I've got to interrupt you. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce the person I am proud to call a friend. He is the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Mr. President thank you so much. We are honored that you're called. Well, I've known you for a long time, Geraldo, and it's been a lot of good -- a lot of good times. Lot of good times and I appreciate the -- the friendship. Really. It's terrific. I know because I know what a gut-punch impeachment was for you but I'm not sure that, you know, heart to heart you've expressed that -- that feeling, you know, that -- that feeling of -- of assault, of insult, why don't you share that with us. What -- what was that like for you. Well, it's a terrible thing and you know I think of Nixon more than anybody else and what that dark period was in our country and the whole thing with the tapes and the horror show, it was dark and went on for a long time and I watched it. I watched Ronald Reagan, where they were very close with Iran-Contra, and that was very dark. He went through that for years and never really got over the spell. It was dark but not nothing like Nixon. I would always think what -- every time in the White House I passed this beautiful portrait of various presidents, right. But the portrait of -- of Richard Nixon, I sort of -- I don't know, it's a -- it's a little bit of a different feeling that I get from looking at the other portraits of presidents. And I got impeached for no reason whatsoever. Partisan, totally partisan based on a perfect phone call and a totally appropriate phone call that was even said by the other party to be perfect, the president of Ukraine. And it was a disgraceful act by Nancy Pelosi and these horrible people. And -- [Inaudible] as Nancy Pelosi she says that you are no matter -- that you are acquitted you are impeached for life. And she says it in a way that is almost gleeful almost sadistic in a way that you're impeached for life. Do you feel, Mr. President, that you are impeached for life? No. She is a person that started an impeachment and lost. So she goes down as a loser which she is. Nancy Pelosi was -- it was said sadistically. If you watch the way she said that with the hatred and the venom coming out of her ears, you just take a look at that, the hatred that was pouring from her when she said that. My wife was sitting there and watched it and she said, "Oh my, that was horrible." The way she said it was so bad. It's interesting that you picked it up. Some people did some people didn't. It wasn't just the words it was the -- the craziness. And then to have her sitting behind me at the State of the Union mumbling all night long, mumbling, you know, talking to me but under her breath. Not actually -- [Inaudible] Tearing up the copy of the state of the Union. Tearing it up and I think they lost very big. You know, our poll numbers are through the roof and everything else. But I will say that for my family, it was a very tough thing. Me, I'm so busy that, you know, I literally -- it just made my job so much busier. And yet we've accomplished more than any president in his first year or three years that we've ever had, Geraldo, I mean, you can go to anybody and nobody has done what I've done in three years. And I had this all cloud of bad people making up things. I mean, it's terrible and you know, to see -- Let me get to the bad people in a second but what about the First Lady of the United States, how -- how difficult was this for her, this whole saga that you've been through? Well, it was hard especially since they knew I did nothing wrong. I did absolutely nothing wrong. Everybody knew it. Romney knew it too, by the way. You know that was a disgrace and he knew it. He was going to vote with us. It was -- everyone is saying, "No, he's good, he's good." Then he went into a cage and he -- he went into a cage with, I guess, they -- they held it. He did an interview with your friend, Chris Wallace, and nobody know -- knew what the interview was about. But it was, you know, previous to the vote and you know he's a wise guy. He did a -- he did a handle. He did a Twitter handle with a phony name on it so he could criticize people without using his name, so he could say things great about himself. He'd tweet about how great he is. [Inaudible] about Mitt Romney. I'm talking about Mitt Romney. How crazy, you know, how crazy that was. And he got caught. But now that was a disgraceful -- You know, think it was his religion. You don't think that was a sincere -- No, I don't think that at all. They did -- reports said he didn't. They brought up his religion very seldom and all of a sudden he brought up his religion. When did you hear him bring up his religion? They did a report in one of the main papers that he very rarely brought up his religion. No, I don't think so. Look, I got fifty-two-and-a-half votes out of 53. I got fifty-two and a half. And I guess it was the religion, he should have voted for the other half. You know, he was -- he voted on one positively and the other negatively. Right. He should have probably [Inaudible] his religion. Should have voted on both of you, if you think about it. But no, I know he's just a bad guy. You know, he's a jealous angry person, [Inaudible] You think that was a reaction to your -- you're not giving him the secretary-of-state job? No, I think we just had our difficulties. You know, I thought he should have won against President Obama in the second term. I thought that should have been easy. I don't -- I'm not a McCain fan, never was. But I didn't think he could have possibly won that one because, you know, he was handed over, sort of a rough time in terms of many different things. And first African-American, I said that the whole thing was really stacked against McCain. And again, I'm not a fan, but I never said he should have won. But the second, the Obama -- He just stood up -- the Obama people that say that the economy booming today is because of Obama. Well, let me get this first. The Obama first term was a disaster. The Obama's second term was OK. Mitt Romney should have beaten Obama and he should have beaten him easily. And I would have beaten him more easily than I beat Hillary Clinton. As far as the Obama doing, he took over a -- something that was a mess but rather easily fixed. So you can get some pretty good numbers. It's the slowest recovery we've had since the Great Depression under Obama, and now the recovery is a monster. And I will tell you, a big part of our recovery, bigger even than the tax cuts were the regulation cuts, which they would never have done. They were going to put more regulations on. If Hillary Clinton had got elected instead of 30,000 -- we're almost up to 30,000, which is going to be a record -- On the dow. Yup. [Inaudible] On the dow 29,342 as of this moment. So we [Inaudible]. Nobody thought that would even be possible. And don't forget, they're trying to take credit for that big spread. If you look at the spread, when I won, the market went through the roof. Had I lost the market would have gone down tremendously. But when I won, the market, immediately, you remember that big day right after the victory. Well, you can't really give credit to them for that. That's -- that has to go to me. I say I should get credit from Election Day. But President Obama -- Are you worried that the boom -- Mr. President, are you worried that the stock market and the big economic boom are in peril because of this coronavirus spreading epidemic and you know China's closing for business, they're not buying cars from Europe right now. They're -- everything -- everybody's in a panic. You've got those four people stranded on that cruise ship in Japan. Are you worried about this virus affecting, I mean, obviously you're worried about the virus and people getting sick but what about the economy as you know is another victim of the -- Well, we're working on it very closely. I spoke to President Xi two days ago. They're working on it very professionally. It's a problem, we think and we hope, based on all signs that the problem goes away in April because -- which is not too far down the road, because he kills this virus. We think, now we're going to find out, Geraldo, but we think, and they are having difficulty in China but they're working very, very hard. We're working with them. We're sending a lot of people and CDC has been great but it is -- it's a problem in China. Has not been spreading very much. In our country, we only have, basically, 12 cases and most of those people are recovering and some cases fully recovered. So it's actually less. Did the Chinese tell the truth about this? Well, you never know. I think they want to put the best face on it. So you know, I mean, if somebody -- if you were running it, you'd probably -- you wouldn't want to run out to the world and go crazy and start saying whatever it is because you don't want to create a panic. But, no, I think they've handled it professionally and I think they're extremely capable and I think President Xi is extremely capable and I hope that it's going to be resolved. Again, the April date is very important. But you know this is a big thing. The April date is very, very important because if that's the case, if he does, in fact, kill that's when it starts getting hot and this virus reacts very poorly to heat and dies. So we'll see what happens. What about, you know, closer to home, you know, talking about behaving professionally, you threw out Colonel Vindman and his -- and his brother. You know, I've been in the West Wing and my -- my feeling, just the vibe that I got him, from what I hear, is the whole places -- You know it's a nest of vipers and snitches and backstabbers and rats. Why do you tolerate it, you know, you know -- How many -- Well, I inherited -- I inherited a place with, you know, many different administrations and they worked there for years and with civil service and with unions and all of it. You can't do what you'd like to do. In addition, you want to give people chances. You know the fact that they come from Obama or they're Never Trumpers from Bush or whoever it may be, you know, and then you go back and you -- you have people you have Clinton and you want to give people time. Now, but Vindman -- if you look at what his person said about him, Morrison, who I think there's a very good man. He said terrible things about Vindman. No, I didn't want him in. I watched his testimony. Don't forget he was the one that thought my goal was bad and he ran in and started saying, you know, terrible things about the call and then when I released the transcript that call was perfect and I say it again, it was perfect. It was totally appropriate. And it wasn't one call it was two calls. They were both perfect appropriate calls and nothing earthshaking there -- Why was so many people allowed to listen to your phone calls anyway? Well, that's what they've done over the years. When you call a foreign leader, people listen. I may end the practice entirely, I may have -- I may end it entirely. Sometimes you have 25 people. Now, you have a [Inaudible] You have Secretary of State versus Mike Pompeo, was on the call, he found the call to be perfect. He found the call to be absolutely fine with many people on the good. The only one, this guy ran and said he didn't liked the call. First of all, there's very insubordinate. Why wouldn't he go to his is immediate, you know, he went to Congress or he went to shift or he went to somebody. But Vindman was a guy that when we took him out of the building the building applauded. I don't know if you heard that. I didn't. That's the whole building that a lot -- many of the people in the building started applauding. No I'm not a fan of Vindman. I'm not a fan of what -- I've never -- I don't think I've ever met him, by the way, just so you understand, many of these people I've never met but I'm not a fan of Vindman, no question about it. You know, one person may -- And even if I just based it on what Jim Morrison said, I would not be a fan. We -- we both have known Roger Stone for decades. To me, I always thought it was kind of a pain in the ass, to tell you the truth. But I was very disappointed at his conviction and I was horrified at the proposed seven to nine-year sentence. I just heard from a guy who heads the PBA here in Cleveland. He -- he just had a guy shoot someone in the head. They got seven years. Roger Stone didn't heart -- hurt anybody, didn't steal a dime. He's looking at seven to nine-year sentence. It was it was terrible. It was really an overreach. But was it appropriate for you to get involved then? Are you worried that the independence of the Justice Department is threatened? These are Mueller people. The whole Mueller investigation was a shakedown and a disgrace. It probably should be expunged because, to be honest with you, the dossier now, everybody knows it was fake. Everything was based on the dossier, the dossier now is totally fake. They used the dossier knowing it was fake to get Pfizer warrants. That means they got Pfizer warrants illegally. That was where they did the whole situation with the Mueller report. Much of the Mueller Report and even these attorneys, I know at least a couple of them were Mueller people. What they did to Roger Stone was a disgrace, in terms of everything, right from the beginning. Twenty-nine FBI agents loaded up with the most powerful rifles and machine guns, they attack him early in the morning. His wife has a tremendous hearing problem, virtually no hearing. They barged into their bedroom. This is early in the morning. CNN following them. So they were obviously alerted. You know nobody has been able to figure that one out and they should be able to figure it out, it is really easy to figure it out if they wanted to. CNN was following them. CNN taped it all and how would you like to be Roger Stone. And yet, if you look at Podesta's brother, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, look at the brother -- Was it Tony Podesta? Right. But look at the brother. He -- he was Paul Manafort on steroids. He was the biggest one or one of the biggest in Washington. They found him doing many bad things, he was forced to leave his firm. He was going to be -- I don't -- it was going to be a very serious day the following day after he left his firm, you understand what I mean by that. Very bad day for him. Nothing ever happened to him. Nothing ever happened. And then you see that they put a guy like a Paul Manafort in solitary confinement. Al -- Al Capone -- It's disgusting. It's awful. Listen to this, Geraldo. Al Capone, you say he was about as tough as they come, right? Right. Al Capone was never placed in solitary confinement. El Chapo, I don't think was placed in solitary confinement. But Paul Manafort was put in solitary confinement by the judge -- Why don't you -- Why don't you pardon him and Roger Stone? Well, I don't want to talk about pardons right now but I think it's very unfair what happened to a lot of people, a lot of people. In the meantime, James Comey is walking around making book deals and if you read that report, 78 pages of scathing, scathing horrible words about him, done by a man who is, you know, in all fairness, a Democrat named Horowitz. [Inaudible] The inspector general of the Justice Department. Yeah. And a very bad recommendation for Comey and I don't know what's happening. Maybe they're using that report for something because I've stayed away. I have no obligation. In fact, I could totally be involved in this investigation and some people have told me I should but we'll see what happens. But Comey is walking around. You look at McCabe, who is a bad, bad guy. He's walking around making -- John Brennan, the former head of the C.I.A. They're called pundits. John Brennan's walking around. And frankly, Obama knew everything, OK. Obama knew everything. I mean, does anybody have any doubt about that? Obama knew everything. But how about -- So you're saying that President Obama -- Listen to this, Geraldo. How about Strzok? And how about the lovers, Strzok and Page? Two lovers and they're walking around. That was the most ill-fated affair in the history of the world. They did. That was the worst cover-up. I just have to -- Let me ask you about Robert Mueller. A lot of people thought that he was past his prime to be kind and some other things about him. But I never heard anyone call him a liar until you did a couple of days ago. What did he lie about? Well, he said it in Congress that he never applied for the job of the FBI director and now it's been proven that he did. He came into my office along with numerous other people including Chris Ray. They all came into my office over a two-day period. I think there were five people, maybe more. But around that number, and Robert Mueller wanted to go back to the FBI. He came in as director. He wanted to be the director again. And I told him, basically, you've had enough time, and then within a very short period of time, he was appointed special prosecutor. I don't call him special counsel because special counsel is not -- it's not an accurate term, it's a special prosecutor. Because what he and his 13 angry Democrats, all horrible, just horrible people. What they did to destroy the lives of people that you know -- but to destroy the lives of many, Geraldo, should never be forgiven, should never be forgotten and something has to be done about it. So he went in with this 13 angry Democrats and they went in for Barr. They went into destroyed people. They absolutely -- I agree. They had that destruction in mind. I guess the -- exclusively, the president of the United States, my friend, Donald J. Trump, Let me ask you, brought up Democrats, Bernie Sanders looks like he's -- very hard --hard to stop. You know, first of all, what do you think about the prospect of running against Senator Sanders? Well, I like it. I'd like him. I'd like - I like any of them. I mean, I think, would be good with anybody. I think, frankly, my first choice would be Mini Mike. I think it'd be easy because I've seen in debat -- With all the money he has, easy? Yeah. He's got money but, you know, they spent $2 billion on me, Hillary Clinton, and mostly negative ads and I won and I won really easily if you look at -- You know the Electoral College I won some states that were won by massive numbers. She spent $2 billion. I mean, they had a two-billion-dollar campaign. He won't have that much. And frankly, he's so deficient in so many ways that I think he'd be easier than Bernie. Bernie has a group. And I also think this, if a guy came in and bought the election if they bought the Democratic nomination, I really think that you'd have a revolution within the Democrat Party. You had a mini -- You had a mini revolution last night. But you would have a real because they took it away from them last time or at least it was perceived. She actually, you know, she got more votes than him and everything else so I view that differently. But a lot of people perceive that they took it away from him but this time they would be taking it away. If a guy came in to buy it and took it away from Bernie, I think you'd have a revolution within that party. You know you've got a situation with the former Vice President, Joe Biden, fading terribly and in the process in Iowa and in New Hampshire he's desperately going to South Carolina right now. Do you think that, ironically, the Democrats moving to impeach you and in effect impeached Joe Biden with all the Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden, you know, day after day? Did -- did that destroy the former vice president's reputation and his status in standing? Well, there's a quote that was put in the Wall Street Journal that she aimed at Trump and took down Biden and that's having to do with Nancy Pelosi. She -- she aimed at me, there's no question about it. And she always wanted to impeach. You know there's this theory that, oh she didn't want it. You know she's this great political pundit. She's just great political mind, she's not. She lost the House once before. I think she's got a good chance of losing that again and the party is not run by her, it's run by the left. And you see that even in the presidential, you see it with Bernie. Bernie's, you know, beyond socialist, in my opinion, but we'll have to talk about that at the right time. But no, I really think that -- And just to finish out on this subject, I have to say, I really believe that we are going to have a very interesting election. I think Biden is shot. He was shot from the beginning. I used to call him "One Percent Joe". Remember, one percent, because two times, but really it was three. But two times, when he really gave it his best. He was at less than one percent. Running for office. Yeah. And if you look, running for high office, he's for president. He was at rush. So I'd call him "One Percent Joe" and he's going to be back at One Percent Joe. You know it's amazing that it faded fast but you know he had the whole thing of the vice presidency for eight years and I thought, you know, in a certain way he was a good vice president because Obama got along with him. I think one of the biggest things that happened, one of the big telltale signs of trouble was when Obama wouldn't endorse him early on. And that was a strange -- to me it was strange. I understand sometimes they don't but to me it was strange. Was it strange this then Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine, your personal lawyer, you sorry you did that? Not at all. Rudy was a great crime fighter. You know that may be better than anybody. Of course, yeah. I interviewed him -- And Rudy is probably on his game. Rudy is on his game. Rudy was a great crime fighter. You covered him for many years and he was the greatest mayor in the history of the city of New York, far better than Bloomberg. Bloomberg took over what Rudy gave him. Rudy was a far better mayor than Bloomberg. Tough and good. You know what Bloomberg did with a -- with Stop and Frisk, Rudy used it and he used it sparingly and really brilliantly. And Bloomberg came in and he multiplied it times 10. If you were a black person walking down the street you were going to be stopped and frisked under Bloomberg. And that's why they had a revolution in New York because of what he did. Rudy did it very sparingly it was very, very, very sparingly and very smartly and it had an incredible impact on, you know, on guns and shootings in New York. Incredible. Rudy was a great mayor. Crime went way, way down. Then Bloomberg came in and he said, "Well, you know what, this thing is so good. I'm going to stop every black person." And if you were a black person in New York you would stop two times a day three times a day. You couldn't go to your house. They were stopping every day. What Bloomberg did to black -- to the black community was a disgrace. And then he gets up and he cries in a church and he discards everything that he stood for. And if he gets elected I would be surprised and I would be very surprised that when the word gets out to the black community, where I'm doing extremely well, by the way, beyond what any Republican has done, I guess, it's looking like. But I would be very surprised if the black community can support him. But what he did is he took Rudy horribly. They took Rudy's Stop and Frisk, which was done very gingerly very smartly very, you know, really a very smart job. And he made it so vicious and so violent and they would stop it. And honestly, if you were a black person you'd be stopped two, three times a day. I hear that and I wonder, it sounds like you know you made a big point at the State of the Union and I've watched you and Dr. Darrell Scott, Pastor Scott, I hear -- Great guy. Great Guy. Yup Big supporter of yours. It sounds, really, as if you are reaching out to the African-American community. I joked on Hannity's show that you're almost campaigning like a Democrat in terms of the minority community. You really, you -- Do you see an opening there? Do you -- do you foresee a real change in the racial dynamic of American politics? Well I think I do and I think, you know, I have -- I have polls that show 32%, 34%. Romney got 4%, and I have polls that are showing numbers that are unheard of. And why? Lowest unemployment in the history of our country for Black-Americans, for African-Americans, lowest in history by far, not even close, by the way. I took care of -- What they have is they have black colleges and universities, right. And they're always coming up looking for money. Always every year, for three years. I said why do they always come. It's very demeaning to them. And I got to know a lot of the principals of these schools. They're great people. The deans and the heads of the schools. I say, "Why do you always come up?" He said, "Well, they told me we have to because we have no bill, we have to come up." And one man said, "I feel like a beggar." And for years they come up and I worked it out. So they have now long-term financing. Nobody else would have done that. And then opportunity zones. I worked with Tim Scott of South Carolina, who's fantastic, by the way. And we did opportunities zones, and then we did criminal justice reform. They couldn't get it. Van Jones came to my office asking me for help. He had no chance of getting it. He came in asking, "Oh, I didn't give me the credit that he should have but that's OK, I never get credit." But what happened. He came in. He needed five senators, they happen to be Republican. He needed some senators to locate a little bit because they were very much against it. I was able to work it out. I got senators and I got some guys that were not in favor to let it happen. The great guys and I very much appreciate what they did. We have great support of the Republican Party, it's doing great. And there's really tremendous unity other than Romney there's tremendous unity. And so you look and you see, and it's really amazing. And I got criminal justice reform. So for -- and not only for African-Americans for Hispanics for so many people that was so badly -- like Alice Johnson. Geraldo, she was in jail for 22 years, she had another 20 years left for something that, today, I mean, would have been -- it would have -- in many cases, they wouldn't have even prosecuted her. Right. It could've been a misdemeanor. Right. She was in jail for 50 years, she was going to be in jail. And I let her out and she's an incredible woman. And I said to her the other day I said, "How many people are like you in jail that you know?" You know when you're -- where you were, because she was there for a long time. She said many. I said, "Are they all like that?" She said no, you have some very bad people too, but you have many people that are really great people that should be let out. I said give me a list. Give me a list. I think that you -- What you did there is very honorable and necessary, and I totally applaud it. I've got a million questions, they're just going to -- I got to circle back to Rudy Giuliani. Why don't you give him a title? Why don't you make him like your presidential envoy to -- Well, two things about -- Two things about Rudy. You have to understand where I'm coming from. I was illegally spied on by Comey and Brennan and all these sleaze, the sleaze of the world. And you know when people talk about Clapper -- when people talk about, you know, the intelligence agencies well. I was not given a very good first glance at it. I had Comey, I had Clapper then we saw Lisa Page, and we saw Strzok, and we saw all of these people. And, by the way, how about the people that fix the -- the documents? How about the person that forged and changed the documents before putting them into the Pfizer [Inaudible] Should be in jail. Should be in jail. Where is he? Why isn't he in jail? It's a lot like a one-sided thing. No, no. Oh, to me that's 10 times worse than what [Inaudible] did. And by the way, you know Randi the -- the post, he's a radio guy and he's good too. He was -- he was the one that they said Roger Stone intimidated. When he heard that Roger was going to prison, he said, "What are you talking about? I didn't know you're sending him to pri --" He didn't know what the hell they were doing. It's ridiculous. And he said, "I don't want him to go to prison." And supposedly, they told him we don't care, we're doing it anyway. This is the kind of treatment that was given. What happen -- I'm really happy four high-level prosecutors quitting the case. Why they even have four high-level prosecutors on that stupid case? I don't think they quit the case. I think what they do is they felt they got caught, you want to know the truth. Yeah. I don't think they quit for moral reasons. I think they got caught in the act by me. Now, what am I going to do sit back and let a man go to jail maybe for nine years when murderers aren't going to jail. Look, you have some of the most serious horrible rapists and everything else. They don't go to jail for nine years. You look at -- you look at schedules. You take a look. Some of them go to jail for nothing, for no -- for no time. And then this guy is going to go to jail for nine years? Well, you know they're doing that to get to you. They're doing it because they're bad people. To hurt you. They're doing it. So when you tell me about Rudy. So here's what -- Here's my choice. I deal with the commies of the world and/or I deal with it. In other words, I was given a very bad taste of our intelligent department -- departments because I see it. They spied on my campaign illegally. Hopefully, they're not going to get away with, we're going to find out. Hopefully, they're not going to getaway. It should never happen to another president but they spied on my campaign. Everybody knew it, including President Obama. That they spied on the opposite parties campaign, the party that was in power and they used everything they could, their intelligence agencies and beyond. So when you tell me, "Why did I use Rudy?", and one other thing about Rudy, Number one, he was the best. Best prose -- You know, one of the one of -- the very best prosecutors and the best mayor. But also, other presidents had him. You know FDR had a lawyer, who was practically, you know, was totally involved with government. Eisenhower had a lawyer. They all had lawyers. Bill Clinton had a lawyer. You know he had a very good lawyer, you know that was. They all had lawyers and they do things for him. And it's really circumventing but very legally and maybe getting things done faster. But Rudy is a high-quality guy, who by the way has a treasure trove of information and he's working with the Justice Department from what I understand. All right. Let me -- let me leave the Rudy situation will be resolved. Just quickly on the Attorney General Barr. Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you picked William Barr instead of Jeff Sessions? When you -- Yeah. My life would have been a lot easier. A lot of the country loved this. Yep. My life would have been a lot easier but I might have been less popular. You know it's a funny thing. Somebody told me the other day. Why would you be less popular? Because they say they liked that I fought it. They liked that I won. They like that my base is much more energized. Let's assume none of this stuff happened and we had a nice boring presidency, right. I don't think I'd have nearly the energy the Republican Party that we have right now. That -- That may be so but what a ride. What a crazy ride you are on. Quickly, is there -- My life would have been a lot easier. Bill Barr's a very good man, doing a very good job but my life would have been much easier. There's no question about it. Much easier. Is there a tentative peace plan with the Taliban as the New York Times is reporting? We are working on one and we'll see if we can get one. We'd like to bring our troops back home. They're really -- they're law enforcement as opposed to soldiers to a large extent. And we shouldn't be there. It's time to come home. We're having a very good dialogue, we'll see and we'll know over the next week or two. You know they just think they can outwait you. The longest war in history, the Taliban. They think that we'll give that give yes a week of relative calm and then we'll start withdrawing. But they'd like to make a deal too. You know what they'd like to make a deal too. Look. No matter how -- and they're good fighters, and we're good -- We're the greatest fighters in the world. We could win that war if I wanted to kill millions of people. I could win that war quickly if I wanted to kill millions of people. I don't choose to do that. I'm not going to kill millions of innocent people to say, "Hey, we won in Afghanistan." It's a -- 19 years they've been in there but we can't use our real weapons, our power. We have tremendously powerful weapons and I'm not even -- I'm not talking -- Is there a tentative deal? I'm not even talking about nuclear. I'm talking about -- We have tremendous power. No, I hear you. I hear you. I did a lot of assignments there. I don't want to start killing. Is there a tentative deal? I just did a - Yes or no on that? Is there a tentative deal? Is there a tentative deal? Very close. I think we're very close. I think there's a good chance that we'll have a deal and we'll see. I mean we're going to know over the next two weeks that doesn't mean we have one, but we'll know over the next two weeks. Let's put it this way, nobody else has been able to get one and this is -- And there's also a chance that we'll get one between Israel and the Palestinians. The toughest deal of all time, right. They always say that that's the toughest deal of all time. You're -- You've been such a loyal friend to me. I appreciate you so much. I just want you to know that even when I disagree with you I -- I appreciate your sincerity and I think you're doing a great job and the economy shows. But two quick follow -- last questions. Thank you very much. With the Pensacola Florida attack by the Saudi Air Force pilot revealed to be, you know, a terrorist attack. So you got the Saudi involvement there. You got Khashoggi, the the journalist that they carved up in their embassy. You got the 9/11 hijacked the Saudi, Saudi, Saudi. You know, I know that you think Iran is the evil-doer in the Mideast. But is it possible that we have the wrong bad guy, that it's not Iran, that Saudi Arabia is really the one that's -- that's sticking it to us? Well, you know there are Saudis were involved in the World Trade Center more than anybody else. You know when President Bush attacked Iraq, there were no Iraqis involved, there were Saudis and they went to Afghanistan to be trained. OK. So you know, I know -- I know what we have. And frankly, this guy was caught and I'm -- I'm not -- You know, I -- I like the idea of opening up cell phones and finding out who and some very good people in New York like that idea too, I will tell you. and some very good people like that idea and I'm for it and I'm working on that, you know, encryption or whatever you would call it. But when you open up the phone because we should open and we, probably, will open up his phone because we'll find out how many other people involved if anybody how many other people were involved in that horrible attack. Do you think you've addressed Bin Salman, the crowned prince? These people legit or do you think they're playing this, you know, they're funding all these madrassas, these religious extremists and so fort? Yep. I know exactly what you say. I have a very good relationship with them. They buy billions and billions and billions of dollars of product from us. They buy tens of billions of dollars of military equipment, which we use, which we actually use. They are paying us now and like past presidents, you know, I have a different theory but they have nothing but money, nothing but cash and they pay us now for services and protection, and other things. Like for instance, when they were attacked by Iran, they needed help and we sent but they're paying, they're paying billions of dollars for that help. Nobody ever -- You never heard those words. They're not -- they're not bad people. Double dealers, though. No, but you have -- you have an ideology and you have some bad ones, you have some bad ones all over. Don't forget in Iran they kill many, many people. You know the protests, they kill people, they shoot people with snipers. What did you talk to them? Why did you talk to Iran? Because, in my opinion, John Kerry has made it very tough because -- and I think he's totally violated the Logan Act. John Kerry has made it very tough because he's telling them or he has told them, I think, now he knows that we're looking at the Logan Act with respect to him. He's told them don't make a deal, don't make a deal. Maybe Trump will lose and you'll make a deal with a stiff. You'll make a deal with a Biden or somebody because it -- Just don't make a deal because -- Just wait, wait, because it makes him look bad if they make a deal, that's most of it, in my opinion. But he's -- in my opinion he's violated the Logan Act, and violated it seriously. And we'll see what happens on that. So you don't think that you could even the backchannel to Iran? Oh, I have plenty of back channels. Look. They are desperate to make a deal. Their economy is crashed. They're not funding terrorism like they were. When I took over they were -- they were a terror. They were -- there were 18 sites of confliction. Now they just want to survive. Their economy went down 25% last year. Their GDP is down so much. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. They should talk. They don't know how to go about it. We're going to find out. But I think they want to try and wait it out till after the election hoping that some stiff gets elected and they can have their way. I don't think that's going to happen. I got my final question. You and I were together in Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Maria, you were criticized. Every newspaper, front page, you are responsible for thousands of deaths in Puerto Rico. Yeah. And now you have a parade of local officials, either resigning or going to jail for corruption. Yep. I was right. They discovered warehouses that were unused. I want to apologize on behalf of, you know, any extended that my folks, you know, helped to slander you. It wasn't your fault but the island still needs help. I know. Can you take a second look at over the -- I am. I love the people of Puerto Rico. You know that. What they did to me over there when I -- Remember I was passing out towels -- It was terrible. I was with you. And everyone started screaming. Absolutely. No, no. And we were having fun. All of us. And they were all screaming in the back, "Throw us here." Throw -- You know, the -- the crowd was tremendous, right. The room was packed. You were there, you were laughing. We were all laughing. Of course. So I was throwing them towels in the back. You know like taking basketball shots, soft towels, you know, big things of towels were thrown back. And they said, "Oh, it was terrible the way he was -- " The people were loving it. They're having a good time and frankly, they just got wiped out. Their homes. Everybody's laughing and we're all having a good time. There was love in that room and when I got home I saw like I was throwing like I was demeaning them by throwing towels. They're all saying, " Over here, Mr. President. Over here. Over here." You were there. Everybody was having a good time and they needed a good time. Their houses were wiped out. They were in terrible turmoil and stress. So you know. No, I love the people of Puerto Rico and we are working. But I also said the corruption at the top level, I told you that while we were there, is -- is enormous. I'll tell you what, the best friend that Puerto Rico's ever had, Geraldo, is me. They'd gotten $93 billion over a fairly short period of time. There's not a state in the union that's gotten that much money, not even close. Why shouldn't you make a mistake? What do you advocate for Puerto Rico becoming a state? Well, some people want that and I guess they're talking about that. I want to get -- I want to get things fixed first. But Puerto Rico is -- has been very, very poorly run by Democrats. Very, very poorly run. Two quick final questions. Will -- Would Americans vote for a gay man to be president? I think so. I think there would be some that wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't be among that group, to be honest with you. But I think that, yes, I think that it doesn't seem to be hurting Pete Buttigieg, as you say, as you would call him. It doesn't seem to be hurting him very much. And -- But there would certainly be a group. You know this better than I do. There'd be a group that probably wouldn't. But you know you're -- you and I would not be in that group. We would not. Now I would I just want to circle back to where I started the First Lady of the United States. I know, with conversations that we've had, how hurt you are that the American pop-cultural establishment has not embraced her. She's not on the cover of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, as she should be, Bizarre Town and Country. What do you -- What do you think about you know the fact that they are boycotting the First Lady the United States, and one those beautiful ever, most stylish ever, and yet a she's so almost disrespected by the fact that they ignore her? So when I met her, considered to be one of the most beautiful models in the world by everybody. One of the most beautiful, one of the most elegant and the thing I liked about her, she'd always go home at night everyone else was out partying all night. And some people said, "Oh, that's not nice." I'd say, "No, I think that's great." She'd like to go home at night. You know she was a very solid person and she was very successful, and really, I mean, really, successful but very successful and she got a great heart. And yeah, I see that she -- she was on covers before she became First Lady, and now it's like one of those things. It doesn't bother her. She's very, very solid. She's an amazing -- She's very confident in herself. Somebody that wasn't would say, "What's going on here?" And I'll tell you what, our people know it. I got -- I go to a rally in Ohio, I go to a rally in Pennsylvania, I went to one the other -- What did too. I mean, the one in Iowa was unbelievable, the one in New Hampshire was unbelievable, you see what's going on. Tens of thousands of people can't get in. They have so many signs honoring our First lady, "We love our First Lady. We love our First Lady." The people love Melania. They love her. Absolutely love her. But the press is crooked. You know it's very unfair, it's fake. It's fake news and they've -- they've really gone down into hearts and minds of people. But the people love our First Lady and she works very hard. Well, I send her my best wishes and to you and to the rest of the -- Oh, is Don Jr. going to run for president, 45th -- 46th president? I don't think so. I think he's just really working hard now. He -- he does like politics, I will say that. He does. He and Kimberly are, you know, rocking around the country. And Eric likes politics and, you know, Ivanka is like so natural at it. I don't even know if she likes it or not. She just did, you know, what she does. She's gotten 15 million jobs. Training that's what she does. She goes to the big companies, gets them to train people. Wal-Mart, a million people, different companies, millions of people but she just stopped. She was -- she had a goal of 500,000 jobs when she started at the beginning and she -- she beat that in about two months. And now it's 15 million jobs that -- She does a great job. She's another one. She doesn't get credit for what she does and she doesn't want it. She just wants to make people happy. She's -- she's an elegant and highly competent person and I'm delighted to know her and Jared. She already is. The peace plan. You know, I remembered [Inaudible] But the peace plan, you know, I admire the fact that you put something together. But I -- you know, I did a lot of time over there and I don't think the Palestinians are ever going to go for a deal in which they have to surrender the Jordan Valley and so much of their territory. Well, most people agree that the deal won't happen. Most people agree with you and you know, when I'm doing this I'm giving it a shot because I'm good at it. I do it well. I have very capable people. David Friedman is unbelievably one of the most successful lawyers in New York by far and he's the ambassador to Israel. And Jared, you know how smart Jared is. And you know there's a group of people that we're giving it a good strong shot. There are those that say it can't happen, in other words, just it can't happen. Historically, the mindset of -- of them plus the Jewish people, it's just never going to happen. You know it's interesting, whenever you have a deal when I was in the private sector, I'd have a deal that was really a tough deal, you'd use an expression. This is tougher than Israel and the Palestinians getting together because that was known as like, the impossible deal. So I'm here. That's what I've done really great over my life. I'll give it a shot. You know, let's see what happens. If you look the other day, they withdrew from the -- a committee in the United Nations. The Palestinians withdrew something and said very good statements about me, not necessarily the deal but about me. That was a big -- that was a that was very telltale. And I think Israel -- I know Israel would like to do a deal, and I think the Palestinians are going to want to do a deal. I like the idea of an American embassy a full-blown embassy with an ambassador in East Jerusalem or somewhere else in the Palestinian territories. I think that'll be a good sign. Well, something's going to happen. So I think we have a real shot at doing and not -- I'm not going to guarantee this one. Some -- some deals I can guarantee, this one I can't. But you know, we have a good shot at doing something, we'll see, we'll know in the not too distant future. We were delayed by the election. You know, the never-ending election. The neve-rending election in -- in Israel that the third time's the charm. Finally, if I don't ask you about climate change, my kids will be really mad at me. Why not you have a czar or appoint someone to check out the carbon emissions and you know, see what's true and what's not true/ Well, we could but we really have great people. And you know, I always say it, we want the cleanest air, the cleanest water. You know we have our cleanest numbers in many years this year, just got released, the cleanest numbers on carbon, on water, cleanliness on air, purity on air, cleanness. I want to cleanest air. I want crystal-clean water, and we actually are very much into it. What I don't want to do is give trillions of dollars away on Paris accords that go to other countries, that we don't even know where it's going. I don't want to do that. And that hurt our businesses, where we have to close our businesses because of it. But we're going to have the cleanest air. We now have -- We now have the best, like, we're the best we have ever been right now at this moment. And the environment means a lot to me. We're the best we've ever been, right now. And finally, you know we started here -- Yeah, how many times, Geraldo, this is you. I have to [Inaudible] It's very subject -- And I'm doing this because you [Inaudible] Are you OK? I love you. Are you OK? Are you OK after this thing? Yeah, and you just said, "And finally, and finally, and finally, --" You're going to shake off -- You're going to shake off this impeachment nonsense. You're going to move on. I think it's a victory. I think it's a total victory. All right. And I think you do too. Geraldo, I think you do too. It's a total victory for us. I absolutely believe that, and I appreciate your friendship, by the way. I really do, bud. Well, I appreciate yours. You take care of yourself, Geraldo. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.