Transcript - Interview: Bo Thompson Interviews Donald Trump on WBT Charlotte - February 7, 2020

Bo Thompson

00:00:00 - 00:00:07 (7 sec)

Newstalk 1110 WBT. I'm Bo Thompson with the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Thank you for being with me.

Donald Trump

00:00:07 - 00:00:09 (2 sec)

Thank you very much, Bo. It's an honor.

Bo Thompson

00:00:09 - 00:00:16 (7 sec)

Welcome back to Charlotte. What a week to be at the end of the week in Charlotte after a week for the ages for you, right?

Donald Trump

00:00:16 - 00:00:31 (15 sec)

Well, you got me in a very good time. That's why you're paid so much money I guess. You can get them at the right time. But I'm here and it's, you know, it's been a great state. North Carolina, it's been a great state for us and we're having the convention here as you know on August and we look forward to it. They wanted it badly.

Donald Trump

00:00:31 - 00:00:48 (17 sec)

A lot of cities wanted it because it's a lot of economic development a lot of jobs. So for all of these big conventions you know they -- they want to have them but this is going to be a big one. There's gonna be a beauty. And we chose your state your city. I've done well here. I like it. It's a great place.

Donald Trump

00:00:48 - 00:01:08 (19 sec)

I know so many people here. We have tremendous friendships. We won the state. Perhaps that has something to do but we won it. You know, pretty easy fashion. I hear we're up much higher now than we were even at Election Day, so that's good. We had a good week. The impeachment hoax ended and we have just a lot of good things are happening.

Bo Thompson

00:01:08 - 00:01:27 (19 sec)

The State of the Union on Tuesday night. You awarded Rush Limbaugh with that Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rush Limbaugh has been on WBT for almost three decades and I'd love to know the background, a little bit of behind the scenes of how you made that decision and how it came to be and how he reacted.

Donald Trump

00:01:27 - 00:01:55 (28 sec)

Well, I will tell you so Rush's the biggest of all time when you think of it. Many many millions of people a day. Nobody can do what he does. He speaks for three hours and no phone calls, no anything. You -- how tough a business it is, right, and you know you have so many millions of people. But from the day I ran, I came down the escalator with our future first lady and Rush was saying such great things and I didn't know Rush at that time other than I knew him by reputation, and he was No. 1 by a lot.

Donald Trump

00:01:55 - 00:02:10 (16 sec)

Always has been, I guess pretty much. And he was saying these great things then I got to know him. He went all-in, right at the beginning. He went all-in. He agreed with everything I was talking about whether was immigration, whether it was Second Amendment, everything I talked about he agreed with. The military, we have to fix our military.

Donald Trump

00:02:10 - 00:02:36 (26 sec)

We did that cutting taxes. We did that so many other things and I kept hearing about Rush, that he was, you know, just for me. And over the time I got to know him a little bit that I got to know him a lot. He's an incredible guy who's going through a rough spell right now as you know it. Was announced with lung cancer but he's being treated and hopefully, he's gonna be OK. But he is an incredible guy and I know he's with you.

Donald Trump

00:02:36 - 00:02:48 (12 sec)

You're in a little slightly different time but he's -- he's gonna be a tough one. I think that rough -- Rush will -- He's such a strong guy. He's going to beat whatever it is. We hope he does. But you know he's got a very serious problem with that.

Bo Thompson

00:02:48 - 00:03:06 (17 sec)

Sir, at that speech we all saw what happened behind you at the very end of it. I am curious. You didn't see it because you were looking forward. I imagine you got out of the chamber and -- and eventually, you saw it on a phone or something. How did you first learn about that and what was your initial gut reaction.

Donald Trump

00:03:06 - 00:03:25 (20 sec)

Well, I didn't hear it either. You know normally you can hear somebody ripping up that much paper but I didn't hear it. It's an important document. It was really not allowed to do it, it's a criminal event. She's not allowed to do that but she is very sad if you want to know the truth. When you think about it, it's sad but I didn't see it. I was looking forward, that was the end.

Donald Trump

00:03:25 - 00:03:44 (18 sec)

Everybody was -- When I say everybody, a big portion of that room was going crazy and the other portion sits very quietly and still and angered, a lot of anger. But success is bringing everyone around. I mean, you see, we've never been this successful, we've never had a country this successful. Where No. 1 in the world by far.

Donald Trump

00:03:44 - 00:04:08 (24 sec)

If the opponent got in, China would have overtaken us and now we're way ahead of China and doing really well. We made our China deal, we made our USMCA. Japan deal, we're taking in $40 billion from Japan. They never paid a cent since. South Korea and many others so, you know, we're just doing great. I think success brings it all together because ultimately that's what it's about, jobs and safety and all of the things that we provide.

Bo Thompson

00:04:08 - 00:04:16 (8 sec)

Wow. We look forward to seeing you in several months and the convention your second time around. Is this one gonna be different than the first now that you're the president?

Donald Trump

00:04:16 - 00:04:39 (23 sec)

Well, we had our choice of going first or second because I'm president and we chose second, which is good. And then going being the second one out of the box is probably a better. But I just, you know, I love the state and we're here for that reason and Charlotte's been good. [Inaudible] You know, they really are -- and they really did, they worked hard to get it so many people did but they really worked hard to get it. So this is what we -- we did, we made this choice.

Bo Thompson

00:04:39 - 00:04:43 (3 sec)

Mr. President, thank you very much for your time today. I appreciate it.

Donald Trump

00:04:43 - 00:04:45 (3 sec)

Thank you. It's an honor to be with you. Thank you very much.