Transcript - Interview: Sean Hannity Interviews Donald Trump Live Via Telephone - April 7, 2020 | Factba.se

Sean Hannity

00:00:00 - 00:00:11 (11 sec)

All right. Joining us now live on the phone is, from the White House, President Donald Trump. Mr. President, I know you've been busy. I'm sure you never predicted this as part of any presidency. Thank you for spending time with us.

Donald Trump

00:00:11 - 00:00:13 (2 sec)

Thank you very much, Sean.

Sean Hannity

00:00:13 - 00:00:45 (32 sec)

Let me stay on this issue of hydroxychloroquine. And, you know, I'm going to quote this board-certified rheumatologist for Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Wallace, who I think, obviously, he's been prescribing this now, as he pointed out, 42 years in practice. He's been the head, as one of the largest lupus practices in the U.S., currently caring for 2,000 people, most taking HCQ; 400 peer-reviewed papers; chairman of the Lupus Foundation of America, the Rheumatoid Research Foundation of America College and -- and so many other credentials.

Sean Hannity

00:00:45 - 00:01:07 (22 sec)

And he said, In 42 years, no patient of mine has ever been hospitalized for HCQ. And he said the risk of taking it in the doses they're talking about -- in terms of a risk, he said it is nil -- absolutely nil, and you have been getting hammered for saying: what have you got to lose? Even the AMA is saying, well, your life.

Sean Hannity

00:01:07 - 00:01:13 (5 sec)

I don't know. He seems pretty credible to me, sir.

Donald Trump

00:01:13 - 00:01:39 (26 sec)

Well, it's been taken for malaria for many years and -- very effective. It's a powerful medicine; it's a powerful drug. But it's a drug that -- for malaria, for lupus, for those two things in particular. I guess some people say arthritis, too. But it's been taken for years and people are OK with it. It seems to be, with the azithromycin -- that really seems to be the combination that's great.

Donald Trump

00:01:39 - 00:02:02 (23 sec)

But that could cause a little problem -- people don't know, but it might cause a problem with the heart, in which case you don't take the azithromycin. That's for infection. But the combination -- and some people add zinc. But the combination has been pretty amazing. You saw the woman state representative, a Democrat -- state representative from Michigan, Detroit.

Donald Trump

00:02:02 - 00:02:21 (19 sec)

And she thought she was going to die, and she saw what we were talking about and she asked her husband to get it. And she would have never known about it. And he got it and she got better. She thought she had no chance, and she got better. She -- she's been very nice about it, actually. She -- I think she may be -- might be a Democrat, but she'll vote for me, maybe.

Donald Trump

00:02:21 - 00:02:36 (15 sec)

But she was very nice about it. So, you know, things are happening. It's a -- it's -- I haven't seen bad. I've not seen bad. And one thing that we do see is that people are not going to die from it. So if somebody is in trouble, you take it, I think.

Sean Hannity

00:02:36 - 00:02:38 (2 sec)

And it's being used world --

Donald Trump

00:02:38 - 00:02:38 (0 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:02:38 - 00:03:12 (34 sec)

And it's being used worldwide. Let me -- I'm going to scroll a timeline of the White House, federal government, what they have done, just -- this is just information for our audience at home. And I want to go back to 10 days after the first known coronavirus case. It was -- it was given a name on January 7th. The first known case in the U.S. was January 21. Your travel ban, which Joe Biden called xenophobic, hysterical and -- and fear-mongering, was 10 days after the first known case in America.

Sean Hannity

00:03:12 - 00:03:26 (14 sec)

What drew your attention immediately towards that, when I don't think many people like the idea at the time? Tell us -- tell us why you moved that quickly. Because that really has not been done before.

Donald Trump

00:03:26 - 00:03:48 (22 sec)

Well, all you had to do was really look at what was happening in China. You took a look at what was happening in Wuhan province, and it was terrible. It was -- you know, I don't know if they were shielding it or not, but they didn't do much in terms of shielding it, because you saw the -- the death. There was a lot of death, and people coming into our country from China.

Donald Trump

00:03:48 - 00:04:08 (20 sec)

And I was -- I was excoriated by the fake news and by the press, by these people that are bad people. They're just bad people. They don't -- they cannot love our country, I can tell you. They just excoriated. And they weren't doing it for any reason other than it was me. If it was somebody else that did it, I think you probably would have had a much different reaction.

Donald Trump

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

But I closed it and a lot of people didn't think -- a lot of very good people didn't think I should have closed it. A lot of people in the administration felt I shouldn't close it -- many people, most people. And it was a very early move and it turned out to save a lot of lives, fortunately. And then I closed also to Europe and then I closed to U.K., where Boris is hopefully recuperating.

Donald Trump

00:04:30 - 00:04:35 (5 sec)

He's got a big problem, but hopefully he's -- he's going to get better.

Sean Hannity

00:04:35 - 00:04:59 (24 sec)

Well, yes, and by the way, for anybody that has this, we have prayers. Let me ask you, on a personal level, I saw -- I mean, I have known you for, you know, 25 years, and I remember the question about how what are you telling Barron, your youngest son, and you said, "It's bad." Tell us how you feel about it now, many -- any subsequent conversations with him or the rest of your family?

Sean Hannity

00:04:59 - 00:05:01 (2 sec)

You've been tested twice.

Donald Trump

00:05:01 - 00:05:25 (25 sec)

I have. Once you get it -- I mean, if you're in the wrong group; if you're -- if you have a medical condition; if you're older -- it seems that older is certainly prime time for this -- this plague, this horrible virus. But if you're in a certain condition, which is not necessarily a good condition, it's vicious, what it does.

Donald Trump

00:05:25 - 00:05:27 (1 sec)

It rips your lungs apart.

Sean Hannity

00:05:27 - 00:05:27 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:05:27 - 00:05:43 (15 sec)

It's a very, very -- it's a very tough thing to have, very tough thing. You see that. I mean, you look at what's going on with the hospitals in New York and New Jersey. I was -- I was watching a little while ago, and it's -- it's terrible, a terrible thing.

Sean Hannity

00:05:43 - 00:06:12 (29 sec)

The cure can't be worse than the problem. Now, at some point, the -- we're going to get to May 1st, reopening the country. I would imagine it might be a combination of opening it up geographically. Would you consider antibody testing, temperature taking, for example like a small geographic area like New York City, with a high population of people, obviously a greater risk?

Sean Hannity

00:06:12 - 00:06:34 (22 sec)

You know, doctors are telling me it's not a matter if it will rebound, but when it will rebound. So you don't want to get back to a situation where you are closing down the country again and the economy. So what are you thinking about the best ways, especially in, like, a city of New York? How do you open it up but not have a massive rebound?

Donald Trump

00:06:34 - 00:06:55 (21 sec)

Well, we're starting to look at it very, very thoroughly. And we have some great people looking at it, because we want to get this country open. We have to get our country open again. This wasn't designed to have this. You crack it -- you crack it in half. It's no good. And we'll be opened again much sooner rather than later.

Donald Trump

00:06:55 - 00:07:26 (31 sec)

And we are going to be coming up with some ideas in the very near future, probably putting them out to the public, putting them out. But, you know, we're going until April -- we're going through April, as you know, April 30th. And we are going to make a decision from there. But if you look at some of these slopes, if you would call them that, or -- or topping areas, where it's topping out, it could be very well topping, or getting close to topping, in New York and some of the rough areas, New Jersey -- the governor of New Jersey has done a terrific job.

Donald Trump

00:07:26 - 00:07:46 (20 sec)

He's -- I just spoke to him. You have -- a lot of people have done a terrific job, but this is something we've never seen before. So I think we're reaching a level of where it's going to start coming down, where it's going to start sloping down. The good thing is that the number of beds needed, I think we were right about that.

Donald Trump

00:07:46 - 00:08:13 (26 sec)

I was right. My group was right. They're not needing nearly as many beds as they thought. They're not needing as many ventilators as they thought. In fact, we just saw -- in fact, I just saw on your show and a couple of other people just reported back to me that everyone is in great shape from the standpoint of ventilators, which are very hard, because they're expensive and they're big and like -- it's, you know -- it's -- and they're very high-tech.

Donald Trump

00:08:13 - 00:08:32 (20 sec)

But they're very hard to get. And we're building thousands of them, and we have that in good shape. We're going to run -- we have almost 10,000 in the stockpile and we have our military ready, willing and able. They'll be -- they'll be taking them wherever the wave goes, wherever the monster goes. We'll be able to go there, if we need them.

Donald Trump

00:08:32 - 00:08:47 (14 sec)

So we're going to see. But we're in -- we're in great shape from the medicine standpoint. And, by the way, the hydroxychloroquine, we have millions of doses that I bought. I bought millions of doses, you know, for the country, the country bought --

Sean Hannity

00:08:47 - 00:08:48 (1 sec)

Twenty-nine million?

Donald Trump

00:08:48 - 00:09:07 (19 sec)

-- at my direction. We have more than 29 million doses, and that's a lot. And we have others -- I spoke with Prime Minister Modi. They have -- a lot of it comes out of India. And I asked him if it would be OK if he released it. He was great. He was really good. It was -- you know, they put a stop because they wanted it for India.

Donald Trump

00:09:07 - 00:09:24 (18 sec)

But there's a lot of good -- lot of good things coming from that. A lot -- a lot of people are looking at it and saying -- you know, there's just -- I don't hear bad stories. I hear good stories. And I don't hear anything where it's causing death. So it's not like something unsafe. You know, we're doing vaccines, Johnson & Johnson, and others, and they're doing really well.

Donald Trump

00:09:24 - 00:10:05 (40 sec)

But they have to test that, Sean, because when you inoculate; when you give, you know, millions of shots to people for a vaccine, it's got to be safe. But this is something that's been on the market for many years, decades actually, and it's worked very well in everything it's done. And they're finding that people that -- like in the malaria countries, that it doesn't seem that those countries have been hit, because the people take it. You have countries that have massive malaria problems and they take the hydroxychloroquine, and they don't seem to be having the problem with the -- the virus that all other countries are having.

Donald Trump

00:10:05 - 00:10:14 (9 sec)

You know, it's in 182 countries as of this moment. Think of that: 182 countries are fighting this plague. It's incredible.

Sean Hannity

00:10:14 - 00:10:33 (19 sec)

Let me ask you about -- let me go back to the economy for just a minute here. And you've been saying it repeatedly in every one of your task force briefings and answering questions from the press, that you want to get the country moving; we weren't built not to be moving like this. I know there's been talk of an economic task force.

Sean Hannity

00:10:33 - 00:11:02 (29 sec)

Art Laffer, who's a big fan of yours, supported the idea of a payroll tax. He wasn't as much in support of the relief package. Would you consider an economic task force? Would you consider geographically opening up certain sections of the country? Do you think, in heavily concentrated areas like New York City, would there be some type of antibody, temperature-taking test without violating America's privacy concerns?

Donald Trump

00:11:02 - 00:11:15 (13 sec)

Yes. Well, first of all, Art Laffer is great -- great man, great economist, was with Reagan. He looks like he's 25 years old, but he's not. He's a little older than that. [Laughs] But he's -- he's aged well, I will tell you that.

Sean Hannity

00:11:15 - 00:11:18 (3 sec)

That might make him a little -- that might make him a little younger, yes, sir.

Donald Trump

00:11:18 - 00:11:48 (29 sec)

Yes, little bit. But he's a great guy and he's a -- he's a brilliant man in so many ways. And I agree that the payroll tax cut would be fabulous. I think, payroll tax cut, I think Art would agree; I'd like to have the payroll tax cut regardless of this problem that we just -- that just arose recently. So we're looking at payroll tax cut, and that would be almost immediate and it would be over a little bit of an extended period, which is a good thing, too.

Donald Trump

00:11:48 - 00:12:12 (25 sec)

And it would be -- you know, be very quick. We're having tremendous -- you know, with the paycheck, we're having tremendous success with this plan, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, the big banks, Wells Fargo, we were on with Citibank, today, we had a call -- hundreds of thousands of applications are being processed, and many community banks, you know, hundreds and hundreds of community banks all over the country.

Donald Trump

00:12:12 - 00:12:30 (18 sec)

They're doing this, where, you know, the loan goes out; it goes out to the small business, but they have, one thing -- and the one condition, they have to pay their people. They have to be able to keep their people on the payroll. Otherwise, it's a real loan, a real, tough loan. But they're going to -- you know, they're going to do that.

Donald Trump

00:12:30 - 00:12:47 (17 sec)

It's been incredible how -- how, far -- I mean, I hate to say flawlessly, it's three days, but it's away ahead of schedule. And, in fact, we'll probably increase that because the money is going to be spent much sooner than we thought. And that's a good thing, not a bad thing. The banks have been incredible.

Donald Trump

00:12:47 - 00:12:52 (5 sec)

They're doing it with Small Business, as you know -- the Small Business Administration.

Sean Hannity

00:12:52 - 00:13:19 (27 sec)

On the reopening of the country, have you -- are you looking more at something geographically-oriented? Are you looking at -- you know, for the very specific challenges of a high concentration of people in a small geographic area; how do we open them and open them safely again so rebounds don't happen, and how to quickly deal with the rebound or a hot spot if pops up?

Donald Trump

00:13:19 - 00:13:44 (25 sec)

Well, I'd love to open with a big bang, one beautiful country, and just open. But it's very possible. You know, there are some areas that are not affected very much and there are other areas like New York and New Jersey that have a tremendous impact -- Louisiana, great state, and it's incredible. They came in late because, you know, they were doing great and then, all of a sudden, it just sprung up. You look at parts of Michigan.

Donald Trump

00:13:44 - 00:14:01 (17 sec)

Detroit has been hit very hard. So there are some places that are hit very hard, and other places have not been hit very hard, frankly -- I mean, by comparison, very little. So we're looking at two concepts. We're looking at the concept we open up sections and we're also looking at the concept where you open up everything.

Donald Trump

00:14:01 - 00:14:21 (20 sec)

I think New York is getting ready, if not already, but getting ready to peak. And once it peaks, it will start coming down, and then it's going to come down fast. We're way under any polls or any of the models, as they call them -- they have models, and we're way under, and we hope to keep it that way, in terms of death.

Donald Trump

00:14:21 - 00:14:43 (22 sec)

You know, one model was, if we did nothing, a big step was to -- to close the country. You know, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country, and then all of a sudden, they come in and say, sir, you're going to have to close it. This is -- you know, we have this incredibly dangerous -- they point to 1917, 1918, where from 75 million to 100 million people were killed.

Donald Trump

00:14:43 - 00:15:01 (17 sec)

That was the worst -- the worst ever. And nothing -- I mean, that was unbelievable. But if we didn't do anything with this, if we -- if we did what some people wanted to do, we could have very, very tremendous numbers -- tremendous numbers. That was in Europe. It actually started here, believe it or not.

Donald Trump

00:15:01 - 00:15:25 (24 sec)

We were affected, but not nearly as bad as Europe. It wiped out -- I mean, it just was unbelievable. That was your all-time bad. So you have to be careful because he look at that, and close to 100 people get killed, you have to think that, you know, nobody would have thought it could have happened, but then you have to think, when you see this coming in and you see what was happening in China, you have to say, well, maybe this can happen here, so we have to be careful.

Sean Hannity

00:15:25 - 00:16:07 (42 sec)

Two-point-two trillion, $4 trillion available. Money is freed up from the Fed for loans. There is some talk about $2 trillion infrastructure. I know it has a lot of people nervous, people wanting to see, well, let's -- how does this first $2.2 trillion work out, the loans work out first? It seems like the mitigation efforts have been successful, as you just pointed out, you know, more than enough hospital beds, more than enough ventilators in New York -- from what was being predicted a week ago, I know, for me as a New Yorker, I'm pleasantly surprised that it is far less severe than was being predicted.

Donald Trump

00:16:07 - 00:16:28 (21 sec)

Well, I think a lot of that is because of the fact that the American people have been incredible. They really -- you know, they did do the social distance and they kept away. They kept their distance. They -- they really stayed at home for the most part -- not in all cases, obviously. But, really, I think they did much better than anybody would have thought possible.

Donald Trump

00:16:28 - 00:16:46 (18 sec)

I know some of these models were surprised by how incredible the people acted. Because, you know, you're not going to catch it if you stay away. And they were really impressed. As far as the economy is concerned, I think we have a chance to really open big and really open with -- and catch where we were, because we do have tremendous stimulus.

Donald Trump

00:16:46 - 00:17:05 (19 sec)

And, you know, the dollar is very strong. Our currency is very, very strong, the strongest in the world by far. It's also the biggest in the world by many, many times. It is really the only currency of -- the euros, they are, a little bit, but the euro is peanuts compared to the dollar. And we have a strong, powerful dollar.

Donald Trump

00:17:05 - 00:17:23 (18 sec)

So when we go out for this, Sean, everybody wants to put it in -- you know, they want to put it -- they want to invest in the dollar. They want to invest in our country. So we're paying a zero interest rate. I mean, we're paying, like, zeros. So this would be a great time to do infrastructure, when you're paying just about zero interest rate.

Donald Trump

00:17:23 - 00:17:49 (26 sec)

I mean, we never had anything like this, probably won't have another chance. But we -- we spent $7 trillion, now almost $8 trillion in the Middle East, for just -- it's just a disgraceful decision that was made many years ago, going into the Middle East, a sad decision. And you want to fix a pothole? You want to fix a pothole on a highway, and they say, well, we don't want to do that; we don't want to spend the money on that.

Donald Trump

00:17:49 - 00:18:08 (19 sec)

Yet we've spent $8 trillion and millions of -- millions of people killed, if you look at both sides, and thousands of our soldiers, our great people. And then we don't want to do our own infrastructure. No, we want to rebuild our country, Sean. We want to -- we want to reinstitute. We want to come back and get back into our country and spend money in our country.

Donald Trump

00:18:08 - 00:18:16 (8 sec)

It's time, after all of these many, many decades of wasting money all over the world for people that never appreciated it.

Sean Hannity

00:18:16 - 00:18:45 (29 sec)

You said in your press conference today you're looking to put a hold on money sent and -- to the World Health Organization. We are the number one contributor -- no shock there. Also, this study out of Great Britain, 95 percent of this could have been prevented, had China opened themselves up to the help, the assistance that I know you and Secretary Pompeo said would have been forthcoming immediately.

Sean Hannity

00:18:45 - 00:18:54 (10 sec)

Where are you at with the World Health Organization: Where are you at with China, because their lying played a detrimental role not only for the U.S. but for the world?

Donald Trump

00:18:54 - 00:19:25 (30 sec)

So we just signed a great trade deal with China. They're supposed to be spending close to $250 billion. We never had a trade deal, where they ripped us left and right for years and years and decades. And you have the World Trade Organization; you have World Health and you have the World Trade. The World Trade Organization was a horror for us. Because China got in and, from the day they got in, they took advantage of world trade and especially with the United States.

Donald Trump

00:19:25 - 00:19:44 (19 sec)

We never had a president that did anything about it or an administration or anybody. We had no trade deal. You know, a lot of people think we had a bad deal with China. We had no deal with China. They just did whatever they wanted. And what I've done is we have a very strong deal. They're supposed to buy $250 billion -- with a B -- dollars' worth of our product.

Donald Trump

00:19:44 - 00:20:04 (20 sec)

That's phase one. Phase two will come. And we're getting tariffs, 25 percent on $250 billion. We never had anything from China. Look, China has done a great job. But we've rebuilt China because we gave them so much money for so many decades. We -- we poured money into China. And it's absolutely ridiculous what we did.

Donald Trump

00:20:04 - 00:20:23 (20 sec)

And as far as -- and that was world trade. Now, world health, you have a world health -- very China-centric, as I say, very -- very basically everything was very positive for China. Don't close your borders. They told me that -- I mean, they strongly recommend -- they're not telling me -- but they strongly recommended that we not close our borders.

Donald Trump

00:20:23 - 00:20:44 (21 sec)

That would have been a disaster. That would have been a total disaster. And literally, they called every shot wrong. They didn't want to say where it came from. Look, we spend -- for many years, we've been funding the World -- as we say, WHO, the World Health Organization. And for -- for years, we've funded them.

Donald Trump

00:20:44 - 00:21:07 (22 sec)

And it's probably spending at least $58 million a year, but it's much more than that because then we fund some of the work they do -- which is some good work. But we're going to look at it now because every -- I think every step that they made, everything that they said was wrong, and always in favor of China: keep it open, don't close the borders.

Donald Trump

00:21:07 - 00:21:30 (23 sec)

Now, I didn't listen to `em. And I did what I wanted to do, and it was a good move. But there were other things, too, where it came from, the extent of it, how serious it was. They never viewed it as that serious. So, you know, it's one of those things that we're the one that is the primary funder, and so we're going to take a very strong look at that.

Sean Hannity

00:21:30 - 00:21:47 (17 sec)

I've been more critical, I guess, of -- of Governor Cuomo. And I had had him on my radio show, and, you know, as somebody that was raised in Long Island, New York, I live in New York; I live in Long Island, and I want to help the people of this state. And at different times, he was extraordinary critical.

Sean Hannity

00:21:47 - 00:22:02 (15 sec)

And you seem to be willing to give him a little bit more of a pass, meaning the governor of New York. I mean, you sent -- sent the Navy Hospital Ship the Comfort. The Army Corps of Engineers not only built the largest hospital in the country. The Javits Center wasn't originally designed for COVID-19 patients.

Sean Hannity

00:22:02 - 00:22:35 (33 sec)

Now, both the ship and that center will in fact take COVID-19 patients on. You're building hospitals in New York and New Jersey and Westchester and elsewhere, Louisiana and other hot spots around the country. You sent over 5,000 ventilators, all of the hydroxychloroquine that he could want, you know? But yet, he was given a very strong recommendation by his task force to purchase 15,783 ventilators and was clear this is a predictable event.

Sean Hannity

00:22:35 - 00:22:54 (19 sec)

When an influenza pandemic occurs, this is your shortfall, and he didn't buy any, and he was at one point kind of yelling at the federal government to provide it. You've done a lot for New York, I'm scrolling it on the screen. Why you -- you know, usually, you're a little more political than that. I was a little surprised.

Donald Trump

00:22:54 - 00:23:18 (24 sec)

Well, I'm a diplomat too. You know, since I've become president, I have to view things a little bit differently. Look, Andrew, I've known him a long time. He has a hard time getting the words out, "Thank you, you did a great job". But he's been, you know, pretty good over the last week or so. It's turning out I'm right because they wanted 40,000 ventilators, 40,000, and they're not going to need anywhere near that and we said that.

Donald Trump

00:23:18 - 00:23:35 (17 sec)

And now, they have plenty and if they needed some more, we can bring them some more because we have a stockpile we built up and that we have for emergencies. So -- but, you know, we built the largest hospital in the country in four days. We just converted the ship because they were very few other accidents, because people aren't driving cars.

Donald Trump

00:23:35 - 00:23:55 (19 sec)

You don't have car accidents, motorcycle accidents, nothing. So, I just agreed and we're doing this for New Jersey and for New York. Governor Murphy of New Jersey has been very generous. He's been terrific and he's doing a great job. Look, they're all doing a good job, most of the governors. I can tell you a few that aren't doing a good job.

Donald Trump

00:23:55 - 00:24:11 (17 sec)

There are a few that are doing a poor job, and we'll back the people where you have a bad governor. And you have some governors that are not doing a good job. But, you see, this is where age and experience come in. Rather than naming them tonight on your show, I won't bother. But there are some --

Donald Trump

00:24:11 - 00:24:30 (18 sec)

but they're all -- and they are all happy with the job that we are doing now. We turned out to be right. You don't need as many beds as they thought. You certainly didn't need as many ventilators. And now, you see where the state of Washington and others -- California, by the way, is also doing a very good job, Governor Newsom, Gavin.

Donald Trump

00:24:30 - 00:24:47 (18 sec)

So, you know, we've had a lot of -- we've had a lot of coordination. I have gotten along very well with Andrew. We're sending them I think far more than they ever thought. I didn't know Mayor de Blasio. I got to know him a little bit. We've got a very good relationship. He's working very hard. He is. He is trying very hard.

Donald Trump

00:24:47 - 00:25:07 (20 sec)

It's a tough thing, New York City hospitals. And we've sent him a lot of troops and what he wanted more than anything, he wanted the ventilators, we got them, but he wanted some -- he needed troops. He needed medical troops and we got him a lot, doctors, nurses, and -- you know, it's very tough to get obviously.

Donald Trump

00:25:07 - 00:25:29 (22 sec)

And so, we've gotten along very well with Mayor de Blasio. I think we've gotten along very well with Andrew, and most of the governors -- I mean, a couple I could tell you where it wouldn't matter what you did, you could give them ten times more than they asked, if the -- if the newspapers called and wanted a quote, they give you a bad quote because that's the way they are.

Donald Trump

00:25:29 - 00:25:53 (25 sec)

You know, they're political animals and it's -- you know, this is beyond politics what we've been going through here. But the federal government, the Army Corps of Engineers and the -- and FEMA, they -- what they've done, I don't think there's anybody in the world could have done. The hospitals that we built in Chicago, the hospitals that we built all over the country -- we built the beauty in Louisiana in four days and worked very well with John Bel.

Donald Trump

00:25:53 - 00:26:08 (14 sec)

You know, John Bel Edwards is the governor there. We worked very well with him in Louisiana. That was a surprise because it sprung up from nowhere. It just came from nowhere. So I don't know. I think we've gotten really along. I got along very well with Andrew Cuomo, really.

Sean Hannity

00:26:08 - 00:26:17 (9 sec)

All right. Let me -- let me move on. You know, it was really just slightly a little over a month ago that all the coverage on news was Super Tuesday.

Donald Trump

00:26:17 - 00:26:17 (1 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:26:17 - 00:26:43 (26 sec)

I mean, what a difference, boy, a month can make. Now, we are 200 -- and what -- 10 days away from a general election, and Joe Biden, by the way, as of last Friday has now come on board, I would argue two months in three days a little late, in terms of the travel ban. And he's been running these little podcasts of his on his podcast network thing, whatever he's doing.

Sean Hannity

00:26:43 - 00:27:01 (18 sec)

But he did say at the time that you were xenophobic, that you were hysteria, that you were spreading hysteria and fear-mongering. And you had a phone call with him this week. What do you think of his sudden change of heart on this xenophobic travel ban, and how did the call with him go?

Donald Trump

00:27:01 - 00:27:20 (18 sec)

Well, the call went really well. He called me and we had a talk. It lasted 15 minutes but it was really a nice talk. It was very friendly talk, and he gave me some things that he believes. And I was -- you know, I thought the call was very nice. We agreed we wouldn't talk about what we discussed, but I thought it was nice.

Donald Trump

00:27:20 - 00:27:43 (23 sec)

He did call me separately from the call, he didn't say on the call, but xenophobic. And somebody called me racist, one of the shows, one of those morning shows that do bad ratings and they called me racist, called me a lot of things. It turned out that I'm right. One thing with Joe Biden that I respect on a Friday, he issued a statement that he thought I was right on closing the border to China.

Donald Trump

00:27:43 - 00:27:51 (8 sec)

So I respect the fact that he was able to do that. You know, he took the opposite view and then he was able to do that, so I thought that was -- actually, I thought that was very nice.

Sean Hannity

00:27:51 - 00:28:07 (16 sec)

Let me -- let me move on a little bit further. We know about Boris Johnson, apparently took a little bit of a turn for the worse, he's getting oxygen. According to reports, he is not on a ventilator but he did take a turn from the worse. Have you -- have you spoken with him and do you know anything about his treatment?

Sean Hannity

00:28:07 - 00:28:14 (7 sec)

I mean, for example, we discussed hydroxychloroquine. Do we know anything about what the NIH is doing there in Great Britain to help him?

Donald Trump

00:28:14 - 00:28:42 (28 sec)

So, what happened is he called me, you know, at the beginning of his ordeal. So, maybe 10 days ago or so and we talked and he didn't sound good at all. And then it was announced that he was positive. And that was before I knew this, but then it was announced that he was positive. And he stayed at 10 -- number 10 Downing Street, number 10 Downing is one of the most incredible places.

Donald Trump

00:28:42 - 00:29:07 (25 sec)

I spent time -- a lot of time with him there. And, all of a sudden, he seemed to be getting worse, and then, all of -- then they brought him to the hospital. That's a bad sign. When they bring it to the hospital with this one, this is not having your appendix taken out. It's a bad -- that's a bad thing. And they're giving him oxygen, but he's not on a ventilator yet, which is very good because that's tough.

Donald Trump

00:29:07 - 00:29:44 (37 sec)

The ventilator stuff is tough. When you go on that, it's -- it's not a good thing. So, as of this moment, he is not supposedly. Now, as far as the treatment is concerned, I actually have four companies that are high-tech. I mean, these are brilliant, brilliant people. You look at Ebola, you look at AIDS, you look at some of the things that they've done, these are the companies that have really did it. And they have some very good potential cures for what we're talking about, for the virus that we're talking about, the coronavirus.

Donald Trump

00:29:44 - 00:30:15 (31 sec)

And I actually have two of them which are really current and have something that works now. We had them contact his doctors at the hospital in London, and they're talking right now. And, you know, they have -- they have -- different than the hydroxychloroquine, it's -- and you've read -- you've read about it. But there were two other things out there, very, very high-level and they've shown very good promise.

Donald Trump

00:30:15 - 00:30:41 (26 sec)

So we have them talking to the doctors to see whether or not it would work. So, I'm just -- all I am is a matchmaker. I -- you know, I see results, I see great technicians, great people, come in with -- with really, you know, potential cures, OK? This is not a vaccine. We have a vaccine, Johnson & Johnson and others are getting close on a vaccine, but it takes a while to test it, as you can imagine.

Donald Trump

00:30:41 - 00:30:53 (12 sec)

But I have set people up with his doctors in London and these are people that are amazingly accomplished people that have found the answer to other things that were equally as tough.

Sean Hannity

00:30:53 - 00:31:16 (23 sec)

Let me -- let me go back to the economy for a second because we see these better numbers in New York. I mean, I gave them at the top. I mean, dramatically lower numbers of intubation, 80 percent less than what was predicted. We see hospital bed use compared to what was predicted, 60 percent below the predictions of even a week ago.

Donald Trump

00:31:16 - 00:31:17 (0 sec)

Sean Hannity

00:31:17 - 00:31:38 (21 sec)

And ICU beds needed in New York, and the epicenter, 60 percent below what they had, some had been predicting. The death rate, even that is dramatically lower than it was a week ago. The -- the American people obviously know that there's basically been a shutdown of the economy but essential services obviously continuing.

Sean Hannity

00:31:38 - 00:32:00 (22 sec)

I know they would be assuming that second quarter unemployment numbers, GDP numbers are going to look disastrous, but you have been expressing complete confidence that it bounces back. Do you -- do you believe that that bounce back is the third quarter? In other words, July, August, September?

Donald Trump

00:32:00 - 00:32:19 (20 sec)

Yes, I think that the bounce back -- I hope it's going to be fairly large. Don't forget, we're giving great stimulus here with the small businesses. We're going to save the large businesses very easily. We have the funding to save the large businesses. We really have $2.2 trillion, but we have another $4 trillion that we can use.

Donald Trump

00:32:19 - 00:32:40 (21 sec)

We're going to save the large -- the airplane -- you know, the -- if you look at Boeing as an example. Boeing for the first time ever had some problems, this was before. And then you had the virus, you get hit by the virus. So -- but Boeing is a great company with tremendous potential, with tremendous job -- you know, job capabilities, the number of people.

Donald Trump

00:32:40 - 00:32:55 (15 sec)

Boeing, a year ago, before the accident, the first accident, it was the second accident -- Boeing was probably the greatest company anywhere in the world. They made up almost a point of GDP. But they were the greatest company -- I think they were the greatest company anywhere in the world. Nobody knew how big they were.

Donald Trump

00:32:55 - 00:33:16 (21 sec)

They're massive, and they were doing a good job. They were like flawless and then they have the problem and then, of course, we had this problem, and people aren't exactly looking to buy airplanes right now. But they will be soon and we're going to do that, and we're going to -- if it's necessary for them -- and then we're going to save the airlines and we're going to save other companies.

Donald Trump

00:33:16 - 00:33:35 (19 sec)

We're working with the energy companies right now because you have energy companies where the oil and gas -- I mean, it's gone -- gone to the floor. Nobody's ever seen anything like that which is good for our drivers by the way. It's also good for the airlines, getting them started. But we have an unbelievably massive energy business that we don't want to lose jobs there.

Donald Trump

00:33:35 - 00:33:53 (18 sec)

Now, it's gone up a little bit and I've had talks with President Putin. I've had talks with the crown prince from Saudi Arabia. And I think the -- you know, I think it's going to work out. I think it's all going to work out I think really strongly. I would like to see a strong opening, a strong bounce as opposed to a slower bounce.

Donald Trump

00:33:53 - 00:34:09 (16 sec)

But one way or the other, it's going to be very successful and I think because of the stimulus, it has a chance to be even more successful as much as -- this doesn't even sound right -- I think it has a chance to be even more successful than it was before we got hit by the virus.

Sean Hannity

00:34:09 - 00:34:35 (26 sec)

Let me go to Washington. You saw the hold up, Democrats wanting changes in voting regulations and laws and changes in immigration laws, and the Kennedy Center and the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and they got a lot of that which delayed aid -- needed aid money to workers, small businesses, hospitals, and large corporations.

Sean Hannity

00:34:35 - 00:34:55 (19 sec)

In the middle of you deciding the travel ban that you recalled a lot of names about, they were busy in the middle of their impeachment of you, how are your relationship -- how is your relationship with the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer at this point? It hasn't been particularly good the last three years.

Sean Hannity

00:34:55 - 00:34:56 (2 sec)

I think that's a fair characterization.

Donald Trump

00:34:56 - 00:35:23 (27 sec)

Yes, I would say not bad. I would say it's not a bad characterization, absolutely. Now, look, it was a phony impeachment. It was a phony deal from day one. They didn't get one Republican in the House. We had -- we had a vote of 197 to nothing, zero, and three Democrats came to our side actually. So, it was just a phony hoax and it should have never been allowed ever.

Donald Trump

00:35:23 - 00:35:40 (16 sec)

That should never been allowed. And then the Senate was great. Mitch McConnell and all the senators were great. The Republicans really stood together like they never had stood before. But it was a disgrace that they could get away with a thing like that where they took it to that level over something that was -- there was nothing done wrong.

Donald Trump

00:35:40 - 00:35:42 (2 sec)

And they know it and everybody knows it and they laugh at it.

Sean Hannity

00:35:42 - 00:35:43 (2 sec)

Donald Trump

00:35:43 - 00:36:05 (22 sec)

Well, they don't laugh anymore because what it did do is actually had the effect of raising my poll numbers because the public knows it was a hoax. So, that was bad and that was really at the same time that this was going on. And despite that, we made great decisions, and we closed up the country, we closed up the borders, we did a lot of things that had to be done.

Donald Trump

00:36:05 - 00:36:20 (14 sec)

And you would have been talking -- you would have been talking about a number of lives that would have been horrible. It would have been unacceptable. It just would have been unacceptable. But with the money in the stimulus --

Sean Hannity

00:36:20 - 00:36:20 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:36:20 - 00:36:36 (16 sec)

-- we did -- we did much better. I mean, we cut a lot out of, but they asked for a lot of things that we would never have approved. A lot was cut out but we still had some. Now, what is happening is they're looking for more money for the small businesses, meaning we are -- we are both together and that could even be unanimous.

Donald Trump

00:36:36 - 00:36:53 (17 sec)

I mean, it's become very successful. That could be unanimous. And then we'll be looking at infrastructure and some other things, shoring up some of the states because -- but they would have problems, some of the states had problems before this ever started. So, we'll be looking at phase four as they call it and we'll see how that goes.

Donald Trump

00:36:53 - 00:37:00 (7 sec)

But I think we have a chance to be stronger than we were even before because of all the stimulus that we're putting into the economy.

Sean Hannity

00:37:00 - 00:37:11 (11 sec)

All right. Mr. President, you've been very generous with your time as always. I know you've been doing these long conferences. In the last 20 seconds I have, is your relationship a little bit better with the media? It hasn't been great. We have 20 seconds.

Donald Trump

00:37:11 - 00:37:26 (15 sec)

No, it hasn't been very good. I think the thing if we could just have -- if we had an honest media, our country would be the greatest beneficiary. The media has been -- the lame-stream media has been extremely dishonest and it's a shame, it's very sad.

Sean Hannity

00:37:26 - 00:37:38 (12 sec)

All right. Mr. President, I know I share this with the American people -- we want you to succeed. We want the American people healthy. We want this economy growing as fast as possible. Thank you, sir. We appreciate your time.

Donald Trump

00:37:38 - 00:37:39 (1 sec)

Sean, thank you.