Super Bowl interview: Tom Llamas exclusive with President Trump

[0:05] Good afternoon. I'm Tom Yamas from Nightly News. It has become an annual American tradition. [0:10] For Super Bowl Sunday, the president of the United States sits down for a wide-ranging interview [0:15] ahead of the big game. This week, I spoke with President Trump inside the Oval Office. [0:20] We discussed everything from his immigration crackdown to possible military action in Iran. [0:25] The whole interview is now available at NBCNews.com. We should note the conversation took place on [0:32] Wednesday before the president's social media account reposted that racist video of the Obamas, [0:37] which was ultimately taken down. But I did talk to President Trump about the cost of living in [0:42] America and, of course, tonight's big game. Mr. President, we thank you so much for your time. [0:48] We really do appreciate it. Thank you very much. As you know, Americans are getting ready for the [0:52] Super Bowl for this great big game. And you have two teams, the Seattle Seahawks versus the New [0:57] England Patriots. Who do you think is going to win? Well, I've watched them both during the season, [1:02] and New England's amazing because to have a second coming is pretty good. Quarterbacks, [1:09] both good. Seattle's an amazing comeback quarterback, and the other one's just an amazing quarterback. [1:14] I think it's going to be a great game. You know, I like both areas of our country very much. I better [1:19] not make any predictions. You get yourself in big trouble. But I think it's going to be a really [1:24] great game. Seattle's had an amazing season. Yeah. Strong defense. [1:27] New England has a great tradition of winning. And Bob Kraft's done a fantastic job. You know, [1:33] the whole thing is really, it's going to be very exciting. The quarterback situation's [1:38] interesting. They're great. They're both great. [1:39] Both great. That leads me to my next question. You have [1:41] a really good relationship with the Patriots, including the former head coach, Bill Belichick. [1:45] What did you think when he was snubbed on the first ballot of the Hall of Fame? [1:49] I thought it was terrible. I mean, he's won so much, won so many Super Bowls. Great coach. [1:55] Became a little bit controversial, I guess, after that. His little period after that, during it, [1:59] he was just a great coach. I thought it was very inappropriate. [2:03] You think he deserves it, the Hall of Fame? [2:05] Oh, yeah. It's like, what have you done for me lately? Well, you know, you have a great career. [2:08] And he has had a little bit of a controversial year and a half, two years, maybe. But what difference [2:15] does that make? No, he should have, he should be in there right at the top. [2:18] What are your plans for the Super Bowl? We know you're not going to go over there. [2:21] Are you going to watch here? And who are you inviting? [2:23] I'll be sitting in probably Palm Beach, depending on what happens. You know, in my position, [2:28] in this job of mine, sometimes you have to move around quickly, very quickly. But we'll be [2:33] most likely at Mar-a-Lago or one of my clubs, watching with a lot of people, a lot of friends. [2:39] Or I may very well be in the White House. [2:42] Friends and families, just like you, will be coming together on Super Bowl Sunday. [2:45] People are shopping this week. They're running the kids around. [2:48] They're trying to heat their homes with this brutal winter we've been having. [2:52] In the last year, a lot of prices have come down, things like gas and eggs. [2:56] But others, since you took office, have come up, like natural gas and coffee. [3:00] When can Americans expect those prices to come down? [3:03] Well, they've already come down. [3:04] I think you've seen, Tom, when I took over, eggs, poultry, all these things were through [3:09] the roof. In fact, the first question I got, what are you going to do about eggs? [3:12] It was my second day in office at a news conference and they were screaming, what are you going [3:16] to do about eggs? Eggs had gone up like four times. [3:19] If you notice, over the last few days, it's only a few days, but the Democrats have gone [3:24] to another subject. I think they're probably saying dictator or something. [3:28] They've got a new word. [3:29] They don't use the word affordability anymore because prices are way down. [3:34] Gasoline is, I just left Iowa, $1.99 and even $1.85 a gallon, $1.85 a gallon. [3:42] That's in Iowa. Many states are cracking $2. [3:45] Gasoline is way down. [3:47] And honestly, everything is coming way down. Beef is coming down. [3:50] Yeah, but beef, coffee, natural gas, those are all you can bring down. [3:52] Coffee is coming down. [3:55] Well, it's already come down. I'll tell you what, in the last four days, it's only four [4:00] days, the Democrats have not uttered the word affordability. They're the ones that caused [4:06] the problem. I took over a mess in every way. The border was a mess. That everybody admits [4:11] the border is great. Crime was a mess right now. 125 years, it's the lowest crime that we've [4:19] had since 1900. So we're doing a job. But the one thing that they don't say anymore is affordability [4:25] because I fixed a problem that they created. [4:29] Let's say on the economy, you just mentioned it. You said you inherited a mess from President [4:32] Biden when it comes to the economy. But at what point is it on you? At what point are we in [4:37] the Trump economy? [4:38] Oh, I'd say we're there now. I'm very proud of it, 5.6%. You know, we have a GDP of 5.6 despite [4:44] a shutdown. We had a 42-day shutdown. I call it the Democrat shutdown. And because of that, [4:50] I lost a point and a half. I would have been in a 7 GDP, which hasn't been seen, I don't [4:55] know, ever, maybe. Maybe ever. [4:57] Yeah. [4:58] And I think 26 is even going to be better. You know, we have hundreds of billions of dollars [5:04] pouring into our country. Actually, trillions. $18 trillion is being invested in our country [5:09] as we speak. And there are factories and plants and thousands of businesses being built all [5:14] over the country. Nobody has ever seen it. I just spoke to President Xi of China. Nobody [5:20] has ever seen anything like what's happening right now in America. [5:24] When will we see those jobs and those factories open? Because manufacturing has been down. [5:28] Well, you're already seeing it in construction because they're all building. You know, we have [5:32] factories being built, car plants are coming in from Canada, coming in from Mexico. They're [5:37] leaving Germany, Japan. They're all coming into the United States. And you're seeing it in [5:42] your construction numbers. And, you know, the plant, we have to build them. And the plants [5:46] are under construction. [5:48] In your term? You think those plants will be in your term? [5:50] Oh, yeah, no. They'll be opening up over the next year, year and a half. [5:52] You've had successes on immigration, some big ones. Illegal border crossings are at historic [5:57] lows. But the entire country watched those videos of two Americans being killed in Minneapolis. [6:02] You've gotten calls from your own supporters to make changes. And now you're pulling out some [6:07] officers from Minneapolis. Are there more changes coming? [6:10] Well, the reason we're pulling out, because we've done a great job there. You know, we [6:13] have crime down there, despite tremendous blowback from a governor that's incompetent and from [6:19] a mayor who's just, I don't know what the hell, where he comes from. But the numbers, the crime [6:24] numbers in Minnesota and Minneapolis in particular, down 25, 30 percent, because we've removed thousands [6:31] of criminals from the area. These are hardened criminals. They came in, many of them, most of them [6:35] came in through an open border. And we've done a great job. But look at Washington, D.C. It's [6:42] like a safe city. You can walk to the White House. You didn't have to take an armored vehicle. [6:46] You could walk Washington safe. Look at what happened in Louisiana. I got a call from the [6:54] governor. Please do something with New Orleans. We went there four weeks ago. Crime is down [7:00] 71 percent. Memphis, Tennessee, crime is down 80 percent after five weeks. And here's a big [7:08] thing. Crime historically in this country, it's down at the lowest level it's ever been. And a bad [7:15] word murder. We've had less murders than we have had in decades. Yeah. One more question [7:21] on the Super Bowl. And you know why? Because we're tough on crime. The Super Bowl is this [7:24] sort of rare time in America, right, where we're all united. It's a common experience. There's [7:29] still divisions in this country, right? And Democrats will say it's all because of you. And then [7:34] Republicans will say Democrats don't want to work with President Trump. They blame President [7:37] Trump for everything. What's one thing you can do, really, to help Americans find common ground? [7:43] Well, you know, we're working on the Save America Act, which is going to secure up our [7:49] a lot of things, but secure up our voting. I think people would like to do it. And I think [7:54] Democrats would, too. You know, when you go to voter ID and you ask Democrats, it's polling [7:59] at 82 percent with Democrats. I'm not talking about Democrat politicians. I'm talking about [8:03] Democrats. We have to do something about our voting. We need strong borders. We need a fair [8:10] press, which we don't have. And we need, and very importantly, we need the strong [8:14] border, the fair press, and we need fair elections. We need elections where people aren't able to [8:21] cheat. And we're going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to get it done. And by [8:26] the way, if polls, even with Democrats, they want that. [8:29] We should note voter ID rules do have wide public support, but the vast majority of Democrats on [8:36] Capitol Hill oppose them, arguing that such rules would make voting more difficult for millions of [8:41] Americans. Once again, our full interview is available right now at NBCnews.com. I'm Tom [8:47] Yamas. I'll see you tomorrow night on NBC Nightly News live from the Winter Olympics. But for now, [8:52] we'll take a quick break and back to the Super Bowl pregame show. [9:06] We thank you for watching. And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the [9:11] NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.