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00:00This Sunday, Turning Point.
00:03My exclusive interview with President Trump
00:06as the war with Iran reaches the 100-day mark.
00:10I don't like these endless wars.
00:12This is not an endless war.
00:13What makes you so sure this won't become a quagmire?
00:16We're not going to be there.
00:17As pressure grows on the economy with the midterms approaching.
00:21As soon as that's complete, gasoline prices are going to drop like a rock.
00:25Plus, his controversial plan that could give payouts to January 6th rioters.
00:31Look, it was up to me.
00:33I'd pay them the kind of money that they deserve.
00:36And his continued claims about election fraud.
00:39They're cheating on the election.
00:41Do you have evidence to support that?
00:43All I have to do is look.
00:44Joining me for insight and analysis are
00:46NBC News National Security Managing Editor Carol Lee.
00:50Mark Short, former Director of Legislative Affairs for President Trump.
00:55And Ashley Etienne, former Communications Director to Vice President Harris.
01:00Welcome to Sunday.
01:01It's Meet the Press.
01:04From NBC News in Washington, the longest running show in television history.
01:09This is Meet the Press with Kristen Welkin.
01:13Good Sunday morning.
01:15Today marks 100 days since the United States launched the first strikes against Iran.
01:21Midterm pressures are growing, with no clear end to the war in sight.
01:26On Friday, President Trump took his case to rural voters in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
01:32At the invitation of the White House, we joined him at Custer Farms and had a wide-ranging interview
01:38that was unfortunately interrupted multiple times by the stormy weather overhead.
01:45President Trump, welcome back to Meet the Press.
01:48Thank you.
01:49Thank you so much for being here.
01:51We are going to talk about your visit, why you're here in Wisconsin.
01:55But I'd like to start off by talking about the major issue that you are focused on every day,
02:01which is Iran.
02:02Sunday will mark 100 days since the first strikes.
02:05Your Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that the war had concluded.
02:11And yet, just this week, Iran attacked U.S. allies in the region, calling it retaliation
02:16for a set of U.S. airstrikes.
02:18Is the United States at war with Iran?
02:21Well, they've been largely decapitated, and I call it a military exercise because people
02:26would rather have it called that.
02:28It's not a big war for us.
02:30It's not the most powerful military in the world.
02:33I built it, frankly.
02:34I built it in my first four years, and I'm using it a little bit in my second four years.
02:40Their Navy is gone.
02:42Their Air Force is gone.
02:43Their anti-aircraft is gone.
02:45They might have built it up a little bit over the last four weeks of during this little ceasefire
02:49that we did at the request of some very good people, very, very fine people from, actually
02:56from numerous places, as you know.
02:59You know, there are a lot of people involved, but from Pakistan in particular, the field marshal
03:02and the prime minister.
03:06And we're very close to having a deal, and if we don't have a deal, we'll do it one way
03:10or the other.
03:10Either way, we win.
03:12I do want to talk about the terms of any potential deal in just a moment.
03:16But let me just follow up with you.
03:19You did post on social media just this week, my final negotiations to end the war with
03:25the Islamic Republic of Iran.
03:27There is a naval blockade in place, which technically is an act of war under international
03:34law.
03:35So is this a war as long as there's a naval blockade in place?
03:39Well, we have a blockade.
03:40It's been extremely effective.
03:41And the reason we have it is they try to blockade, and now we blockaded them.
03:45And as you know, they're losing $400 to $500 million a day.
03:49It's not sustainable for them.
03:51They have an economy that's shot in addition to everything else.
03:54Their leaders are gone.
03:55Their generals are gone.
03:56Their first tier and second tier are gone.
03:59Much of their third tier is gone.
04:01But they put up a blockade, and so we blockaded them, and we have the ultimate blockade.
04:06I don't consider that a war, but if you want to define it as such, I guess you can.
04:10Well, how do you define it?
04:12I don't define it at all.
04:13I don't think about it.
04:14I just do what I have to do.
04:15But if you're not specifically calling it a war, would you consider sending some of the
04:20troops who were stationed there, who were sent because of Operation Epicure there home?
04:26No, would you consider sending them home if it's not technically a war?
04:30We don't need as many troops.
04:32I think it's just like it's on the side of caution.
04:37We have a lot of people there.
04:41They're very safe.
04:42You know, if you think we beat Venezuela, we lost nobody.
04:45We took over the whole country.
04:46We lost nobody.
04:47We have a great relationship, by the way, with Venezuela.
04:50Venezuela is doing very well, but we lost nobody.
04:53We've lost 13 people here, and that's a lot.
04:5513 people too many.
04:56But if you look at Vietnam, where hundreds of thousands of people were killed, if you
05:01look at any one of the last seven or eight wars where many, many people were killed, we
05:07lost 13.
05:09And again, 13 is too many.
05:11I don't want to lose any.
05:13But 13 is less than anybody's ever even envisioned.
05:17I think we're doing a great job.
05:19But so are you saying you would consider sending some of the troops home, sir?
05:22Some of the 50,000 troops who were sent there as a part of Operation Epic Fury?
05:26I would say this.
05:28It costs us very little to keep them there.
05:30I don't consider them in danger.
05:32We have the best defense anyone's ever seen.
05:34We have the best offense anyone's ever seen.
05:36So I don't consider it danger.
05:37I would say it would be foolhardy to do that because maybe we may use them.
05:41It's unlikely.
05:41But I think we'll keep them there until such time as we have a completion.
05:46And when we have a completion, you will see things like you've never seen.
05:50The oil will go down.
05:52The stock market already, as you know, it's hit an all-time high.
05:55Even in the midst of it, it hit all-time highs.
05:58We had 73 all-time highs in a short period of time that I've been in office, which is a
06:04record, by the way.
06:06And, you know, we're doing very well.
06:08But the main thing is we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
06:13Can't do it.
06:14And we won't do it.
06:15You just referenced the 13 Americans who were killed.
06:19And I want to know what your red line is.
06:23What would trigger you to restart military action?
06:27Would it be Iran killing more American citizens?
06:31Well, certainly that would be something that I would think about very seriously.
06:34But my red line would be if I think I wasn't going to make a deal or if I wasn't
06:39going to
06:39make a deal fast enough.
06:40So we're having very good negotiations with the people that are leading the country now.
06:45It's the third group that we've been dealing with.
06:48And they are different.
06:50And you could say it's regime change, actually, because these are very different people.
06:54I find them to be more rational, very smart.
06:57Who is that?
06:58Who's leading the country?
07:00Well, I don't want to go into names, but you know who they are.
07:01I mean, they're leaders.
07:02They're respected.
07:04Respected by the people that have to respect them.
07:07They are calling the shots.
07:09We know that because we see it through various tests that we've given.
07:14It's a little bit strange because you have leaders that have been there for a long time
07:18and they get wiped out.
07:20Then you have leaders that you also know, the second tier, and they get wiped out.
07:23All of a sudden, we're dealing with different people.
07:26But no, I think that we'll either have something done fairly quickly or we'll finish it out militarily.
07:33Are you talking about the son of the Supreme Leader?
07:36Well, he's a part of it, yes.
07:37He has not been seen in public.
07:39What is his status?
07:40Have you talked to him directly?
07:42I do believe they have great respect for him.
07:44I see it.
07:45I mean, they want to get his concurrence.
07:49They've said to me, they've said to others that they're looking for approval,
07:54and he is part of the approval process, absolutely.
07:57Have you spoken to him directly?
07:58You said you want to meet with him.
08:00No, I have not.
08:00I would if he'd like to, but I have not spoken to him directly.
08:04Do you know where he is?
08:05I will tell you how he is.
08:07Yeah.
08:08They do pay homage to him, I would tell you, if they didn't.
08:11They seem to, based on what I see, they seem to respect him a great deal.
08:17Do you know where he is?
08:18Do you know how he is doing physically?
08:20I don't want to say whether or not I know where he is, but there's a good probability that I
08:25do.
08:25Is he inside Iran?
08:27I'd rather not say that.
08:28Okay.
08:29He is the son of the last Supreme Leader, who was obviously a hardliner.
08:33Is this younger Khamenei any better for the United States than his father was?
08:39Younger.
08:40I think more rational.
08:43Injured.
08:44He's pretty badly injured.
08:46So there's a certain bravery there.
08:48A lot of people, if they were injured that badly, they wouldn't be talking about, you know, how we're doing
08:53with the United States.
08:54They'd have other things on their mind.
08:57So there's a certain bravery there.
08:58But he is very seriously injured, yeah.
09:02What is the status of talks exactly in this moment?
09:06How close are you to making a deal?
09:08Are we talking about days, weeks, months, Mr. President?
09:10I think we're very close.
09:11We have a couple of points.
09:13They don't even seem like big points.
09:14They've conceded the fact that they will not have nuclear weapons.
09:18We had a clause in there that we will not develop nuclear weapons.
09:23And everybody was very happy with it except me.
09:25And I said, well, what happens if they not develop, but they go out and purchase?
09:32They acquire.
09:33I want to put the word if they buy or purchase or acquire.
09:37You've got to have that in there, too, because that's not developing.
09:41So they don't have the right to develop or purchase, acquire or buy.
09:45Have they pushed back against that?
09:47Is that one of the sticking points?
09:48A little bit.
09:49And then they didn't.
09:50Okay.
09:52You have been saying for months, Mr. President, that Iran is begging to make a deal.
09:57True.
09:57They are so desperate to make a deal.
09:59Why haven't they made a deal with you yet?
10:01Because it's a very hard thing for them.
10:04They've had great independence.
10:06They've dealt with very weak and ineffective leadership on behalf of the United States
10:10and other countries, frankly, that allowed them to get away with murder.
10:17And I think they can't believe they're in the situation where they've been virtually decapitated.
10:22But if they're so desperate, Mr. President, why haven't they said yes to the terms you're proposing?
10:28They're proud.
10:29There are things they never thought they'd be doing that they're going to have to do.
10:33They've got no choice.
10:35And it takes a little while.
10:37You're talking about 47 years of getting away with whatever they wanted.
10:41I mean, this should have been done long ago.
10:43This should have been done by other presidents or other countries.
10:46It doesn't have to be us, other countries.
10:48But they were very close to having a nuclear weapon twice.
10:51That was when I terminated the Iran nuclear deal, which was a path.
10:56That deal, the JCPOA, that deal was tantamount to giving them a nuclear weapon.
11:03It was a horrible deal given by Barack Obama and really penned by him.
11:09It was a horrible deal.
11:10It was, you know, it expired long ago.
11:12Had I not, had I, I terminated it.
11:15But had I not terminated it, it expired long ago.
11:18It was a short-term deal.
11:19It was a road to a nuclear weapon.
11:21They would have had a nuclear weapon five years ago.
11:24But, Mr. President, I'm curious, because when you were campaigning,
11:27you said you would rip up the Iran nuclear deal but negotiate a better deal.
11:31Why didn't you negotiate a better deal at the time?
11:34Because after it was ripped up, there weren't guardrails,
11:37and they escalated their production of enriched uranium.
11:40Excuse me.
11:40It takes years to do these things.
11:43These people have been fighting for 47 years.
11:46They've been killing Americans.
11:48They've been taking off their legs and their arm,
11:50and their faces have been hurt so badly and so horribly.
11:54I'm moving very fast.
11:55I'm into three months.
11:57You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years.
11:59I'm into my third month, and all I do is say,
12:02well, when are you going to win?
12:03If I were a Democrat, nobody would be talking that way.
12:06But it doesn't matter to me.
12:07I've gotten so used to it.
12:08Look, we have totally destroyed their military.
12:13They have some missiles left.
12:14They have some drones left.
12:15Do you know how many missiles?
12:17Yes, exactly.
12:18How many?
12:18I don't want to tell you.
12:19Can you give me a ballpark?
12:20But they have some left.
12:21No.
12:22But I know almost to the number.
12:24And we know where they are, too.
12:26And we know where their drones are.
12:28And we know where their drone factories are.
12:29Most of the drone factories have been knocked out.
12:31Most of the launching pads have been knocked out.
12:34And most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out.
12:38But they still have capacity.
12:40They have some missiles.
12:42They have some drones.
12:43I would say, percentage-wise, maybe 21, 22 percent of their missiles.
12:49It's a lot of missiles.
12:50But it's not what it was when we first attacked.
12:53So you're saying they have 21, 22 percent of their missiles left?
12:56Correct, yes.
12:59Let's talk about what specifically you are demanding as a part of this short-term deal.
13:04Will the United States agree to a deal with Iran that doesn't explicitly and immediately give up its nuclear enrichment
13:12program on the front end?
13:14Well, you know, depending on what you say immediately.
13:16Look, it is buried under mountains because our B-2s were incredible.
13:23The pilots of our B-2s were unbelievable.
13:26And it's buried.
13:27They can't get it.
13:28The only two countries that could take it, that have the equipment to take, you have to understand, three mountains
13:34have fallen in on them, right?
13:35So you understand that.
13:36Because the fake news was going around saying, oh, maybe they didn't hit their target.
13:41One o'clock in the morning, pitch black, no moon, no nothing.
13:44And every one of those bombs went right down those chutes and blew up.
13:48They can't get it, no matter what.
13:50I mean, they can get it, I guess, with years of work.
13:53But the only two countries that can get it are us and China, because we're the only two with the
13:59equipment that's capable of doing that kind of work.
14:02And it would take weeks, weeks of digging.
14:05So the answer is, yeah, we're going to do it immediately.
14:09We're going to start looking very quickly.
14:11And we'll do it with them.
14:12If we make a deal, we'll do it with them.
14:14No, no.
14:15With, we're going to do it with the Iranians.
14:18So if we make a deal, that means we'll be friendly.
14:22We'll do it with the Iranians.
14:24If we don't make a deal, we may do it or we may just watch it.
14:28You know, we have cameras on it, all over it.
14:29If anybody walked there, if you walked over there, I would be able to read your first name on your
14:34lapel.
14:35And these are cameras up in space.
14:37It's pretty amazing technology.
14:38Space Force.
14:39We have cameras all over the site.
14:42We know if anybody goes there.
14:43If anybody went there, any digging mechanism, any truck, any tractors, anything, anybody went there, we would know we will
14:55take care of it.
14:56Is that wind or what?
14:57Is that rain?
14:59What is that?
15:00Rain.
15:01This would be the first of multiple interruptions due to the weather.
15:05Rain hitting the metal roof, making it difficult for both of us to hear each other.
15:10So as we're having this conversation, we can hear a little bit of rain.
15:14No, a lot of rain.
15:15A lot of rain.
15:16Let me try to get a clear understanding of how the United States would get the nuclear material out.
15:22You've called it nuclear dust.
15:24Yeah.
15:25Will you and would you be open to sending in U.S. forces to retrieve the nuclear stockpile?
15:31So the official name is highly enriched uranium.
15:35And I call it nuclear dust because it seems to be nice and everyone understands it better and it's sort
15:40of cute and people picked it up.
15:43But the way you do it is if we make a deal, if we make a deal, that now we're
15:47friendly, we'll all go together.
15:49It'll be our equipment.
15:50We'll take it out and destroy it, whether it's on site or whether we take it off site.
15:55So that would require U.S. forces?
15:57Well, that will require we will have a deal.
16:00We'll be friendly.
16:01In other words, we will have made a deal and we will be at peace and we will go with
16:07them or without them.
16:09But we won't have people shooting at us.
16:11Now, if we don't make a deal, then we're going to take them out militarily very harshly.
16:17And we'll wait till we do that before we go, in which case we'll have safety either way.
16:23Mr. President, I wonder how long are you willing to give Iran to make a deal?
16:30How much longer?
16:31You've been talking for quite some time.
16:33Well, you really haven't.
16:34Again, you were in Vietnam for 19 years.
16:37You were in Iraq for many years.
16:40You were in Korea for many, many years.
16:42You were in all the I won't even talk about World War Two because that was the big one.
16:47And we don't want to ever have that.
16:50But you were in all these different wars for many years with thousands and thousands of people killed.
16:58We've had 13 people killed, which I hate.
17:01We've had 13 people killed, and that includes two wars.
17:04That's Venezuela, and that's Iran.
17:07But do you have a cutoff point in your head?
17:08No, but you keep talking about speed, Kristen.
17:11You were in Vietnam for 19 years, and you're telling me about three months.
17:15And in three months, I've demolished the Navy, the Air Force, anti-aircraft.
17:21They have no radar.
17:22They have no nothing.
17:24I demolished their leaders.
17:26Their leaders are gone.
17:27Do you know where all of Iran's nuclear material is?
17:30Yes, yes.
17:32Would you unfreeze any Iranian assets or lift any sanctions up front as a part of any deal?
17:39So that would come after?
17:41Comes after, yeah.
17:42If they behaved, if they do a good job, we start talking.
17:44Yeah.
17:45Material.
17:46Unlike Obama.
17:48Obama flew a Boeing 757, a plane I know very well.
17:52They took the seats out, and they loaded it up with $1.7 billion in cash from the banks
17:59in Maryland and Virginia and D.C.
18:02They emptied out the banks, and they gave them $1.7 billion in green, and they gave them tens
18:08of billions of dollars, just kept giving them money, and it didn't work.
18:12Would any, again, Mr. President, you promised that you were going to negotiate a better deal.
18:19Do you wish you'd done it in your first term when you ripped it up at that, before you ripped
18:23up the deal?
18:24No, they weren't ready.
18:24No, this is much better.
18:26This is much better.
18:27If I would have done it in my first term, Israel wouldn't have been ready.
18:31Hear that sound, that sound of thunder, lightning, rain.
18:34Is that going to interrupt, guys?
18:36No.
18:37Okay.
18:37People will understand.
18:39We're on a farm.
18:40That's true.
18:41Will any deal you make include the release of Americans who are being held by Iran?
18:48Well, we talk about it, and we'll see.
18:50Nobody really has an accurate list of who they are, what they are, or if they're being held.
18:55But if they're, we've been talking about it.
18:59Nobody really has a list.
19:00You know that, right?
19:01You know, you're asking me about, nobody has a list.
19:05But are you demanding a list?
19:07Are you demanding to know and saying they've got to come home?
19:09You're supposed to give me the list.
19:10I mean, do you know people that we're talking about?
19:12If you give me the names, I'll do my best to get them out.
19:15Well, I don't think that's been reported.
19:16Huh?
19:17I don't think it's all of the people who've been held.
19:19All I'm saying is this.
19:20If you have a list of names, give them to me, and I will get them.
19:24But is it something you talk to them about?
19:26We talk about people if they have them, but nobody knows who they are, just like you don't
19:31know who they are.
19:32You have openly said you've been frustrated by Israel's continued bombing of Lebanon.
19:38Are you and Prime Minister Netanyahu on the same page?
19:42Yeah, we are.
19:43We get along very well.
19:45We've been great comrades.
19:46We did a very, very big number on a certain country.
19:50There was nothing but trouble for 47 years.
19:53I disagree with him on a couple of things.
19:56On Lebanon?
19:56I'd like to see Lebanon have a better life.
20:01I'd like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah.
20:07I think it should be more surgical.
20:10And we can help them with that, or we can recommend Syria.
20:14Syria is doing a very good job of cleaning up their act.
20:18They have a very good leader.
20:19They have a leader that's really done a good job in a short period of time, and he would
20:22love to help.
20:25Are you demanding that Lebanon be a part of the short-term deal that you're negotiating
20:33on?
20:33I'm not demanding.
20:35I think they'd like to see it, but I'm not demanding.
20:38Okay.
20:38I wonder if we should.
20:40Let me just get a gut check here.
20:42Should we pause for five minutes and let this pass?
20:45I just want to be able to hear everything he says.
20:48The rain did not stop, but neither did our interview.
20:52When we come back, President Trump on his promise to never start a new war.
21:06I'd like to talk big picture now, Mr. President.
21:09One of your consistent campaign promises was no new wars going all the way back to 2015.
21:17Did you break that promise to the American people?
21:20Well, I had to stop a country, a very powerful, very dangerous country, from having a nuclear
21:27weapon because they'd use it.
21:29They'd blow up the world.
21:30They'd blow up the Middle East.
21:31They'd blow up Israel.
21:32They'd come here.
21:33They'd blow up Europe.
21:33They're nuts.
21:34Okay?
21:35They're crazy people.
21:36I deal with them.
21:39And very high-strung people.
21:41Really crazy.
21:42And get along with them.
21:45I like them.
21:46But you don't want to let them have a nuclear weapon.
21:49And I'm doing the world a service, but I'm doing our country a service.
21:53It's America first.
21:54I'm doing our country a service.
21:57Nice rain.
21:59It is raining hard.
22:02But the answer is good.
22:04Let's just keep going.
22:06Let's keep going.
22:08Here, we paused nearly five minutes for the rain to pass, and then picked up our conversation.
22:15So you're saying you didn't break your promise, and yet, Mr. President, in your first term,
22:20you held to that promise, and it was so fundamental to who you were as a candidate to a first
22:27-term
22:28president.
22:28What changed?
22:30Because you insisted no new wars.
22:33First of all, I didn't guarantee no war.
22:36Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?
22:38I built our military.
22:39I inherited a terrible military.
22:41We had no equipment.
22:42We had nothing.
22:42I built a tremendous military.
22:45Biden gave a lot of it away, but it's still a relatively small portion compared to what I built.
22:50But you said it over and over again, Mr. President.
22:51Why would I build a military?
22:53Now, I didn't want to use this, but I'm doing you and everybody else a big favor.
22:59In the midst of the greatest stock market in history, in the midst of the most successful
23:04country, because as you know, in the last term, we were a dead country, Kristen.
23:07I know you're a big liberal or a big progressive.
23:11No, I'm just a journalist.
23:12We were a dead country.
23:14A year ago, a couple of years ago, we were a dead country.
23:16Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
23:19And at the all-time hottest point, which is probably now, believe it or not, we just had
23:23all brand new stock market records today.
23:25But at the hottest point in the history of our country, I took Scott, Howard, I took Pete,
23:32I took everybody into a room.
23:33I said, I have to do this country, this world, the Middle East, Israel, everybody a favor.
23:40You have Iran.
23:42They're going to have a nuclear weapon.
23:45Barack Hussein Obama signed the JCPOA.
23:49It was a horrible deal.
23:50Horrible deal.
23:51Listen to me.
23:52It was a horrible deal.
23:54It was a path to them getting a nuclear weapon.
23:57They were very close to having a nuclear weapon.
23:59I terminated the deal.
24:00Wait.
24:00Then I sent the B-2 bombers in about nine, ten months ago, and they obliterated, totally
24:06obliterated the site, and I saved it.
24:09We had a choice.
24:11We could let them have a nuclear weapon, or we could go along and have some beautiful
24:15days.
24:16But they would have, you know, it's a judgment.
24:18They would have used the nuclear weapon.
24:20And you know what?
24:21When people hear that whole scenario, when they hear me say, Iran is going to have a nuclear
24:28weapon, and they're crazy, they say you're doing the right thing.
24:33I don't think it's an un...
24:34I mean, you'll do polls, because they're all fake polls anyway, especially yours, but you
24:38do polls.
24:40I just won a big election.
24:43And the reason I won an election is people have confidence and may have good judgment.
24:47I had to make a judgment.
24:48I had to make a judgment.
24:49Do I want to go along and have a country that's doing really well, but somebody is going to
24:53try and kill us?
24:54Or do I want to put out that horrible threat?
25:00And I did.
25:01I put it out.
25:01I put it out for many, many years.
25:04Now I'm going to put it out permanently.
25:06I'm going to do it either through negotiation, where we're very close to a deal, or I'm going
25:11to blow the hell out of them, to be honest with you.
25:14And it's going to be very easy for them to do.
25:17That's actually the easier path.
25:19So when you say, I promised, I didn't promise anything.
25:23I don't like these endless wars.
25:25This is not an endless war.
25:26We've been doing this for three months.
25:29Much of it has been under the form, a pretty good form of ceasefire.
25:32The blockade has been amazing.
25:34Our Navy is amazing.
25:36Our military is the best in the world.
25:38Hey, we took over a very powerful country, Venezuela, a lot of soldiers, big, strong military.
25:44We took over Venezuela in a matter of minutes.
25:49We destroyed the capability of Iran in a matter of days.
25:54Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
25:56Now I'm going to finish it.
25:57But remember, you were in Vietnam 19 years because stupid people.
26:01You were in so many different countries.
26:04Every war you were in for years.
26:06Look at Iraq.
26:08Look what you were.
26:09You were there for years.
26:11We're there for, listen, Kirsten.
26:12We were there for a few months.
26:14And the threat is largely over.
26:17Soon it will be over.
26:18But you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
26:21Or they will blow you up.
26:23There will be no, Kirsten.
26:24There will be no, NBC.
26:26There will be no, meet the press.
26:28You will end the, meet the press, string.
26:30Let me ask you, though.
26:31During your 2016 campaign, you called the Middle East a quagmire.
26:36What makes you so sure this won't become a quagmire?
26:38We're not going to be there.
26:40You're convinced this won't become a quagmire?
26:42It's not a quagmire.
26:43I just wiped out the military of a very dangerous country.
26:47And I wiped out the nuclear threat.
26:49Let me tell you, if we left tomorrow, if we just said, all right, let's get out, it'll
26:52take them 15 or 20 years to rebuild back.
26:55But I'm not going to give them even that chance.
26:58I'm not going to give them that chance.
26:59They cannot have a nuclear weapon.
27:02And if there was even a 1% chance that they'd have it, I wouldn't leave.
27:06We're almost finished.
27:08We're going to either have a deal, a strong deal, a meaningful deal, not like the Obama
27:11thing.
27:12Obama was a path to a nuclear weapon.
27:14Mine is the exact opposite.
27:16Mine is a wall.
27:18It's a wall, just like I built a thousand miles of wall on our southern border.
27:22And by the way, I took the worst border in history, and I made it the best border in
27:27history in a matter of weeks.
27:29And yet, Mr. President, Iran was the closest to developing weapons-grade uranium after
27:36you ripped up the nuclear deal, because there were no guardrails in place.
27:40They were developing it during the nuclear deal.
27:44You don't know that?
27:45What?
27:45Iran, when Obama signed that stupid deal, where he paid them billions and billions of
27:50dollars, he thought he could bribe them.
27:52Listen to me.
27:53They were developing a nuclear weapon.
27:56That's how they got there.
27:57They got all of this uranium during Obama.
28:00You know that, don't you?
28:01Let's...
28:02Well, that's how they got there.
28:03Don't say this.
28:04They got there.
28:05They developed it during the Obama, Barack Hussein Obama, during his administration.
28:10They've escalated their development after the deal was wrapped up.
28:15They didn't escalate anything.
28:15Let's talk about the economy.
28:17Let me just tell you something.
28:18I want to talk about the economy.
28:19If I didn't go in there with the B-2 bombers, they would right now have a nuclear weapon,
28:23and it could be that half of the world would be eradicated.
28:26Let me ask you about the economy.
28:29You got a strong jobs report today that beat expectations.
28:34Not strong.
28:34Not strong.
28:35Really strong.
28:35Beat expectations.
28:37By how much?
28:39Triple.
28:40170,000 jobs created.
28:43And yet, gas is up.
28:47Diesel is up.
28:48It's all coming down as soon as the war's over.
28:50Well, 70% of farmers say they can't afford fertilizer.
28:54What's your message to farmers?
28:55The farmers are doing very well.
28:56Let me ask you.
28:56What is your message to farmers?
28:58Many who support you, but who say they're struggling.
29:01Who say they're struggling.
29:02Because there's nobody better than farmers.
29:04You know, I gave farmers last term $28 billion because China took advantage and other people.
29:10And you know who paid for it?
29:11China.
29:11Last term.
29:12You know, I had a great first term.
29:14I had the greatest economy ever.
29:15And you know what?
29:16This one's blowing it away.
29:17What's your message to farmers, though, Mr. President, who say they are struggling.
29:21They're struggling to make ends meet.
29:23Are you ready?
29:23Are you ready?
29:24Am I allowed to talk?
29:25You keep asking questions and you don't listen to the answers.
29:28I love the farmers.
29:30And the farmers love me.
29:31And the farmers trust me.
29:32In the first term, I had something very similar.
29:34China and others were.
29:36And Canada, which was brutal.
29:38They were taking advantage of our farmers.
29:40They don't take advantage of it anymore.
29:43I gave them $28 billion split up.
29:46They never had a payday like that.
29:49And the farmers loved me.
29:50And they came back and they voted for me in record numbers.
29:52You know that.
29:53Nobody's ever even come close.
29:55Now, because of the fact that we had a choice, I had a choice to make, I could keep it
29:59going.
29:59The farmers were doing great.
30:02Fertilizer was very cheap.
30:03Everything was cheap.
30:04Gasoline was very low.
30:06Everything was very low.
30:07I could have kept it that way.
30:08But I said, I have to take a little bit of return.
30:10The farmers are going to understand it better than anybody.
30:13We're going to have higher gasoline.
30:14We're going to have a little higher fertilizer, et cetera, et cetera.
30:17But I'm going to get rid of a nuclear weapon in the hands of very dangerous people.
30:22Excuse me.
30:22Wait.
30:24It should have been done for 47 years.
30:26No president had the guts to do it.
30:27I did it.
30:28And I've done it.
30:29It's almost complete.
30:30As soon as that's complete, gasoline prices are going to drop like a rock.
30:35You know, I was in Iowa speaking about farms.
30:37And it was before we attacked Iran.
30:41And I was in Iowa and the prices were $1.85 a gallon, $1.91 a gallon.
30:50What?
30:51This time, it wasn't the rain, but an audio issue that forced us to pause the interview again.
30:57Again, are gas prices going higher or have they peaked?
31:00They're going to come low, very low.
31:01They're going to go lower than they were before.
31:03Have they peaked?
31:04Is soon, well, it depends.
31:06I mean, it depends where the war goes.
31:08It could be I'll have to give them a shot.
31:11And it could be we'll sign an agreement.
31:13If we sign an agreement, they'll go down now.
31:14Otherwise, they'll go down after we're finished.
31:16You have a new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh.
31:19His first meeting in the role is later this month.
31:22After this month's jobs report, economists now say it's possible the Fed may have to raise rates.
31:29Do you think that's possible?
31:30And what would your reaction be, sir?
31:32So I'm of a different feeling.
31:34I think Kevin is fantastic.
31:36And I want him to do whatever he wants.
31:38I don't want to have a big influence on him.
31:39But we had a great report.
31:43We're doing great.
31:44And it's unfair that whenever you do great, they want to raise interest rates.
31:47It should be the opposite way.
31:49You know, if you go back 15 or 20 years, when you had good reports, the market went up.
31:54Nowadays, when you have good reports, the market goes down because they think they're going to raise interest rates.
31:58There's no reason to raise interest rates.
32:01The country becomes great.
32:03We built the country by doing great and having rates low.
32:07What they do is when they raise interest rates, they try and kill success.
32:12I don't want to kill success.
32:14We should actually lower interest rates.
32:16Now, if inflation comes, and you know, people live with inflation.
32:21But if inflation comes, what happens is you stamp it out.
32:25But success can kill inflation just like higher interest rates.
32:30What they do now is, like we had great job numbers.
32:33You agree, right?
32:34They beat expectations.
32:35Not expectations, like three times.
32:37Okay.
32:38But you ready?
32:39What do they do?
32:40They say, oh, let's raise interest rates.
32:43It's the wrong thing to do.
32:44I would like to see rates get lower because we could build this into the greatest machine that the world
32:50has ever seen.
32:51But you can't do that when everybody immediately raises interest rates.
32:55So we had great job numbers.
32:57We're doing great.
32:57You know, we're building more factories.
32:59We have more money coming into our country right now from other countries and people than ever before.
33:04Wait a minute.
33:05What happens?
33:06I don't want to just kill it with high interest rates.
33:10Growth is the greatest thing you can have.
33:12And growth does not cause inflation.
33:14Would you be upset if they raised rates?
33:18What is your message to them about that?
33:21Living with Kevin, I have a lot of respect for him.
33:23But my feeling is that when a country is doing well, they shouldn't be penalized by immediately raising interest rates.
33:32They should actually be incentivized.
33:35You know, we have debt.
33:36We have other things.
33:37We have things we want to take care of.
33:39I want to go bigger in the military.
33:41I really do.
33:42If we do what I'm saying, this will be a beautiful, well-oiled machine like you've never seen before.
33:50And when we come back, President Trump defends his controversial plan that could give payouts to January 6th rioters.
34:02This $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund is going to compensate people who say the federal government weaponized
34:11the legal system against them.
34:12It's been blocked by the courts met with opposition from Republicans in Congress and Democrats.
34:19Mostly Democrats.
34:21Mostly Democrats and some Republicans.
34:23Very few Republicans.
34:24Just to be very clear, are you backing off the fund completely, as your acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has
34:31said?
34:31Or are you looking for another avenue to revive the fund?
34:34So let me explain what the fund is.
34:37People have been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics that worked for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe.
34:46They're vicious, they're violent, what they did to people.
34:49And, of course, they went after me more than anybody else.
34:52They raided Mar-a-Lago and all the other things.
34:54But people have been badly hurt.
34:56They've committed suicide.
34:58They've lost their jobs.
34:59They've lost their families.
35:01They've lost their wives.
35:02They've lost everything.
35:03They've lost everything over a fake weaponization of government.
35:08So are you looking for a way to revive it?
35:10Well, look, it was up to me.
35:13I'd pay them the kind of money that they deserve.
35:17People have been destroyed.
35:18Lives have been destroyed.
35:20Many suicides.
35:21Think of it.
35:22People have committed suicide because a bunch of thugs went after them.
35:26So me, personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea.
35:31And so do many other Republicans.
35:34You have to get it approved.
35:35If they get it approved, that's great.
35:38If they don't get it approved, I'd be disappointed.
35:41All right.
35:41We're going to motor through this.
35:44But you have to understand, people have been destroyed by crooked politicians.
35:50And they should be reimbursed for that.
35:53Do you think anyone who attacked police officers on January 6th should get taxpayer money?
35:59I wouldn't be inclined to say so, but I have to see it.
36:02I can tell you this, 97% of those people, you look at them, the FBI or whoever it was,
36:08because
36:08you had a lot of crooked cops.
36:10You had dirty cops.
36:11Comey was a dirty cop.
36:12A guy like Bolton was a dirty cop.
36:14But there's no evidence that people who...
36:15Wait a minute.
36:15Wait a minute.
36:16Oh, you think Comey was a straight cop?
36:18Even 170 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers.
36:20Comey was a dirty cop.
36:21No, no, but the people who assaulted police officers.
36:23Listen to me.
36:24They had FBI agents ushering them into the building.
36:28They had FBI go into the building.
36:30Those people walking around, they're looking, oh, isn't this nice.
36:33They weren't in...
36:33They were being ushered into the building.
36:36There's no evidence of that.
36:36You had a bunch of dirty cops.
36:38And frankly, what they did was weaponization of our government.
36:42But, sir, there's no evidence of that.
36:44More than 1,000 people who pleaded guilty to crime.
36:45No, there's none.
36:46You know what you do?
36:47Try looking at the tapes one time.
36:48Would you take it off the table?
36:49Look at the tapes one time.
36:51But 172 people did plead guilty to assaulting police officers.
36:54You know why they pled guilty?
36:55Should they be exempt?
36:56Because they told they were going to jail for 15 years if they didn't.
36:59Should they...
37:00They pled guilty because they were frightened.
37:03They went down.
37:04They were ushered into a building.
37:06Many of them were arrested without even going into the building.
37:09So would you be okay with them receiving taxpayer dollars?
37:12The people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization.
37:17Many of those people should be compensated.
37:20Now, with that being said, as I understand it, the weaponization fund was going to set up
37:26a group of people, people that could be picked by anybody, fair people, smart people.
37:32And they will go on an individual case basis.
37:36Okay.
37:36Now, I don't know what's going to happen with the weaponization fund.
37:40I love the idea because people like you, the fake, dirty press, the crooked press, people
37:48like stupid Biden, he's not smart enough to know what's going on, but people that surrounded
37:53him, surrounded his beautiful, resolute desk in the Oval Office, what they did to the
37:59lives of people, they destroyed people.
38:01They sent people to jail who did nothing wrong.
38:05Just to be very clear, there's no evidence of what you're saying.
38:08But let me ask you about Todd Blanch.
38:10Let me ask you about Todd Blanch.
38:11Listen to me.
38:11Listen to me.
38:12Let's talk about Todd Blanch.
38:13There's tremendous evidence.
38:14There's nothing but evidence.
38:16The election was rigged.
38:17It was a dirty election.
38:19And it's happening again right now in California.
38:21You've never presented evidence that the 2020 election was rigged.
38:25Right now, it's looking, look at what's happening in California.
38:27Where's the evidence to that?
38:28It's four days.
38:29The Republicans are doing well in California.
38:31In California, it's, no, they're not.
38:33They're dropping fast because it's a rigged election.
38:35Let me tell you, it's four days and they aren't even close to coming up with it.
38:41That's how they count the votes in California.
38:41You know why they're doing that?
38:42Because they're cheating on the election.
38:44There's, what, do you have evidence to support that?
38:46All I have to do is look.
38:47All I have to do is look.
38:48But that's not evidence.
38:48And I listen.
38:49And I listen to people.
38:51And let's see what happens.
38:52But, sir, that's not evidence.
38:53Do you think it's appropriate?
38:54That's how they count the votes in California.
38:56Do you think it's appropriate that they have an election and five days later, they're nowhere
39:00close to picking a winner?
39:02Some local officials acknowledge they are slow, they're urging.
39:05No, they're crooked.
39:05They're urging the votes to be counted quickly.
39:07That's how they vote in California.
39:08They're crooked, just like you're crooked.
39:10Your press is crooked.
39:11And meet the press is crooked.
39:12To be fair, I'm not crooked.
39:14But let's continue.
39:14Really?
39:14Well, you play right into their hands.
39:16Let's continue.
39:17You're either crooked or you're stupid.
39:18Let's continue.
39:19You play right into their hands with this rap.
39:21You know that these elections are rigged.
39:24Your network knows that they're rigged.
39:27You know that I won an election in a landslide, and I got 94% bad press.
39:33But, Mr. President, you've never presented evidence.
39:34You know why I got that?
39:35Because you have no credibility.
39:37But you've never presented evidence that it was rigged.
39:39Let's keep talking about it.
39:39I want to talk about Todd Lynch.
39:40You have more evidence.
39:41There's more evidence than ever presented.
39:45Let's talk about it.
39:46Your elections in this country, we're like a third world country.
39:49Your elections are crooked.
39:51And you're crooked.
39:52And meet the press is crooked.
39:53And so is ABC and CBS and CNN.
39:58But, Mr. President.
39:58Your one-sided crooked networks.
40:00All right.
40:00Let's call it quits, because I've had enough.
40:02Thank you, darling.
40:03Have a good time.
40:03Mr. President, let's please.
40:05I traveled all the way to Wisconsin.
40:07I've sat in the rain with you.
40:09I know.
40:09I've sat in the rain with you for an hour.
40:11On and off in the rain.
40:13And I've given you enough time.
40:14You ought to straighten out your press.
40:16Because you know what?
40:17A country can never be great with a dishonest press.
40:20Listen, we traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview.
40:30I spoke with President Trump on Saturday.
40:33And we both acknowledged the complications during the interview posed by the rain.
40:38He agreed to sit down with me for another Meet the Press interview.
40:45Welcome back.
40:46The panel is here.
40:47Carol Lee, NBC News National Security Managing Editor.
40:51Ashley Etienne, former Communications Director for Vice President Harris and Speaker Pelosi.
40:56And Mark Short, former Trump Director of Legislative Affairs.
41:00Welcome to all of you.
41:01Thank you for being here.
41:03Carol, let me start with you.
41:04Obviously, a tense ending to that interview.
41:07But let's talk about the start of the interview, which are really some of the most robust comments
41:12I think we've heard from President Trump on Iran.
41:15What were some of your key takeaways?
41:16Well, you could see there's a real frustration with the pressure he's under to get a deal to
41:21bring gas prices down.
41:22He said five times that Vietnam took 19 years.
41:24I've been at this for three months.
41:26There was little clarity on when this might get resolved or even how.
41:31You heard the president say there'll be a decision point where there's either a deal or I'll
41:34resume robust military action.
41:37Or the U.S. might just watch Iran's nuclear program for a period of time, which raises
41:41questions about how big of a threat it is right now.
41:44But he didn't answer the question of are we days, are we weeks, are we months?
41:47He said we're very close.
41:48We've been hearing that for weeks from the White House, that they're very close and still
41:52no deal.
41:53And at one point he said, Kristen, you know, these things take years.
41:56And lastly, I would say the nuclear threat is a significant concern for the U.S., but it's
42:01not the only one.
42:02One of the chief objectives the administration laid out going into the war was to destroy
42:07Iran's ballistic missile stockpile.
42:10He said that Iran retains more than 20 percent of its ballistic missiles, and that's significant.
42:15It was significant.
42:16And, Mark, I noted that as well as the lack of a timeline.
42:23And I think it speaks to the fact that he does not seem in a rush to get a deal
42:27here.
42:28Well, look, I do think that Iran has been nefarious for 47 years, has killed and slaughtered
42:33a lot of innocent people.
42:34And I think that the president has been right in his kinetic actions.
42:38I just think there should be an explanation that this is not necessarily going to end,
42:41and energy prices are not necessarily going to come down immediately.
42:44And it should be expected to the American people, who I think are incredibly patient.
42:47Here's what the cost is going to be to accomplish it and why we're doing it and how this
42:51could transform the Middle East for generations to come and actually lower risk premium on
42:56energy prices down the road.
42:57But I think if you keep saying, hey, it's going to immediately happen, then you've set
43:01an expectation for voters that may not be met.
43:04Ashley, your takeaways?
43:05No, I mean, I think what was clear to me is that the president is disconnected from the
43:10reality of what people are going through in this particular country.
43:13You know, he promised voters America first agenda, and now you can see that frustration
43:18bubbling over with the president who's more concerned with his own political retribution
43:26than he is with the economic state and pain of the American people.
43:29And the other thing I found very interesting here is that that interview engendered no confidence
43:35in the American people on his ability to transform, not just what's happening in Iraq, but also the
43:40economy.
43:41You've got a president who's asleep in the Oval Office who says that he doesn't even consider
43:45the economic state of the American people when he's dealing with these things.
43:48And so what you're seeing now is a frustration, not just among voters, but that's boiling
43:52over even within the Republican Party on both sides of the chamber.
43:56They're pushing back aggressively on this president's agenda.
43:59You can see the president mentioned Iowa.
44:00You could see the frustration among Iowa voters.
44:03He won Iowa in the last election by 13 points.
44:06Now we're looking at potentially a sweep among Democrats from the top down in terms of the
44:10ballot.
44:11So this creates a great opportunity for the Democratic Party.
44:14My only advice would be you need to roll out a proactive economic agenda to, you know,
44:18make clear how you're going to transform where we are.
44:20Mark, how does it play with the president's supporters in the Midwest and beyond?
44:25Look, I think it's hard for the Biden administration officials to question the president's stamina
44:29of this go-round.
44:30But look...
44:31Did you not see him asleep in the Oval Office?
44:32Several times.
44:33I don't think you can question President Trump's stamina.
44:34The White House has said he's not sleeping, but they've been showed those images certainly.
44:38Maybe thinking about that now.
44:39But I think that, you know, if you're Derek Van Orden, for whom he's out campaigning,
44:42who's an American hero, a Navy SEAL, who's in a tough district, I think you would like
44:46to see the president talk about, here's how I'm going to win the war.
44:48Here's how we're going to lower fertilizer costs.
44:50And I think that the challenge is that there's a lot of farmers in middle America who have been
44:53hurt by the trade agenda, too.
44:56Absolutely.
44:56Where all of a sudden, you can't actually export your products to other nations you used to because
45:00of the global trade war the president has.
45:03That's what needs to be done to actually help us.
45:05I think that, you know, this is a very difficult cycle, and it's a daunting one for Republicans.
45:09The best thing we have going is that Democrats seem to nominate, you know, candidates who are
45:14Nazi candidates in Maine who are engaging in child sex trafficking or actually in New Jersey 12
45:20terrorist sympathizers.
45:22That's the benefit for Republicans right now.
45:23Yeah, Maine is certainly a big focus.
45:25Carol, let me ask you, because he did make some of his, I think, most extensive comments
45:30defending that anti-weaponization fund that a lot of Republicans don't like.
45:35Yeah, and he got very animated about this.
45:38And very clearly, if the president had his way, this is a fund that would go forward.
45:43And it remains to be seen if there is a way in which he tries to revive the fund or
45:47still
45:48figure out a way for folks that he thinks deserve payouts to get those payouts.
45:53But it was definitely, it's definitely something that he feels very passionate about.
45:55He feels very strongly about that.
45:57You saw that in the interview.
45:59And it's another instance where he's at odds with some of his top officials in the administration
46:03who are saying this thing is dead.
46:04And that's really the problem, that everything centers around Donald Trump and his administration.
46:08His grievances, his tariff policy that he's doubled down on it, that's cost American people
46:13millions of dollars.
46:14His focus should be on the economy, but the reality is he doesn't have any answers to it.
46:18All right, guys, fantastic conversation.
46:21Thank you for being here.
46:21We really appreciate it.
46:23Before we go, I do want to remind our viewers that we will be sitting down with award-winning
46:28actress and mental health advocate Taraji P. Henson for our very first Meet the Moment
46:34live event later this month at our venue sponsor, City Winery in New York City.
46:39You can scan the QR code on your screen or go to meetthepress.com to buy tickets.
46:43We do hope to see you there.
46:45That is all for today.
46:47Thank you so much for watching.
46:48We'll be back next week because if it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press.
47:21We thank you for watching.
47:22And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch
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