what their lawyers have said. [17:36] Okay. [17:36] Joe Rogan said this. [17:39] Joe Rogan, one of the leading podcasters, Trump supporter, about the deportation of Venezuelans. [17:44] He said, quote, rounding up gang members and shipping them to El Salvador with no due process. [17:49] He said it was dangerous and added, quote, we've got to be careful that we don't become monsters while we're fighting monsters. [17:58] Is Joe Rogan right? [17:59] Oh, I agree with that 100%. [18:01] Yeah. [18:01] We want to be careful. [18:02] We are careful. [18:03] We're doing something that has to be done. [18:06] We have a country that's very sick. [18:10] Joe Biden, and it's not him because I don't even think he knew what the hell was happening. [18:14] But the people around him are vicious people. [18:18] And what they've done to the country is unbelievable. [18:21] They've allowed 21 million people to pour into our country. [18:25] Many of these people are criminals. [18:27] They've allowed the, you mentioned Venezuela, the jails of Venezuela to be emptied into the United States. [18:33] Do you know Venezuela crime is way down, way, way down. [18:37] You know why? [18:38] Because their criminals are now living happily in the United States of America, and we're getting them out. [18:44] And I was elected to get them out, and we're getting them out. [18:47] Under the law. [18:48] And we're getting them out fast, and we're getting them out illegally. [18:51] Now, in some cases, we have judges. [18:54] In some cases, they're radical left judges. [18:57] What happened the other day where a judge was protecting a criminal was horrible. [19:01] And I think she's got big problems, frankly. [19:04] And there are a couple of them like that. [19:05] I want to talk about one man. [19:06] Wait a minute. [19:07] We have to be treated fairly by judges. [19:09] And we're not being treated fairly by all judges. [19:13] Oh, that's a subject. [19:14] So you're saying that you don't like some of the rulings, some of the court orders. [19:17] Well, I think the rulings will be overturned, yeah. [19:19] Let me ask you about one man and one court order. [19:22] Kilmer Abrego Garcia. [19:23] He's the Salvadoran man who crossed into this country illegally, [19:26] but who is under a protective order that he not be sent back to El Salvador. [19:31] Your government sent him back to El Salvador and acknowledged in court that was a mistake. [19:36] And now the Supreme Court has upheld an order that you must return him to facilitate his return to the United States. [19:43] What are you doing to comply? [19:44] Well, the lawyer that said it was a mistake was here a long time, was not appointed by us, [19:50] should not have said that, should not have said that. [19:53] And just so you understand, the person that you're talking about, you know, you're making this person sound, [19:58] this is a MS-13 gang member, a tough cookie, been in lots of skirmishes, beat the hell out of his wife, [20:06] and the wife was petrified to even talk about him, okay? [20:09] This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland. [20:12] I'm not saying he's a good guy. [20:13] It's about the rule of law. [20:14] The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir. [20:16] You came into our country illegally. [20:18] You could get him back. There's a phone on this desk. [20:21] I could. [20:21] You could pick it up, and with all the power of the presidency, [20:24] you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, send him back. [20:26] Right now. [20:27] And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that. [20:30] But the court has ordered you to facilitate that. [20:33] I'm not the one making this decision. [20:35] We have lawyers that don't want to do this. [20:37] But the buck stops in this office. [20:39] No, no, no, no. [20:40] I follow the law. [20:42] You want me to follow the law? [20:43] If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I'd probably keep him right where he is. [20:47] The court says what the law is. [20:48] Listen, I was elected to take care of a problem that was, it was a unforced error that was made [20:58] by a very incompetent man. [20:59] A man that turned out to be incompetent that you always said was wonderful, great genius, right? [21:04] And now you find out all of the media now, they're saying what a mistake they made. [21:08] A man who was grossly incompetent allowed us to have open borders where millions of people float in. [21:15] I campaigned on that issue. [21:17] I wouldn't say it was my number one issue, but it was pretty close. [21:19] Right up there. [21:20] I campaigned on that issue. [21:22] I've done an amazing job. [21:23] I have closed borders. [21:24] He said you couldn't do it. [21:25] You wouldn't be able to do it. [21:26] It would never happen. [21:27] Well, it happened. [21:29] And it happened very quickly. [21:30] Wait a minute. [21:30] When we have criminals, murderers, criminals in this country, we have to get them out, and we're doing it. [21:37] By law. [21:37] And you'll pick out one man. [21:38] But even the man that you picked out, he said he wasn't a member of a gang. [21:43] And then they looked, and on his knuckles, he had MS-13. [21:47] There's a dispute about that. [21:48] Wait a minute. [21:49] Wait a minute. [21:50] He had MS-13 on his knuckles tattoo. [21:52] He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way. [21:55] But let's move on. [21:56] Wait a minute. [21:56] Hey, Terry, Terry. [21:57] Terry. [21:58] He did not have the letter MS-13. [22:00] It says MS-13. [22:01] It says MS-13. [22:02] That was Photoshopped. [22:03] So let me just... [22:04] That was Photoshopped. [22:05] Terry, you can't do that. [22:06] Hey, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime. [22:08] You know, you're doing the interview. [22:10] I picked you because, frankly, I never heard of you, but that's okay. [22:13] I picked you. [22:14] Terry, but you're not being very nice. [22:16] He had MS-13 tattooed... [22:18] We'll agree to disagree. [22:19] I want to move on to something else. [22:20] Terry, do you want me to show you the picture? [22:23] I saw the picture. [22:24] We'll agree to disagree. [22:25] And you think it was Photoshopped. [22:26] Here we go. [22:27] Here we go. [22:27] Don't Photoshop it. [22:28] Go look at his hand. [22:29] He had MS-13. [22:29] He did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. [22:32] I'm not an expert on them. [22:33] I want to turn to Ukraine, sir. [22:34] I want to get to Ukraine. [22:35] No, no. [22:36] No, no. [22:37] He had MS, as clear as you can be, not interpreted. [22:41] This is why people no longer believe the news, because it's fake news. [22:45] The photograph in El Salvador, they aren't there. [22:48] But let's just go on. [22:50] They aren't there when he's in El Salvador. [22:51] Oh, they weren't there, but they're there now, right? [22:53] No. [22:54] They're in your picture. [22:55] Terry. [22:55] Ukraine, sir. [22:56] He's got MS-13 on his knuckles. [22:59] All right. [23:00] Okay? [23:00] We'll take a look at that. [23:01] It's such a disservice. [23:03] We'll take a look at that, sir. [23:04] Why don't you just say, yes, he does, and go on to something else? [23:08] It's contested. [23:09] Ukraine. [23:10] Coming up, the Russia-Ukraine war. [23:13] Don't forget, this is a... [23:14] You think Vladimir Putin wants peace. [23:16] And that historic meeting, President Trump, the first 100 days, continues. [23:28] I want to turn, I was just in Rome, and to that moving photograph of you and President [23:36] Zelensky sitting in St. Peter's Basilica talking peace. [23:39] It went around the world. [23:41] Sure. [23:42] Take us into that moment. [23:43] Well, look, Ukraine is a very serious, very tough situation, and this is Biden's war. [23:51] This is not my war, but I want to see if I can solve it, because probably close to 5,000 [23:57] young soldiers a week are being killed, Russian and Ukrainian. [24:02] We also spend a tremendous amount of money in Ukraine, and Europe should be spending much [24:08] more than us. [24:09] They're not. [24:09] They're spending much less. [24:10] It's been badly handled by the Biden administration. [24:13] It's been badly handled all the way around, all the way around. [24:16] That moment. [24:18] The moment was a moment of solace, in a sense, because tremendous numbers of people are dying. [24:25] A lot of his people are dying. [24:27] They're being killed. [24:28] And I feel very badly about it. [24:31] I feel very badly about it. [24:32] That's a war that would have never happened if I were president, and it didn't happen [24:35] for four years. [24:37] It was never even a thought of it happening. [24:39] It does feel like something's happening after that meeting with Zelensky in St. Peter's. [24:44] You posted this on social media. [24:46] There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas and cities and [24:51] towns over the last few days. [24:52] It makes me think that maybe... [24:54] Well, that was part of my post, but you're right. [24:55] That was a part of a post. [24:57] And it says, it makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. [25:01] He's just tapping me along. [25:03] Yeah, that's possible. [25:04] He might be... [25:05] He could be tapping me along a little bit. [25:08] I would say that he would like to stop the war. [25:13] I think that if it weren't for me, I think he'd want to take over the whole country personally. [25:17] I always felt... [25:19] So when I left, there wasn't even a chance that this would happen. [25:23] When Biden got involved, I won't say whether or not he handled it properly, but obviously [25:29] it wasn't good because the war started. [25:31] Putin went in, the war started. [25:34] I believe that Putin wanted to get all of Ukraine once he went in. [25:38] And I think part of the reason he went in, he saw what happened in Afghanistan, how incompetent, [25:42] how incompetently Millie and all these guys handled that. [25:45] It was one of the greatest embarrassments of our lifetimes, but maybe in the history [25:49] of our country. [25:50] Okay. [25:51] So Putin went in. [25:52] I think Putin wanted all of Ukraine. [25:54] I think if I didn't win the election, he would have gotten all of Ukraine. [25:58] I think he would have taken all of Ukraine. [26:00] I think his first choice, never with me, he would have never gone in. [26:04] With this group of losers, he went in, he saw what happened in Afghanistan. [26:09] He said, wow, this is my chance. [26:11] Because it was always the apple of his eye. [26:13] I talked to him. [26:14] Ukraine was the apple of his eye. [26:16] I think he wanted the whole country. [26:18] And because of me, I do believe that he's willing to stop the fighting. [26:25] Don't forget. [26:25] You think he wants peace? [26:26] You think Vladimir Putin wants peace? [26:28] I think he does, yes. [26:30] I think he does. [26:32] I think because of me. [26:32] Even with the raining missiles on. [26:33] I think he really, his dream was to take over the whole country. [26:38] I think because of me, he's not going to do that. [26:42] Do you trust him? [26:43] I think. [26:43] Do you trust him? [26:44] I don't trust you. [26:45] I don't trust a lot of people. [26:47] I don't trust you. [26:48] Look at you. [26:48] You come in all shooting for bear. [26:50] You're so happy to do the interview. [26:52] I am happy. [26:52] And then you start hitting me with fake questions. [26:54] You start telling me that a guy whose hand is covered with a tattoo doesn't have the tattoo. [27:00] I mean, you're being dishonest. [27:01] No, I'm not. [27:02] No, I am not, sir. [27:03] Do I trust him? [27:03] I don't trust a lot of people. [27:05] But I do think this. [27:07] I think that he, let's say he respects me. [27:11] And I believe because of me, he's not going to take over the whole. [27:14] But his decision, his choice would be to take over all of Ukraine. [27:20] It's a war that never should have happened. [27:23] It did happen because of incompetent people. [27:25] Last question on this. [27:26] But it never should have happened. [27:27] If there is no peace deal, will the U.S. cut off military aid to you? [27:30] I don't want to tell you that. [27:31] I'm not going to tell you whether or not I would or not. [27:33] I want to leave that as a big, fat secret because I don't want to ruin a negotiation. [27:38] But I will tell you, I was not happy when I saw Putin shooting missiles into a few towns and cities. [27:46] And that was not something that I like seeing. [27:49] And I thought it was inappropriate. [27:50] But I think the whole war is inappropriate. [27:53] Again, it's a war that shouldn't have happened. [27:55] This is a war that if the election weren't rigged, and it was totally rigged, the 2020 election, [28:01] that weren't rigged, you wouldn't have that. [28:03] You wouldn't have had the embarrassment of Afghanistan. [28:06] You wouldn't have October 7th with Israel. [28:09] You wouldn't have had any of the problems that you have right now. [28:11] And you wouldn't have had inflation either. [28:14] All right. [28:14] I want to ask one question about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. [28:17] There's a lot of turmoil at the Pentagon right now. [28:21] There's the signal chat with his wife on it where he's discussing that attack in Yemen. [28:24] There's another signal chat discussing the attack on Yemen. [28:27] There's a reporter accidentally involved. [28:30] You said the other day that you had a talk with the secretary. [28:33] Did you take him to the woodshed? [28:35] I had a talk with him. [28:38] And whatever I said, I probably wouldn't be inclined to tell you. [28:43] But we had a good talk. [28:44] He's a talented guy. [28:46] He's young, smart, highly educated. [28:48] And I think he's going to be a very good defense, hopefully a great defense secretary. [28:54] But he'll be a very good defense secretary. [28:56] You have 100% confidence in Pete Hegseth. [28:58] I don't have 100% confidence in anything. [29:01] Okay? [29:02] Anything. [29:02] Do I have 100%? [29:04] It's a stupid question. [29:05] Look. [29:07] It's a pretty important position. [29:08] No, no, no. [29:09] You don't have 100%. [29:10] Only a liar would say I have 100% confidence. [29:14] I don't have 100% confidence that we're going to finish this interview. [29:17] We will. [29:19] Let's go. [29:20] Coming up, President Trump on Elon Musk and Doge. [29:24] Did Doge go too far, too fast, too recklessly? [29:28] President Trump, the first 100 days continues. [29:34] Elon Musk and Doge. [29:37] Everyone knows that there's wasteful government spending. [29:40] It's really important. [29:42] But the cuts have had some serious consequences. [29:46] There have been cuts to foreign aid programs that save lives and keep people alive overseas. [29:51] There's been research at the National Institutes of Health on cancer, on Alzheimer's, that has had to be stopped. [29:59] And the question I think people have is, did Doge go too far, too fast, too recklessly? [30:05] No, I think Doge has saved $150 billion. [30:08] Billion. [30:09] We've saved, that's a lot of money. [30:12] There's also a lot of things right now under investigation, which is going to increase that amount by a lot. [30:18] That's a tremendous amount of money. [30:21] There are some things where, when I heard about them, I put them back, as you know. [30:26] There are things that I'm considering right now putting back. [30:28] But overall, we've saved hundreds of billions of dollars. [30:32] Well, the original promise was $2 trillion, went to $1 trillion, now to $150 billion and heading south. [30:36] We don't know what it's going to be because we have things at a very high level that are being looked at right now. [30:41] We also found tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse, as you know. [30:45] We found a lot of fraud. [30:47] There was a lot of fraud. [30:48] Fraudulent things were taking place. [30:50] And we ended that, and those people are going to be suffering because of it. [30:54] A legal note, fraud is a crime. [30:56] There have been no referrals to the Justice Department on any of this. [30:58] Well, you don't know that, do you? [31:00] How do you know that? [31:03] Have there been referrals to the, are there criminal referrals? [31:05] How do you know that, that there were no referrals? [31:08] I think there were referrals. [31:08] They generally, all right, there's been no investigation from the Justice Department. [31:12] How do you know that? [31:13] I'm asking you, sir. [31:14] No, you're not asking me. [31:15] You made a statement. [31:16] You're not asking me. [31:16] Now I'm asking you. [31:17] That was a statement that you made. [31:19] There have been. [31:19] I'm asking you. [31:20] Have there been? [31:21] Yes, there have been. [31:22] So there have been referrals for fraud from the working department? [31:25] Of course there have been. [31:25] Take a look at some of these things that took place. [31:28] Billions of dollars were given to people for no reason whatsoever. [31:31] Of course there have been. [31:32] I want to bring up what is truly one of, to a lot of people, one of the biggest achievements [31:38] of your first term, that is Operation Warp Speed. [31:41] You got that COVID vaccine up and going and distributed and a lot of people took it and [31:46] a lot of people that feel their lives have been saved by it. [31:49] Now we have this measles outbreak, biggest in a decade in Texas, and it's because people [31:55] aren't getting their children vaccinated. [31:58] Do you recommend to parents that they get their children vaccinated for measles? [32:02] Well, I recommend the governors to make the decisions. [32:04] You have a very talented governor of Texas, and he's making decisions, and those decisions [32:09] are going to be made rapidly. [32:11] This is a very much different thing than COVID in terms of rapidity and speed and other things. [32:17] Measles have been with us a long time, and I'm not saying good, bad, or indifferent. [32:21] I'm just saying that the governors are making the decision. [32:25] It's a federalist decision. [32:27] The president is our leader in so many ways, and your voice counts so much, and you can't [32:34] tell moms and dads, it's a good thing to get a measles vaccine. [32:38] Do I recommend it? [32:39] Yes, I do. [32:40] I recommend it, yeah. [32:41] Got it. [32:41] That was my question. [32:42] Do I mandate it? [32:42] No. [32:42] No. [32:43] No, I didn't ask. [32:43] But I do recommend it, yes. [32:44] Good. [32:44] And I have recommended it. [32:47] Do you think the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has [32:50] a history of, at the very least, vaccine skepticism, do you think Kennedy recommends the measles [32:55] vaccine? [32:56] He did. [32:56] He did. [32:57] He recommended it. [32:59] Yeah, he did. [33:00] He recommended it. [33:00] He was satisfied with his response. [33:01] Yeah, I mean, he recommended that they go out and get the vaccine. [33:05] Okay. [33:07] Still ahead. [33:08] I'm asking the justification for going after people you don't like. [33:14] President Trump, the first 100 days. [33:17] I want to talk a little bit about presidential power, the powers that you have in the presidency [33:27] temporarily that the American people have given you, right? [33:32] You've revoked a lot of people's security clearances. [33:34] You've revoked people's security details who are still threatened, you know, with death [33:40] threats. [33:40] You've gone after law firms because they've employed people you don't like or they have [33:46] represented people you like. [33:47] Well, they obviously agreed because they paid me a lot of money. [33:49] Well, the reason they agreed is because you were threatening to destroy their business [33:55] with your executive order that said you can't represent clients for the federal government. [33:58] That's a threatening order. [34:00] Because these are big, these are the biggest, most powerful lawyers. [34:03] These are not people that are easily intimidated. [34:05] You've got a lot of leverage as president. [34:06] As president, you've got all the cards. [34:07] And they paid hundreds of millions of dollars because they felt, I guess, they probably felt [34:13] they did something wrong. [34:14] It was for survival, sir. [34:15] No, it isn't. [34:16] You were crushing their business. [34:17] These firms are very powerful firms and there's 15 of them. [34:22] And these are firms that probably, look, you have to ask them, in fact, this is a separate [34:28] story. [34:28] You have to ask them, why did you all pay Trump hundreds of millions of dollars in services, [34:36] et cetera? [34:37] Why did you do that? [34:38] I don't know. [34:39] You don't think that. [34:40] We have a clause in the thing that while we admit no wrongdoing, but you know, it's like [34:45] one of those things. [34:46] And now I'm friendly with those firms, but it's, you know, these are the most powerful [34:51] firms in the world. [34:53] And they just signed whatever I put in front of them. [34:56] I've never seen anything like it. [34:57] I'm actually surprised myself in a certain way. [35:00] But they obviously felt they probably did something wrong. [35:03] I guess that's why they signed. [35:07] I guess the question out of that is the concern that people have. [35:11] Are you using your powers as president to get personal revenge? [35:15] No. [35:16] I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what you're really not asking and you should be asking. [35:21] There has never been a president in this country, in the history, that was persecuted [35:27] like I was persecuted by really crooked people, dishonest, horrible people. [35:34] And it's been proven. [35:35] So when you say I'm treating people rough, I'm not treating people rough. [35:39] I was treated worse than any president in the history of our country. [35:44] And you know, people figured, well, maybe that's it. [35:47] Finally, we got, you know, he's leaving town, there goes the helicopter. [35:51] And then I came back and I came back because I have tremendous support. [35:57] You know, when you win an election like I wanted, and you will admit I won all seven swing states, [36:01] I won the popular vote, I won 700, let's see, 2,750 districts compared to 500 districts. [36:12] That's why the map is all red. [36:14] And those people feel that I was treated unfairly. [36:18] But does that give you the right to go after your political opponents with the powers of [36:22] Trump, I'm going after all I'm doing, hey, Biden did something to me, and I did something [36:29] to Biden. [36:30] And you know why I did it? [36:31] Because he's grossly incompetent. [36:32] That's not a man that should be allowed to, you know, be looking at things that are very [36:35] confidential. [36:36] But what about, there's 71 people you've been able to do. [36:38] Here's a man that used an auto pen to sign very important documents. [36:42] Now, who really is, do you think he knew what, that they were using an auto pen? [36:47] I mean, he used an auto pen to sign very, very important documents. [36:54] And so those are really the questions you should be asking. [36:57] What do you think of the auto pen? [36:59] Who wielded the auto pen? [37:00] Because whoever that person was, think of it, whoever the person that wielded the auto pen, [37:07] he was really the president of the United States. [37:09] Because I don't think, I don't think that Biden knew anything about it. [37:12] Fair enough. [37:13] But you are the president now. [37:14] Yes. [37:15] And I'm asking the justification for going after people you don't like. [37:19] Uh, it's, no, no, people that I think are dishonest. [37:22] It's not that I don't, I don't even know most of them. [37:24] They're people that I think are dishonest. [37:26] These people made you angry. [37:28] It's not anger. [37:30] These are people that I think are very dishonest. [37:32] I don't think they're worthy of being able to go into top secret information. [37:37] I think that's fine. [37:38] And Biden did that with many of our people. [37:42] But when you look at it, uh, these are people that I don't think are worthy of. [37:46] That's my decision. [37:47] It's not a question of anger. [37:48] Okay. [37:49] I understand you just had a phone call with a new Canadian premier. [37:53] And they just had this election. [37:55] Yeah. [37:56] You were big issue in it. [37:58] And Canadians, many of them are really angry, furious about your talk about we're going to [38:04] take over Canada's going to become the 51st state. [38:07] And it kind of is of a piece, a lot of travel is down into the United States from around [38:13] the world. [38:14] It feels like there's been reputational damage. [38:16] The country's doing great. [38:17] Well, prices are down. [38:18] Not the tourism. [38:19] Gasoline's down. [38:20] Energy's down. [38:21] Tourism is going to be way up. [38:24] Wait till you see the numbers. [38:25] The tourism is way up. [38:26] Not now. [38:27] Now, Canada. [38:28] Oh, shit. [38:29] Tourism is doing very well. [38:30] We're doing very well. [38:31] We're doing very well. [38:32] Wait till you see the real numbers come out in about, in six months from now, wait till [38:36] you see the numbers. [38:37] But do you think, I'm going to ask you if I may, do you think the reputation of the United [38:42] States has gone down under your presidency? [38:45] No, I think it's gone way up, and I think we're a respected country again. [38:49] We were laughed at all over the world. [38:51] We had a president that couldn't walk up a flight of stairs, couldn't walk down a flight [38:55] of stairs, couldn't walk across a stage without falling. [38:59] We had a president that was grossly incompetent. [39:01] You knew it. [39:02] I knew it. [39:03] And everybody knew it. [39:04] But you guys didn't want to write it because you're fake news. [39:06] All right. [39:07] Thank you. [39:08] And by the way, ABC is one of the worst. [39:09] I have to be honest with you. [39:10] Okay. [39:11] Thank you for the opinion. [39:12] But more importantly, thank you for having us here. [39:14] One more question. [39:15] It's a big one. [39:16] It's a question that you know a lot of people have out there. [39:18] What do you say to people who are concerned you are taking, seizing too much power and becoming [39:26] an authoritarian president like we haven't had before? [39:29] No, I would hate them to think that. [39:32] I'm doing one thing. [39:33] I'm making America great again. [39:35] We have a country that was failing. [39:37] We have a country that was left at all over the world. [39:40] We had a leader that was grossly incompetent. [39:42] He should have never been there. [39:44] The election was rigged. [39:45] He should have never been there. [39:46] Our country suffered greatly and now our country is coming back like nobody can believe. [39:51] I have editorials just today where they're saying they've never seen anything like it. [39:55] They love it. [39:56] Our country is coming back and we're respected again. [39:58] Mr. President, thank you. [39:59] Thank you. [40:00] Thank you, Terry, very much. [40:02] Once again, we want to thank President Trump for inviting us to the White House 100 days [40:07] into his second term. [40:08] I'm Terry Moran. [40:09] From all of us at ABC News, thank you for watching and good night. [40:12] Thank you, Terry Moran. [40:13] Thank you, Terry. [40:14] Thank you. [40:15] Thank you. [40:16] Thank you, Terry. [40:17] Thank you.