Trump on new Fed Chair Warsh: ‘I don’t want to have a big influence on him’

[0:00] I'd like to talk big picture now, Mr. President. [0:03] One of your consistent campaign promises was no new wars going all the way back to 2015. [0:11] Did you break that promise to the American people? [0:14] I had to stop a country, a very powerful, very dangerous country, from having a nuclear weapon because they'd use it. [0:23] They'd blow up the world. They'd blow up the Middle East. They'd blow up Israel. [0:26] They'd come here. They'd blow up Europe. They're nuts, okay? They're crazy people. [0:29] I deal with them, and very high-strung people, really crazy, and get along with them. [0:39] I like them, but you don't want to let them have a nuclear weapon. [0:43] And I'm doing the world a service, but I'm doing our country a service. [0:47] It's America first. I'm doing our country a service. Nice rain. [0:53] It is raining hard. [0:56] But the answer is good. Let's just keep going. [1:00] Let's power through it, right? [1:02] Here, we paused nearly five minutes for the rain to pass and then picked up our conversation. [1:09] So you're saying you didn't break your promise, and yet, Mr. President, in your first term, you held to that promise, [1:16] and it was so fundamental to who you were as a candidate to a first-term president. [1:22] What changed? Because you insisted no new wars. [1:27] First of all, I didn't guarantee no war. [1:30] Why would I have built the strongest military in the world? [1:32] I built our military. I inherited a terrible military. [1:35] We had no equipment. We had nothing. [1:36] I built a tremendous military. [1:39] Biden gave a lot of it away, but it's still a relatively small portion compared to what I built. [1:43] But you said it over and over again, Mr. President. [1:45] Why would I build a military? [1:47] Now, I didn't want to use this, but I'm doing you and everybody else a big favor. [1:52] In the midst of the greatest stock market in history, in the midst of the most successful country, [1:58] because as you know, in the last term, we were a dead country, Kristen. [2:01] I know you're a big liberal or a big progressive. [2:05] No, I'm just a journalist. [2:06] We were a dead country. A year ago, a couple of years ago, we were a dead country. [2:10] Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. [2:13] And at the all-time hottest point, which is probably now, believe it or not, [2:16] we just had all brand-new stock market records today. [2:20] But at the hottest point in the history of our country, I took Scott, Howard, I took Pete, [2:26] I took everybody into a room. I said, I have to do this country, this world, the Middle East, Israel, [2:32] everybody a favor. You have Iran. They're going to have a nuclear weapon. [2:39] Barack Hussein Obama signed the JCPOA. It was a horrible deal. Horrible deal. [2:45] Listen to me. It was a horrible deal. It was a path to them getting a nuclear weapon. [2:51] They were very close to having a nuclear weapon. I terminated the deal. Wait. [2:54] Then I sent the B-2 bombers in about nine, ten months ago, and they obliterated, [3:00] totally obliterated the site, and I saved it. We had a choice. [3:05] We could let them have a nuclear weapon, or we could go along and have some beautiful days. [3:10] But they would have, you know, it's a judgment. They would have used a nuclear weapon. [3:14] And you know what? When people hear that whole scenario, when they hear me say, [3:20] Iran is going to have a nuclear weapon, and they're crazy, they say, you're doing the right thing. [3:27] I don't think it's an un... I mean, you'll do polls because they're all fake polls anyway, especially yours. [3:31] But you do polls. I just won a big election. [3:35] And the reason I won an election is people of confidence and may have good judgment. [3:42] I had to make a judgment. Do I want to go along and have a country that's doing really well, [3:46] but somebody is going to try and kill us? Or do I want to put out that horrible threat? [3:54] And I did. I put it out. I put it out for many, many years. Now I'm going to put it out permanently. [3:59] I'm going to do it either through negotiation, where we're very close to a deal, [4:04] or I'm going to blow the hell out of them, to be honest with you. [4:09] And it's going to be very easy for them to do. That's actually the easier path. [4:13] So when you say, I promised, I didn't promise anything. [4:17] I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. [4:21] We've been doing this for three months. Much of it has been under the form, [4:25] a pretty good form of ceasefire. [4:26] The blockade has been amazing. Our Navy is amazing. Our military is the best in the world. [4:32] Hey, we took over a very powerful country, Venezuela, a lot of soldiers, big, strong military. [4:38] We took over Venezuela in a matter of minutes. [4:43] We destroyed the capability of Iran in a matter of days. [4:48] Nobody's ever seen anything like it. Now I'm going to finish it. [4:51] But remember, you were in Vietnam 19 years because stupid people. [4:55] You were in so many different countries. Every war you were in for years. [5:00] Look at Iraq. Look what you were. You were there for years. [5:05] Listen, Kirsten, we were there for a few months, and the threat is largely over. [5:11] Soon it will be over. But you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, [5:15] or they will blow you up. There will be no, Kirsten. [5:18] There will be no NBC. There will be no meet the press. [5:22] You will end the meet the press string. [5:24] Let me ask you, though. During your 2016 campaign, you called the Middle East a quagmire. [5:30] It is. [5:30] What makes you so sure this won't become a quagmire? [5:32] We're not going to be there. [5:34] You're convinced this won't become a quagmire? [5:36] It's not a quagmire. I just wiped out the military of a very dangerous country, [5:40] and I wiped out the nuclear threat. [5:43] Let me tell you, if we left tomorrow, if we just said, all right, let's get out, [5:46] it'll take them 15 or 20 years to rebuild back. [5:49] But I'm not going to give them even that chance. [5:52] I'm not going to give them that chance. [5:53] They cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if there was even a 1% chance that they'd have it, [5:59] I wouldn't leave. [6:00] We're almost finished. [6:01] We're going to either have a deal, a strong deal, a meaningful deal, not like the Obama thing. [6:06] Obama was a path to a nuclear weapon. [6:08] Mine is the exact opposite. [6:10] And... [6:10] Mine is a wall. [6:12] It's a wall, just like I built 1,000 miles of wall on our southern border. [6:16] And by the way, I took the worst border in history, and I made it the best border in history in a matter of weeks. [6:23] And yet, Mr. President, Iran was the closest to developing weapons-grade uranium after you ripped up the nuclear deal, [6:32] because there were no guardrails in place. [6:34] They were developing it during the nuclear deal. [6:38] You don't know that? [6:39] What? [6:39] Iran, when Obama signed that stupid deal, where he paid them billions and billions of dollars, [6:45] he thought he could bribe them. [6:46] Listen to me. [6:47] They were developing a nuclear weapon. [6:50] That's how they got there. [6:51] They got all of this uranium during Obama. [6:54] You know that, don't you? [6:55] Let's... [6:56] Well, that's how they got there. [6:57] Don't say this. [6:58] They got there. [6:59] They developed it during the Obama, Barack Hussein Obama, during his administration. [7:04] And they've escalated their development after the deal was wrapped up. [7:09] They didn't escalate anything. [7:10] Let's talk about the economy. [7:11] Let me just tell you something. [7:12] I want to talk about the economy. [7:13] If I didn't go in there with the B-2 bombers, they would right now have a nuclear weapon, [7:17] and it could be that half of the world would be eradicated. [7:20] Let me ask you about the economy. [7:23] You got a strong jobs report today that beat expectations. [7:28] Not strong. [7:29] Really strong. [7:29] Beat expectations. [7:31] By how much? [7:33] Triple. [7:34] Yeah, 170,000 jobs created. [7:38] And yet, gas is up. [7:41] Diesel is up. [7:42] It's all coming down as soon as the war's over. [7:43] Well, 70% of farmers say they can't afford fertilizer. [7:48] What's your message to... [7:48] The farmers are doing very well. [7:50] Let me ask you. [7:50] What is your message to farmers? [7:52] Many who support you, but who say they're struggling. [7:55] Who say they're struggling. [7:56] Because there's nobody been better than farmers. [7:58] You know, I gave farmers last term $28 billion, [8:01] because China took advantage and other people. [8:04] And you know who paid for it? [8:05] China. [8:06] Last term. [8:06] You know, I had a great first term. [8:08] I had the greatest economy ever. [8:09] And you know what? [8:10] This one's blowing it away. [8:11] What's your message to farmers, though, Mr. President, [8:14] who say they are struggling, they're struggling to make ends meet? [8:17] Am I allowed to talk? [8:19] You keep asking questions, and you don't listen to the answers. [8:22] I love the farmers, and the farmers love me. [8:24] And the farmers trust me. [8:26] In the first term, I had something very similar. [8:28] China and others were. [8:30] And Canada, which was brutal. [8:32] They were taking advantage of our farmers. [8:34] They don't take advantage of it anymore. [8:37] I gave them $28 billion split up. [8:41] They never had a payday like that. [8:43] And the farmers loved me. [8:44] And they came back, and they voted for me in record numbers. [8:46] You know that. [8:47] Nobody's ever even come close. [8:49] Now, because of the fact that we had a choice, I had a choice to make, [8:52] I could keep it going. [8:54] The farmers were doing great. [8:56] Fertilizer was very cheap. [8:57] Everything was cheap. [8:58] Gasoline was very low. [8:59] Everything was very low. [9:01] I could have kept it that way. [9:02] But I said, I have to take a little bit of return. [9:04] The farmers are going to understand it better than anybody. [9:07] We're going to have higher gasoline. [9:08] We're going to have a little higher fertilizer, et cetera, et cetera. [9:10] But I'm going to get rid of a nuclear weapon in the hands of very dangerous people. [9:16] Excuse me. [9:16] Wait. [9:18] It should have been done for 47 years. [9:20] No president had the guts to do it. [9:21] I did it, and I've done it. [9:23] It's almost complete. [9:24] As soon as that's complete, gasoline prices are going to drop like a rock. [9:29] You know, I was in Iowa speaking about farms, and it was before we attacked Iran. [9:34] And I was in Iowa, and the prices were $1.85 a gallon, $1.91 a gallon. [9:44] What? [9:45] This time, it wasn't the rain, but an audio issue that forced us to pause the interview again. [9:51] Are gas prices going higher, or have they peaked? [9:54] They're going to come low, very low. [9:55] They're going to go lower than they were before. [9:57] Have they peaked? [9:58] As soon? [9:59] Well, it depends. [10:00] I mean, it depends where the war goes. [10:02] It could be I'll have to give them a shot, and it could be we'll sign an agreement. [10:07] If we sign an agreement, they'll go down now. [10:08] Otherwise, they'll go down after we're finished. [10:10] You have a new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh. [10:12] Yeah. [10:13] His first meeting in the role is later this month. [10:16] After this month's jobs report, economists now say it's possible the Fed may have to raise rates. [10:23] Do you think that's possible, and what would your reaction be, sir? [10:26] So, I'm of a different field. [10:28] I think Kevin is fantastic, and I want him to do whatever. [10:32] I don't want to have a big influence on him. [10:34] But we had a great report. [10:37] We're doing great. [10:38] And it's unfair that whenever you do great, they want to raise interest rates. [10:41] It should be the opposite way. [10:43] You know, if you go back 15 or 20 years, when you had good reports, the market went up. [10:48] Nowadays, when you have good reports, the market goes down because they think they're going to raise interest rates. [10:53] There's no reason to raise interest rates. [10:55] The country becomes great. [10:57] We built the country by doing great and having rates low. [11:01] What they do is when they raise interest rates, they try and kill success. [11:06] I don't want to kill success. [11:08] We should actually lower interest rates. [11:10] Now, if inflation comes, and you know, people live with inflation. [11:15] But if inflation comes, what happens is you stamp it out. [11:19] But success can kill inflation just like higher interest rates. [11:23] What they do now is, like we had great job numbers. [11:27] You were great, right? [11:28] They beat expectations. [11:29] Not expectations, like three times. [11:31] Okay. [11:32] But you ready? [11:33] What do they do? [11:34] They say, oh, let's raise interest rates. [11:36] It's the wrong thing to do. [11:38] I would like to see rates get lower because we could build this into the greatest machine that the world has ever seen. [11:45] But you can't do that when everybody immediately raises interest rates. [11:49] So we had great job numbers. [11:50] We're doing great. [11:51] You know, we're building more factories. [11:53] We have more money coming into our country right now from other countries and people than ever before. [11:58] Wait a minute. [11:59] What happens? [12:00] I don't want to just kill it with high interest rates. [12:04] Growth is the greatest thing you can have. [12:06] And growth does not cause inflation. [12:08] Would you be upset if they raised rates? [12:12] What is your message to them about that? [12:14] Living with Kevin, I have a lot of respect for him. [12:18] But my feeling is that when a country is doing well, they shouldn't be penalized by immediately raising interest rates. [12:26] They should actually be incentivized. [12:29] You know, we have debt. [12:30] We have other things. [12:31] We have things we want to take care of. [12:33] I want to go bigger in the military. [12:35] I really do. [12:36] If we do what I'm saying, this will be a beautiful, well-oiled machine like you've never seen before. [12:43] We thank you for watching. [12:45] And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.