Transcript - Interview: Brian Mastre of WOWT 6 News Omaha Interviews Donald Trump - October 9, 2018 | Factba.se

Brian Maste

00:00:00 - 00:00:04 (4 sec)

OK, let's talk about the big announcement tonight. I know a little bit about it, ethanol --

Donald Trump

00:00:04 - 00:00:05 (1 sec)

Brian Maste

00:00:05 - 00:00:11 (7 sec)

-- kind of boosting that for Nebraska and Iowa farmers. That's a great deal. I know the oil industry isn't thrilled about it. How do you balance those two interests?

Donald Trump

00:00:11 - 00:00:29 (17 sec)

Well, you know, the ethanol people have been so great to me, and I've studied it so long, and it's really -- it's very important for our country. It's very important for our farmers. I promised it when I was in both the Nebraska and Iowa and frankly, other places, and we're taking care of our farmers, especially with that.

Donald Trump

00:00:29 - 00:00:51 (22 sec)

But if you look at what we've done with the USMCA which is basically the redone NAFTA, but I refuse to use the word NAFTA because it's so bad -- it was so bad for our country. But the USMC, which is Canada-Mexico, has been incredibly well-received by the farmers -- and everybody else -- but by the farmers, and we were happy about that.

Brian Maste

00:00:51 - 00:00:54 (3 sec)

The job growth you talked about with that trade agreements --

Donald Trump

00:00:54 - 00:00:54 (0 sec)

Brian Maste

00:00:54 - 00:00:58 (4 sec)

How do see it particularly impacting those of us in Council Bluffs and Omaha?

Donald Trump

00:00:58 - 00:01:15 (17 sec)

Well, it's so great. I mean people, are coming in. People want jobs, you need jobs. We're letting people come in on a merit basis to help the farmers. We have to do that. We're using the merit system as opposed to anybody can come into our country. We're very strong on the borders. But the farmers need help, and they have to be able to get help.

Donald Trump

00:01:15 - 00:01:19 (4 sec)

So we're having the merit system and it's really working out great.

Brian Maste

00:01:19 - 00:01:28 (9 sec)

So the last couple of months of a pretty contentious confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh. How do you to mend those fences? Do you see that as your role as a healer?

Donald Trump

00:01:28 - 00:01:53 (25 sec)

I think he's going to be a great justice of the Supreme Court. Brilliant man. First in his class at Yale, first in his class at Yale Law School. No matter where he wa,s he was, you know, a top intellect, top student. And he's somebody that everybody respect. You know 10 years ago, Brian, I was asked by a couple of people like, who do I think, and I said I don't know, who do you think?

Donald Trump

00:01:53 - 00:02:19 (26 sec)

And they were always talking about now Justice Kavanaugh, right? Brett Kavanaugh. They'd say he's incredible. That was ten years ago. So, the Democrats were vicious, what they were saying. I've never seen anything like it. I don't think anybody's ever seen anything like it. But he won, he got confirmed, and he's now sitting on the United States Supreme Court, where he should be. And I think basically he will just go down as one of our great justices.

Donald Trump

00:02:19 - 00:02:41 (22 sec)

And what will happen is, people are already, I think, used to it. It's going to happen very quickly, and our country's coming together, because we really have -- you look at our economy, it's is the best it's ever been, from the standpoint of the deals we made with Canada and Mexico and South Korea. We don't even talk about that, but we also had a great deal for farmers, for everybody, with South Korea.

Donald Trump

00:02:41 - 00:02:58 (16 sec)

We terminated the other one, made this deal, which is far better. We're opening up these countries that were never opened before. And we're working on China. The farmers have been incredible on China, because they said, let him do it. Can't do it too quickly, but I will tell you China wants to make a deal.

Donald Trump

00:02:58 - 00:03:16 (18 sec)

And we'll see. I told them they're not ready yet, they're not ready yet. They've been taking tremendous -- tens of billions of dollars out of our country on a yearly basis. Last year $375 billion. And we just can't have that. So that's going to work out great for the farmers, and everybody else also.

Brian Maste

00:03:16 - 00:03:24 (8 sec)

So two years ago, you won on the backs of rural voters. What -- how do you sum up the appeal of President Trump to rural voters?

Donald Trump

00:03:24 - 00:03:41 (17 sec)

Well, I think what -- and it's a very interesting thing. I think -- what happened is they they heard what I said about trade, maybe more than anything else. Look, the farmers for 15 years, it's been trending down, down, down. You take a look at soybeans, if you go back five years from when I won from the election.

Donald Trump

00:03:41 - 00:04:08 (27 sec)

They cut in half. They were literally cut it in half, meaning they went down in half. Now, what's happening is they're starting to go up, and we're getting tariffs. Now eventually, the tariffs can come off and your prices are going to be way up. I mean, the prices for soy, the prices for all of it will be way up. And I think the farmers saw that, they have confidence in me. If you look back just two weeks ago, everybody said, oh, he'll never be able to make a deal with Canada.

Donald Trump

00:04:08 - 00:04:30 (22 sec)

We made a great deal with Canada, made a great deal with Mexico, and a lot of people were saying, you know, that was almost going to be impossible to do, because our deal was terrible. The deal we had previous was terrible. So the farmers saw it. I love the farmers. They're just such special people. They are -- they really have gone through a lot, and we're opening up markets for them, and will open up, ultimately, China will be opened up to them too.

Donald Trump

00:04:30 - 00:04:44 (15 sec)

That's your biggest of all. But right now, it's a closed shop. It's essentially a closed market, and it's unfair. The way they treat the United States farmers. But the way they treat our country, it was unfair and it's all being worked out today.

Brian Maste

00:04:44 - 00:04:46 (2 sec)

Today, the big news of the day, Nikki Haley --

Donald Trump

00:04:46 - 00:04:47 (1 sec)

Brian Maste

00:04:47 - 00:04:49 (2 sec)

Moving on. Were you surprised [Crosstalk]?

Donald Trump

00:04:49 - 00:05:17 (28 sec)

No, no. I knew this -- we knew this for about six months. We had a little news conference, Nikki and I today. She's going to work on the 2020 campaign. She's been governor for six years of South Carolina. She's been doing this for almost two years at the United Nations, and we made a little compact that after the big United Nations meeting last week, that Nikki -- she wanted to step down at the end of the year, and she was terrific.

Donald Trump

00:05:17 - 00:05:36 (19 sec)

She did a really terrific job. And we're going to be picking -- I'm going to use Nikki also to help me with it -- but I have great people that want to go in. We have a great Cabinet. We have a great group of people, a great staff, great trade negotiators. But we'll be making that decision, I would say over the next two or three weeks.

Brian Maste

00:05:36 - 00:05:38 (2 sec)

Gotta be jazzed about the midterms, aren't you now?

Donald Trump

00:05:38 - 00:05:57 (19 sec)

Oh yeah we are. The numbers are, I think, to a certain extent, because of Judge Kavanaugh. I think really, to a to extent, because of that, because people really like him. They saw how unfair the Democrats were. They were brutal. I mean they were -- it was terrible, what they did, if you, you know, you watch that process.

Donald Trump

00:05:57 - 00:06:13 (16 sec)

I think that's an extent. And I think the fact that I've been going around, we're having these tremendous rallies. You look outside, there's thousands of people outside trying to get in. And this is a big arena I don't know how many seats at all. But it's packed. But they're all packed, and I think it probably helps also.

Donald Trump

00:06:13 - 00:06:34 (21 sec)

But when they see the -- what happened and what's happening with the Supreme Court. They want to have great, conservative, strong justices of the United States Supreme Court. The court is very important to the voters, and I think they see that. And as you know, almost in every instance, the polls have gone way up over the last few weeks for Republicans.

Brian Maste

00:06:34 - 00:06:36 (1 sec)

Mr. President, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Donald Trump

00:06:36 - 00:06:37 (2 sec)

Thank you for your time. Thank you Brian.