Trump Full Interview with David Muir — ABC News

[0:00] Mr. President I know you're only five days in. Has it changed you. I don't want to change too much. I've had a wonderful life and wonderful success. I want to make this a great success for the American people and for the people that put me in this position. So I don't want to change too much. I can be the most presidential person ever other than possibly the great Abe Lincoln. All right. But I can be the most presidential person. [0:31] But I may not be able to do the job nearly as well if I do that. Your predecessor used to talk often about finishing the day to get to his family upstairs the stairwells right over here to have dinner with them. And I know that the first lady Melania has a big job back in New York taking care of. Yes. Yes. Does it make it a lonely place for you at the end of the day. No because I end up working longer and that's OK. I mean I'm working long hours. I mean the country has a lot of problems. He says a lot of problems. [1:01] And President Trump tonight on the controversial moves he's made already. Mr. President I want to start. We're five days in and your campaign promises. I know today you plan on signing the order to build the wall. Correct. Are you going to direct U.S. funds to pay for this wall. Will American taxpayers pay for the wall. Ultimately it'll come out of what's happening with Mexico. We're going to be starting those negotiations relatively soon. [1:25] And we will be in a form reimbursed by Mexico which I always say back. Yeah absolutely 100 percent. So the American taxpayer will pay for the wallet first. All it is is we'll be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we make from Mexico. [1:40] Now I could wait a year and I could hold off the wall but I want to build the wall. We have to build the wall. We have to stop drugs from pouring in. We have to stop people from just pouring into our country. [1:50] We have no idea where they're from. And I campaigned on the wall and it's very important. But that wall will cost us nothing. [1:57] But you talked often about Mexico paying for the wall and you again say they'll pay us back. Mexico's president said in recent days that Mexico absolutely will not pay adding that it goes against our dignity as a country. [2:08] And our dignity as Mexicans. He says. Well I think he has to say that. He has to say that. But I'm just telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form perhaps a complicated form. [2:21] And you have to understand what I'm doing is good for the United States. It's also going to be good for Mexico. [2:26] What are you going to say to some of your supporters who might say wait a minute. I thought Mexico was going to pay for this right at the start. [2:32] Well I'd say very simply that they are going to pay for it. I never said they're going to pay from the start. I said Mexico will pay for the wall. [2:39] When does construction begin. As soon as we can. As soon as we can physically do it. We're. [2:44] Within months. I would say in months. Yeah. I would say in months. Certainly planning is starting immediately. [2:49] I want to ask about undocumented immigrants who are here in this country. Right now they're protected as so-called dreamers. [2:55] The children who were brought here as you know by their parents. Should they be worried that they could be deported. [3:00] And is there anything you can say to assure them right now that they'll be allowed to stay. [3:05] They shouldn't be very worried. They are here illegally. They shouldn't be very worried. I do have a big heart. [3:10] We're going to take care of everybody. We're going to have a very strong border. [3:14] We're going to have a very solid border where you have great people that are here that have done a good job. [3:18] They should be far less worried. We'll be coming out with policy on that over the next period of four weeks. [3:24] So Mr. President will they be allowed to stay. I'm going to tell you over the next four weeks. [3:28] I want to ask you about something you said this week right here at the White House. [3:31] You brought in congressional leaders to the White House. You spoke at length about the presidential election with them telling them that you lost the popular vote because of millions of illegal votes. [3:41] Three to five million illegal votes. That would be the biggest electoral fraud in American history. Where is the evidence of that. [3:49] So let me tell you first of all it was so misrepresented. That was supposed to be a confidential meeting. [3:54] And you weren't supposed to go out and talk to the press as soon as you were. But the Democrats viewed it not as a confidential meeting. [4:00] But you have tweeted about the millions of illegal votes. Sure you do. And I do. And I'm very. [4:03] And I mean it. But just so you know it was supposed to be a confidential meeting. They turned it into a not a confidential. [4:09] Number two. The conversation lasted for about a minute. They made it. Somebody said it was like 25 percent of the deal. It wasn't. It was hardly even discussed. [4:17] I said it. And I said it strongly. Because what's going on with voter fraud is horrible. That's number one. Number two. [4:26] I would have won the popular vote if I was campaigning for the popular vote. I would have gone to California where I didn't go at all. [4:32] I would have gone to New York where I didn't campaign at all. I would have gone to a couple of places that I didn't go to. [4:38] And I would have won that much easier than winning the electoral college. But as you know the electoral college is all that matters. [4:44] It doesn't make any difference. With that being said if you look at voter registration you look at the dead people that are registered to vote who vote. [4:53] You look at people that are registered in two states. You look at all of these different things that are happening with registration. [5:00] You take a look at those registration. You're going to find. And we're going to do an investigation on it. [5:05] Three to five million illegal votes. Well we're going to find out. But it could very well be that much. [5:09] You have people that are registered who are dead. Who are illegals. Who are in two states. [5:15] You have people registered in two states. They're registered in a New York and a New Jersey. They vote twice. [5:21] There are millions of votes in my opinion. Now I'm going to do an investigation. [5:26] You're now you're now you're now president of the United States. When you say. [5:30] I want the voting process to be legitimate. But what I'm asking what I'm asking. [5:34] When you say in your opinion. Millions of illegal votes. That is something that is extremely fundamental to our functioning democracy. [5:42] A fair and free election. Sure. Sure. You say you're going to launch an investigation. Sure. Done. [5:47] What you have presented so far has been debunked. It's been called false. I call. Take a look at the Pew reports. [5:53] I called the author of the Pew report last night. And he told me that they found no evidence of voter fraud. [5:57] Really. Then why did he write the report. He said no evidence of voter fraud. Excuse me. [6:01] Then why did he write the report according to Pew report. Then he's then he's groveling again. [6:05] You know I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they want to write something that you want to hear but not necessarily millions of people want to hear or have to hear. [6:14] So you've launched an investigation. We're going to launch an investigation to find out. And then the next time. [6:20] And I will say this of those votes cast. None of them come to me. None of them come to me. [6:26] They would all be for the other side. None of them come to me. But when you look at the people that are registered dead illegal and two states and some cases maybe three states. [6:37] We have a lot to look into. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said I have seen no evidence. I have made this very very clear. [6:44] Senator Lindsey Graham saying it's the most inappropriate thing for a president to say without proof. [6:49] He seems obsessed with the idea that he could not have possibly lost the popular vote without cheating and fraud. [6:55] I want to ask you about something bigger here. Does it matter more now. [6:59] There's nothing bigger. There's nothing bigger. But it is important. [7:02] Let me just tell you. You know what's important. Millions of people agree with me when I say that. [7:07] If you would have looked on one of the other networks and all of the people that were calling in. [7:11] They're saying we agree with Mr. Trump. We agree. They're very smart people. [7:14] Let me just ask you. You did win. You're the president. You're sitting across from me right now. [7:18] That's true. Do you think that your words matter more. Yes. Very much. [7:22] Do you think that that talking about millions of illegal votes is dangerous to this country. [7:27] No. Not at all. Presenting. Not at all. Because many people feel the same way that I do. [7:31] And you don't think it undermines your credibility. No. Not at all. Because they would. [7:34] They didn't come to me. Believe me. Those were Hillary votes. Mr. President. [7:38] I just have one more question. Yes. And it's it's it's bigger picture. [7:41] You took some heat after your visit to the CIA in front of that hallowed wall 117 stars of those lost at the CIA. [7:49] You talked about other things but you also talked about crowd size at the inauguration about the size of your rallies about covers on Time magazine. [7:59] And I just want to ask you when does all of that matter just a little less. [8:03] When do you let it roll off your back now that you're the president. So I'm glad you asked. [8:06] So I went to the CIA my first stop. I have great respect for the people in intelligence and CIA. [8:11] I don't have a lot of respect for in particular one of the leaders but that's OK. [8:16] But I have a lot of respect for the people in the CIA. That speech was a home run. [8:21] That speech. If you look at Fox. OK. I'll mention in your network. We'd see what Fox said. [8:27] They said it was one of the great speeches. They showed the people applauding and screaming. [8:31] And and they were all CIA. There was nobody. Somebody was asking Sean. Well were they Trump people that were probably not Trump people. [8:38] They were CIA people. That location was given to me. Mike Pence went up before me paid great homage to the wall. [8:45] I then went up paid great homage to the wall. I then spoke to the crowd. I got a standing ovation. [8:51] You would give the same speech if you went back. Absolutely. People loved it. They loved it. [8:55] They gave me a standing ovation for a long period of time. They never even sat down most of them during the speech. [9:00] There was love in the room. You and other networks covered it very inaccurately. I hate to say this to you and you probably won't put it on. [9:09] But turn on Fox and see how it was covered and see how people respond to that speech. That speech was a good speech. [9:15] And you and a couple of other networks tried to downplay that speech. And it was very very unfortunate that you did. [9:23] I am curious about the first full day here at the White House choosing to send the press secretary out into the briefing room summoning reporters to talk about the inaugural crowd size. [9:33] Does that send a message to the American people that that's that's more important than some of the very pressing issues. [9:39] Part of my whole victory was that the men and women of this country who have been forgotten will never be forgotten again. [9:48] Part of that is when they try and demean me unfairly because we had a massive crowd of people. [9:55] We had a crowd. I looked over that sea of people and I said to myself wow. [10:03] And I've seen crowds before big big crowds. That was some crowd. [10:09] When I looked at the numbers that happened to come in from all of the various sources we had the biggest audience in the history of inaugural speeches. [10:18] I said the men and women that I was talking to who came out and voted will never be forgotten again. [10:26] Therefore I won't allow you or other people like you to demean that crowd and to demean the people that came to Washington D.C. [10:36] from far away places because they like me but more importantly like what I'm saying. [10:42] Mr. Trump let's talk about many of the things that have happened this week. [10:45] Chicago. Last night you tweeted about the murder rate in Chicago saying if Chicago doesn't fix the horrible carnage going on I will send in the feds. [10:53] You will send in the feds. What do you mean by carnage. [10:55] You know in my speech I got tremendous from certain people the word carnage. [11:01] It is carnage. It's horrible carnage. [11:03] This is Afghanistan is not like what's happening in Chicago. [11:08] People are being shot left and right. [11:11] Thousands of people over a period over a short period of time. [11:15] This year which has just started is worse than last year which was a catastrophe. [11:20] They're not doing the job. Now if they want help I would love to help them. [11:27] I will send in what we have to send in. [11:29] Maybe they're not going to have to be so politically correct. [11:32] Maybe they're being overly political correct. Maybe there's something going on but you can't have those killings going on in Chicago. [11:39] Chicago is like a war zone. Chicago is worse than some of the people that you report in some of the places that you report about every night. [11:47] So I will say in the Middle East you mentioned federal assistance. [11:50] There's federal assistance and then they're sending in the feds. I'm just curious would you take action on your own. [11:55] I want them to fix the problem. You can't have thousands of people being shot in a city in a country that I happen to be president of. [12:07] Maybe it's OK if somebody else is president. I want them to fix the problem. [12:11] They have a problem that's very easily fixable. They're going to have to get tougher and stronger and smarter. [12:18] But they've got to fix the problem. I don't want to have thousands of people shot in a city where essentially I'm the president. [12:27] I love Chicago. I know Chicago. And Chicago is a great city can be a great city. It can't be a great city if people are shot walking down the street for a loaf of bread can't be a great city. [12:40] And if they are unable to fix it that's when you will. So far they have been unable. It's been going on for years. And I wasn't president. What's going on. [12:51] So all I'm saying is to the mayor who came up to my office recently. I say you have to smarten up and you have to toughen up because you can't let that happen. That's a war zone. [13:03] This is a warning. I want them to straighten out the problem. It's a big problem. [13:08] Let me ask you about a new report that you are poised to lift a ban on so-called CIA black sites. [13:13] prisons around the world that have been used in the past. Is that true? Well, I'll be talking about that in about two hours. Are you going to lift the ban? You're going to see in about two hours. [13:21] Tonight, we are still waiting for word from the Trump White House on any decision involving those so-called black sites. The last president, President Obama, said the U.S. does not torture. Will you say that? [13:33] Well, I have a general who I have great respect for, General Mattis, who said I was a little surprised, who said he's not a believer in torture. [13:41] As you know, Mr. Pompeo was just approved, affirmed by the Senate. He's a fantastic guy. He's going to be the head of the CIA. And you have somebody fabulous as opposed to the character that just got out who didn't was not fabulous at all. [14:01] And he will, I think, do a great job. And he is, you know, I haven't gone into great detail, but I will tell you, I have spoken to others in intelligence and they are big believers in, as an example, waterboarding. [14:20] You did tell me. [14:21] Because they say it does work. It does work. [14:23] Mr. President, you told me during one of the debates that you would bring back waterboarding and a hell of a lot worse. [14:29] I would do what I would do. I want to keep our country safe. I want to keep our country safe. [14:34] What does that mean? [14:35] When they're shooting, when they're chopping off the heads of our people and other people, when they're chopping off the heads of people because they happen to be a Christian in the Middle East, [14:42] when ISIS is doing things that nobody has ever heard of since medieval times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding? As far as I'm concerned, we have to fight fire with fire. [14:52] Now, with that being said, I'm going with General Mattis. I'm going with my secretary because I think Pompeo is going to be phenomenal. [15:02] I'm going to go with what they say. But I have spoken as recently as 24 hours ago with people at the highest level of intelligence. [15:12] And I asked him the question, does it work? Does torture work? And the answer was yes, absolutely. [15:20] You're now the president. Do you want waterboarding? [15:22] I don't want people to chop off the citizens or anybody's heads in the Middle East, OK, because they're Christian or Muslim or anything else. [15:31] I don't want. Look, you are old enough to have seen a time that was much different. You never saw heads chopped off until a few years ago. [15:41] Now they chop them off and they put them on camera and they send them all over the world. So we have that and we're not allowed to do anything. [15:49] We're not playing on an even field. I will say this. I will rely on Pompeo and Mattis and my group. And if they don't want to do, that's fine. [15:59] If they do want to do, then I will work toward that end. I want to do everything within the bounds of what you're allowed to do legally. [16:07] But do I feel it works? Absolutely, I feel it works. [16:10] So you'd be OK with it as president? [16:12] No, I want to. No, I will rely on general matters and I'm going to rely on those two people and others. [16:18] And if they don't want to do it, it's 100 percent OK with me. Do I think it works? Absolutely. [16:24] We head outside to the colonnade where we discussed what happened shortly after President Trump took the oath of office. [16:31] This is the famous walk. You've seen so many presidents. So many. Amazing. [16:35] Let me ask you, right after the oath of office, they give you the nuclear codes, the biscuit. Sobering moment? [16:43] When they explain what it represents and the kind of destruction that you're talking about, it is a very sobering moment. [16:50] Yes, it's very, very scary in a sense. Does it keep you up at night? No, but it's confidence that I'll do the right thing and the right job. [17:01] But it's a very, very scary thing. Every president does get asked, though, what keeps them awake, what's unsettling. [17:10] What has been most unsettling for you now that you're five days in? Well, I think I see a tremendous amount of waste. [17:17] I see a tremendous amount of job opportunities that have been let go for many years. [17:23] And I'm not just talking about President Obama. I'm talking about for many, many years. [17:28] And I was a big, big fan of Ronald Reagan. But I was never a big fan on trade with respect to Ronald Reagan. [17:35] I just think we've had years and years of allowing our jobs to be dissipated in this country. And there's no reason for it. [17:45] So the economy keeps you up more than terrorism and homeland security? [17:51] I do it all the same. All very important. Yep. Terrorism is, to me, number one, because we have to keep people safe. [17:57] Most importantly, we have to keep people safe. But the economy is certainly, I mean, we have to bring the jobs back. I talk the forgotten men and women. [18:06] They're not forgotten anymore because they came out and voted. A lot of people, you folks, didn't know they existed in a true sense. [18:12] Everyone's saying, where did they all come from? It was pretty amazing, wasn't it? [18:15] Mr. President, I want to ask you about refugees. You're about to sign a sweeping executive action to suspend immigration to this country. [18:22] Right. Who are we talking about? Is this the Muslim ban? [18:25] We're talking about, no, it's not the Muslim ban. But it's countries that have tremendous terror. And it's countries that people are going to come in and cause us tremendous problems. [18:35] Our country has enough problems without allowing people to come in who, in many cases or in some cases, are looking to do tremendous destruction. [18:46] Which countries are we talking about? [18:47] You look at what's happened. [18:48] I have a whole list. You'll be very thrilled. You're looking at people that come in, in many cases, in some cases, with evil intentions. [18:57] I don't want that. They're ISIS. They're coming under false pretense. I don't want that. I'm going to be the president of a safe country. [19:06] We have enough problems. Now, I'll absolutely do safe zones in Syria for the people. [19:11] I think that Europe has made a tremendous mistake by allowing these millions of people to go into Germany and various other countries. [19:18] And all you have to do is take a look. It's a disaster what's happening over there. I don't want that to happen here. [19:25] Now, with that being said, President Obama and Hillary Clinton and Kerry have allowed tens of thousands of people into our country. [19:35] The FBI is now investigating more people than ever before having to do with terror. And it's from the group of people that came in. [19:44] So, look. Look. Our country has a lot of problems. Believe me. I know what the problems are even better than you do. [19:53] They're deep problems. They're serious problems. We don't need more. [19:59] Let me ask you about some of the countries that won't be on the list. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia. [20:05] You're going to see. You're going to see. We're going to have extreme vetting in all cases. And I mean extreme. [20:11] And we're not letting people in if we think there's even a little chance of some problem. [20:15] Because we are excluding certain countries. But for other countries, we're going to have extreme vetting. [20:22] It's going to be very hard to come in. Right now, it's very easy to come in. It's going to be very, very hard. [20:26] I don't want terror in this country. You look at what happened in San Bernardino. You look at what happened all over. [20:31] You look at what happened in the World Trade Center. I mean, take that as an example. [20:34] People don't even bring that up. Are you at all concerned it's going to cause more anger among Muslims around the world? [20:40] Anger? There's plenty of anger right now. How can you have more? [20:44] You don't think it will exacerbate the problem? Look, look, David, David. I mean, I know you're a sophisticated guy. [20:49] The world is a mess. The world is as angry as it gets. [20:54] Well, you think this is going to cause a little more anger? The world is an angry place. [21:00] All of this has happened. We went into Iraq. We shouldn't have gone into Iraq. [21:06] We shouldn't have gotten out the way we got out. The world is a total mess. The world is a mess, David. [21:14] You brought up Iraq and something you said that could affect American troops in recent days. [21:18] You said we should have kept the oil, but okay, maybe we'll have another chance. What do you mean by that? [21:23] Well, we should have kept the oil when we got out. And you know, it's very interesting. [21:26] Had we taken the oil, you wouldn't have ISIS because they fueled themselves with the oil. That's where they got the money. [21:32] So you believe we can go in and take the oil? [21:34] We should have taken the oil. You wouldn't have ISIS if we took the oil. [21:38] You've heard the critics who say that would break all international law, taking the oil. But I want to get to the words that you said. [21:43] Can you believe that? Wait a minute. Can you believe that? Who are the critics that say that? Fools. [21:47] I don't call them critics. I call them fools. Let me talk about your words. [21:50] We should have kept, excuse me. We should have taken the oil. And if we took the oil, you wouldn't have ISIS. And we would have had wealth. [21:57] We have spent right now $6 trillion in the Middle East. And our country is falling apart. [22:05] What got my attention, Mr. President, was when you said maybe we'll have another chance. [22:09] Well, don't let it get your attention too much because we'll see what happens. I mean, we're going to see what happens. [22:15] You know, I told you and I told everybody else that wants to talk, when it comes to the military, I don't want to discuss things. [22:22] I want to let the action take place before the talk takes place. I watched in Mosul when, a number of months ago, generals and politicians would get up and say, [22:35] we're going into Mosul in four months. Then they'd say we're going in in three months, two months, one month. [22:41] We're going in next week. Okay. And I kept saying to myself, gee, why do they have to keep talking about going in? [22:48] All right. So now they go in and it is tough because they've given the enemy all this time to prepare. [22:54] I don't want to do a lot of talking on the military. I want to talk after it's finished, not before it starts.