[Brian Kilmeade of Fox News interviewed Donald Trump at The White House on June 22, 2020. The interview was aired in segments from June 23, 2020 through June 28, 2020 on Fox & Friends, a Fox Nation special, "What Made America Great" and on Fox News Radio's "The Brian Kilmeade Show."] [This transcript covers all segments, and pieces them together as best possible to cover the entirety of the interview. In some cases, segments from broadcast television were spliced with radio segments to fill in an edit. Video and audio clips courtesy of Fox News.] When you look at things that happened during your years that you had no control over, for example, the economic collapse. It wasn't really an economic policy of Bush's, but that's what Obama inherited, 9/11, Bush, that plan was in place for years ahead of time. With you, two things come to mind. The pandemic. And number two is the civil unrest. They really had nothing to do with policies. And it's just -- These are [Inaudible] Well, I think the civil unrest came to a certain extent because of the plague. The plague is the Chinese plague. And it came over here, and they could have stopped it. In my opinion, they could have stopped it, and they should have stopped it. And they didn't or were unable to. So it was either incompetence or they knew. And I guess the third one is they knew and they decided not to at a later date. But it's the Chinese plague. And it's not a good thing. And that, I think, had something to do with the civil unrest. You said, what I thought was in jest, just knowing you're sent to you, or even when you made that comment about, Hey Russia, if you heard me, if you slam those 30,000 emails, that's kind of the way you, uh, when you're in front of people, you do that. [Crosstalk] Well, that was said as a joke. Right. And the fake news picked it up, like I was just -- And I talked to you after that. And, by the way, they ended up immediately when the last word was, uh, because they didn't want to hear everybody including me laughing. That was fake news. But is that what you meant when you said don't do so much testing? Do you -- No, no, no. Yeah. If somebody said, I may have been joking, no. We got so good at testing. You know, what we did is a miracle between the ventilators and all of the things we did, but we got so good at testing that we've done 25 million tests. We've done 20 or 21 million more than Germany and these other countries. If you do more tests, that means you're gonna have more cases. So we've done so good that we're showing we have a lot of cases and everyone is saying that they have more cases. Well, we have more cases because we have more testing so they can test a kid who's got sniffles and is going to be better in about two hours because you know, young -- the young kids have done -- Right. -- unbelievably well, their immune system, I guess, or whatever is stronger. So when you do 25 million tests, you're going to show you have cases. And by doing all those tests while it's good to do them in one way, in another way, it makes us look bad, and it's crazy. But you don't mean -- Do you mean slow down testing? No, I don't mean slow down, but if we did slow down or if we didn't do so many. Let's say instead of 25 million tests, we did 5 million tests, we'd be very low in cases right now. And everybody would say, "Isn't that wonderful". By doing so much and being so advanced, not only did we do a lot of testing, but we're far more advanced than any of the -- We have the five-minute tests. We have tests that they don't even think of, other countries. You know, you hear about South Korea. They're always congratulating me and the great job I've done with testing, but the media, the fake news, doesn't get the word out. That's why it's good to speak to you. All right. So we've done 25 million tests. That means we show a lot of cases and that's all fine, but it makes us look bad, even though it should make us look good. Interesting. So when you looked at what happened and tells you -- You talked about this and this in Tulsa the other night, and your personal style, your personal abilities, those being your greatest asset -- It was the first time since as a candidate or as president you did not sell out an arena. OK. Does that make you [Inaudible] You're right. When I went there, it was the first time. Now I heard two weeks of nothing but, you are going to die if you go, you're going to die, you'll never live again, you'll never breathe again if you walk into that very beautiful arena. They treated us very nicely, except for one problem, they called a curfew. So people that were in line had to leave. You had people sitting, waiting for four, five days in advance, and they called a curfew and they had to leave. I don't know where they went, but they had to leave, you know that. And then I called up and I said, there shouldn't be curfew. I called the Mayor, and I said, "Mayor, you can't do a curfew. It's not fair to our people." They called a curfew because you had some very bad people coming. They did come, and the police did a good job. But they called curfew, number one. Number two, you had nothing but horrible press for a week and a half, two weeks leading up to it that you were going to be in bad shape if you walked into the arena and various other things. Now, despite that, we actually had a good crowd. For anybody else, it would be a good crowd. But I agree with you. It is the only time that I've had a vacant seat since I came down the escalator with the First Lady. But this just came out, as you came in, you didn't give this to me but this just came out and people have to see this. Trump rally, see what that says, "gives FOX News the largest Saturday night audience in its history". So, my speech the other night was the largest audience in the history of Fox on Saturday night. That covers many, many years and many, many big shows. So this speech -- Now, let me give you this. Online, it was even bigger than this. So online you have many different sites, but they say it was the biggest thing in a long time. Now, nobody is going to write that. And the reason I talk about it is because if you don't tell it yourself nobody else will. Well, you can't say nobody else. You, because you have been fair. No. No, no, Fox put it out. Yup. Fox put it out. So it's the biggest, the largest Saturday night audience in its history. Uhm, nobody's going to say that. I'll say it. I'm saying it now. If I didn't say it, they'll put it out. Nobody's going to pick it up, because the fake news won't do that. But think of what that means. Now a lot of people saw it. A lot of people went to Tulsa, and it was rough because they had, you know, so-called protesters, anarchists, and various other people. And they said, let's go home and watch it on television. But this is much more important. We had a very nice crowd of warriors. They were warriors. But it's the first empty seat but these were the best ratings we've ever had. Interesting. I think that means something because that to me is like a poll. Right. And online, even better. [Break in Interview] We got so good at testing. You know, what we did is a miracle, between the ventilators and all of the things we did, but we got so good at testing, that we've done 25 million tests. We've done 20 or 21 million more than Germany and these other countries. If you do more tests, that means you're going to have more cases. So we've done so good that we're showing we have a lot of cases. And everyone's saying that they have more cases. Well, we have more cases, because we have more testing. So they can test a kid who's got sniffles and is going to be better in about two hours because you know, the young kids have done unbelievably well. Right. Their immune system, I guess, or whatever is stronger. So when you do 25 million tests, you're going to show you have cases. And by doing all of those tests, while it's good to do them in one way, in another way, it makes us look bad. And it's crazy. But you don't mean, do you mean slow down testing? No, I don't mean slow down, but if we did slow down or if we didn't do so many, let's say instead of 25 million tests, we did five million tests, we'd be very low in cases right now. And everybody would say, isn't that wonderful? By doing so much and being so advanced, not only did we do a lot of testing, but we're far more advanced than any other. We have the five-minute test. We have tests that they don't even think of, other countries. You know, you hear about South Korea. They were always congratulating me on the great job I've done with testing. But the media, the fake news doesn't get the word out. That's why it's good to speak to you. Right. So we've done 25 million tests. That means we show a lot of cases. And that's all fine. But it makes us look bad, even though it should make us look good. [Break in interview] Mr. President, we talk about the history of the White House. What do you think when you're walking through the -- the colonnade here? When you talk about the history of this place. Well, it's got a great history. And all my life I've seen presidents and leaders of other countries, from dictators to prime ministers to presidents to kings and queens, you see them walking along the colonnade. And you see this is a ramp -- interesting story, it's a ramp and this was built for FDR. This was a newer service when he became president, because of -- Wheelchair. -- his wheelchair situation. So it goes right here down, but it's at a little bit of an angle. But this is a very soft angle. Right. Now, do you remember the moment -- you know the campaign, you know the play-by-play of it. But do you remember the moment when you -- when this became your office when this became the place you live? Did -- So -- Do you have one of those? I do. I remember the first night, more than any other night and any other time, when I walked up and you know, the Lincoln Bedroom is right next to where I stay. And you think of the history and you say, it's my first night at the White House. And you really have to think -- you say -- because you grow up with the White House, right? The President -- The White House and all of a sudden -- And the first night out of four years now we're into it three-and-a-half years and we have an election coming up but at that time, it sounded and seemed so far away. They burned this to the ground -- Right. -- in 1814. They built it up again. And then by the -- Mostly the interior. The exterior was not, you know, it -- Yes. -- stayed. But -- they had to fix it -- but the interior was pretty well burned up. As a builder, can you imagine what Washington was thinking when he picks this place out and it's all swamp and there's -- it's a compromised location? I think maybe they got it better than they do nowadays. But they picked the right spot, and it's an incredible building. If you look at it from this angle -- I think you might see it -- that is a great shot because nobody sees that. This is the Rose Garden. And I just think that's a great shot. And if you look at the detailing around the windows -- Right. And it's just, you know, an incredibly beautiful place. Mr. President, it's hard to believe up until the Civil War, you could walk up, knock on the door, and have an appointment with the president. Yeah. Well you used to have -- [Crosstalk] Can you believe it's the same job? So Andrew Jackson, when he was president -- they had a party for America in the White House. Thousands of people poured into the building. It was different. They wrecked the place. They wrecked it. But it was a little bit different -- you know, Andrew Jackson very well. Yeah. You did a great piece on him, but they had a big party. And it was a different time. It was. But they had their own difficulties. They -- everybody has certain difficulties. They had difficulties, and they had safety difficulties also. When you go through your legacy, the four years or the eight years you go through it, do you -- when you look at those portraits on the wall and when no one's around, do you ever say, where do I line up? Do you -- because you're a competitive guy by nature. Where do I line up? Does that matter to you? Well they actually change, and the president has the right to choose where -- Everything goes. He or she, uh, should be. And I haven't thought about portraits yet. I think that's a good sign, right? If I haven't -- if I'm thinking about portraits -- Then it's over. They say, what's going on over there? So I haven't even thought about it yet. But I think we'll have a -- a very good spot. I think history will judge us as having done a very good job. You want to go in or -- Yeah. Here's the Oval Office. You are unique in that -- Really -- Truman was not a rich guy. Lincoln was not a rich guy. So when you come to a mansion, it is a major upgrade in lifestyle. You didn't really have a -- this is not -- No. [Crosstalk] -- an upgraded lifestyle. But is there is something special about this? So it's a little bit like Air Force One. You get onto it, and you say, I wonder whose plane is nicer, but when you say it's Air Force One, Air Force One is Air Force One, right? This is the White House. This is -- I find it to be a magnificent building. When I look at that building, and I look at it even from that corner, from that angle that few people see, because you're talking about the Rose Garden, right? How many people get to see the Rose Garden? To me, it's one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture. It's a great building. I look -- every president chooses what to put around him. You chose Lincoln -- Right. -- as a bust and Lincoln as a picture. Right. You chose Andrew Jackson and -- is that Teddy Roosevelt underneath? Yes. Why? And by the way, they're taking down the statue of -- Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt. So explain that one. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington over here. People say Jackson remind your run for the White House is similar to Jackson's. He took his case to the people because Washington didn't like him. So -- That's right. That's what he did. And so -- And he had one wild -- In fact, until mine, they say that was probably the most incredible election. It was a pretty well time. You talked about it and wrote about it beautifully. Andrew Jackson was a pretty wild guy. [Edit in Interview] But now -- we're in the middle -- while we have this conversation. We're in a war on history. They want to take Jackson's statue out of New Orleans. Without battle of New Orleans, we're not the same country. I don't like it at all. I don't like it at all. I don't like anything that's going on. Now federal, I've stopped. I've stopped federal, but the states are -- a lot of states are weak. A lot of people are weak, and they're allowing it to happen. Hey, it's going over a little bit around the world now. They want to remove the statue of Gandhi, OK. All he wanted was peace. They want to take down Ulysses S. Grant. We'll he's the one that stopped the Confederates, right? So he was a great general. He turned -- Nobody's stock went higher than his stock over the last 10 or 15 years. But do you understand how you look at Thomas Jefferson, you look at George Washington, you look at James Monroe, look at James Madison, one thing they had -- they were brilliant. They also had slaves. Yes. So how do we grow as a country but yet not forget our past? So, you have to understand history and you have to understand the culture and so many other aspects of our country. And people can study that and they can hate it, and let's all hate it. But you can't take down George Washington's statue and half of our country's named after Washington. You can't take -- We have to remember the heritage that the -- the culture of our country. And you know, this is less important, but it's very important. Some of the things that they're trying to destroy are magnificent pieces of art. Have you ever seen an area where a statue was removed and you look at the area? And they put blacktop over the top of it. They put asphalt over the top and that's the end. And it was the center of a town or -- you know a village and now the statue's gone, and the whole village is like a different place. And here's the other problem I have, a lot of these people that want it down don't even know what they're taking down. I watched them on television. And I see what's happening, and they're ripping down things, they have no idea what they're ripping down but they started off with the Confederate and then they go to Ulysses S. Grant. Well, what's that all about? And they would knock down Lincoln. There's a group that wants to take down Lincoln. They haven't figured out exactly why yet. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. I've stopped them twice now from going over to the Jefferson Memorial. If I weren't president, they would have knocked down, if a guy like Biden was president, they will knock down the Jefferson Memorial. Not gonna happen. Francis Scott Key, the latest, creator -- writer of the national anthem. Yes, I mean he -- he wrote the national anthem. So since you have done a lot for the African-American community, what is your message to them who said that my ancestors were enslaved because of their -- My message is that we have a great country. We're the greatest country on earth. We have a heritage, we have a history, and we should learn from the history. And if you don't understand your history, you will go back to it again, you will go right back to it. You have to learn -- Think of it. You take away that whole era, and you're going to go back to it sometime. People won't know about it. They're going to forget about it. It's OK. Now what I do like, I like the idea of building new statues to people, to great people, people that have done something. And I think that's OK. Right. But you don't want to take away our heritage and our history and the beauty, in many cases, the beauty, the artistic beauty. Some of the sculptures and some of this work is -- some of the great -- you can go to France you can go anywhere in the world and you'll never see more magnificent work and that's a factor. It's not the biggest factor but it's a factor. [Break In Interview] John Bolton came out and said that's not -- that doesn't work with country-to-country. What's your reaction to that? Look, this is a guy with no personality. All he wanted to do is drop bombs on everybody. He got us, he was one of the many people that got us into the war in the Middle East which was a big mistake. I said to him, let me ask you, do you think -- recently, I said, "What do you think?" He said, "I think we made the right decision." I said, "You lost me there." It was the worst decision in the history of our country. I know you may disagree with that. Worst, well, now you might agree. At the time you would have, you know, felt differently. But also the Libyan model, you know what that means, right? Look it up. One of the dumbest things ever said, I think it was said on Deface the Nation, the Libyan model, he said the Libyan model, that would set us back, you have no idea. John Bolton was a stupid guy, and he was a guy with no heart. And he also had a statement that he would lie whenever he had to. He has that statement. It's a well-known statement. And I fired him. And I didn't think it was a big deal. And I didn't -- I wasn't around him very much. But what he did do is he took classified information, and he published it during a presidency. It's you know, it's one thing to write a book after, during. And I believe that he's a criminal. And I believe, frankly, he should go to jail for that. And that probably, possibly will happen. That's what should happen. Do you remember the young boy with the sailor, the sailor? In the submarine? Sure, took a picture in a submarine. He took a picture, sent it to his mother and I think a friend of a 30-year-old submarine. And in the backdrop had sensitive -- And they destroyed his life. And you know what I did? I pardoned him. Because Hillary Clinton should have gone to jail. And she destroyed, deleted 33,000 e-mails. John Bolton, what he did is incredible. He took classified -- that classified is higher than confidential. You have confidential, you have classified. The highest form of information, and he -- And by the way, it's so important, whether it's knowingly or unknowingly, but in his case, it was knowingly. He classified some of it. John Bolton should go to jail. [Break in Interview] Your office, give us an idea of what it's like being here knowing there's pictures of Kennedy, John -- JFK Jr... So this is the Resolute desk, which is very famous. Right. And I could show you the picture of John-John with the panel right here. It's a panel. It didn't use to have a panel but when FDR sat behind that desk, he wanted a panel. This is an original photo, right? You can see it. And it's right there. And that opens up and that's John Kennedy -- that's John-John, who was a friend of mine, and who was getting ready -- he was going to sell George Magazine. He was a good friend. He was a great guy. And he was going to run for political office he would have been very tough to beat. He had a lot of things going including, including the look. We're not supposed to be talking about look anymore and -- under the [Inaudible] generation, but he had the look. And do you remember the first time you were in the White House? So I was here a long time ago. It was more or less of a fundraiser for Ronald Reagan. I was very young. I've been doing this a long time, but I was very young. And to think here we are in the Oval Office, which I would say is the most powerful, most important office anywhere in the world. I have friends coming in, I have people coming in. I have the biggest business people and heads of countries, and they sit back and they say, this is the Oval Office. It's pretty amazing. And you're amazed by their reaction? I've had hardened business people come into this office and start to cry. I don't think they've cried even when they were babies. I have had people come into this office, study it, look around, could I look just for a second? And they start to cry. I -- I have never seen anything like it. And lastly, do you think you -- you ever think -- By the way, was he tested? Because he's about two feet away, I can't get away from him. I was tested an hour ago. Was he tested? Because they're going to -- you know what they're going to do, they're going to blame me. They're going to say, he didn't stay six feet away. And it's his fault. But no, I got tested 10 minutes ago. That's OK. Don't worry about it. All right. Lastly, you're part of history. Have you thought about that or did you feel -- I think about it all the time. I just want to do the best job that I can. And again, nobody has done so much -- I'll give you a list that one after another, after another, page after page, of what we've done. Gotcha. Now the question is, can I come anytime? Anytime you want. [Crosstalk] You're always invited. I have a feeling there's some people on the roof that wouldn't like that. [Edit in Interview] Mr. President, can't thank you enough for the time. Thank you very much. Great. A lot more to do. I have a lot to do. Get out of here, Brian. [Laughter] OK. Thank you very much. OK. Thank you.