Transcript - Interview: Joe Donlon of WGN America Interviews Donald Trump at The White House - September 22, 2020 | Factba.se

Joe Donlon

00:00:00 - 00:00:01 (2 sec)

Thank you for your time, Mr. President.

Donald Trump

00:00:01 - 00:00:02 (1 sec)

Joe Donlon

00:00:02 - 00:00:10 (7 sec)

Let's start with the Supreme Court and the death of Justice Ginsburg. You said right away, you wanted to appoint a woman. Why is that important to you and what are you looking for in this nomination?

Donald Trump

00:00:10 - 00:00:28 (19 sec)

Well, I want to, uh, have women very fairly represented. I think it was time. We've, uh, appointed two great justices and this will be a third and we are looking at various people. They're all fanta -- they're all outstanding. But we'll be appointing a woman, I'll be announcing it on Saturday.

Joe Donlon

00:00:28 - 00:00:29 (1 sec)

Do you know who it is right now?

Donald Trump

00:00:29 - 00:00:33 (3 sec)

I have a pretty good idea. I haven't made a final decision, but pretty good idea.

Joe Donlon

00:00:33 - 00:00:40 (7 sec)

All right. Let's get to the election. We're just weeks away. What is your strategy? What do you think is the key to you winning a second time?

Donald Trump

00:00:40 - 00:01:00 (19 sec)

Well, number one, I think I have to convince people that Joe Biden, you know, he's not, he's not fit for the position. He's not fit. Uh, he can't handle this position. He couldn't do it in primetime, let alone now. And you know, we're dealing in a very, very complex world. We have a very, uh, incredible group of very smart people that you're dealing against.

Donald Trump

00:01:00 - 00:01:08 (8 sec)

It's competition, but it's also other countries and he's not, he's not fit to handle this, to be president.

Joe Donlon

00:01:08 - 00:01:10 (2 sec)

How important is Florida?

Donald Trump

00:01:10 - 00:01:22 (13 sec)

Florida is very important. Florida is great. We're leading in Florida. I think we're leading, I think we're leading everywhere actually. You know, we're seeing the crowds. We're seeing crowds that -- We're seeing enthusiasm, Joe, that we didn't even see last time.

Joe Donlon

00:01:22 - 00:01:23 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:01:23 - 00:01:26 (3 sec)

You know, last time we had grate enthu -- like record setting enthusiasm.

Joe Donlon

00:01:26 - 00:01:27 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:01:27 - 00:01:44 (17 sec)

I'm telling you this time is much more. We have crowds that are coming out because we've produced. You know, we produced, we had, we gave them the greatest economy in the history of our country. There's never been an economy like that. We gave them the best employment numbers and unemployment numbers in the history of our country.

Donald Trump

00:01:44 - 00:02:04 (20 sec)

Everything we did -- The Vets, if you look at what we've done for the Vets, the VA, it's record numbers. We rebuilt our military. All of the things we've done, and you know, when I ran last time, I didn't do it. I did it as a private person. I was successful, very successful, but you know, all of the things I said, they've been translated.

Donald Trump

00:02:04 - 00:02:09 (6 sec)

It's a success for our country and the enthusiasm is stronger than I've ever seen.

Joe Donlon

00:02:09 - 00:02:18 (9 sec)

You're back to holding rallies again, despite the pushback during this COVID era, what do you enjoy about those gatherings and campaigning so much?

Donald Trump

00:02:18 - 00:02:45 (27 sec)

Well, there's no pushback when we do the rallies at airports, uh, because it's outside and I have not heard much pushback, if any. I mean, they're unhappy that we're doing them because, you know, I'm getting 30 and 40,000 people. So they're unhappy about that. But I haven't heard the pushback. I did hear the pushback where we go into a confined arena and you fill out arena, but I like, I almost liked the airports better because, uh, you can get more people for one thing.

Donald Trump

00:02:45 - 00:02:46 (1 sec)

And they're outside.

Joe Donlon

00:02:46 - 00:02:50 (4 sec)

Are you worried at all about your supporters being exposed to COVID?

Donald Trump

00:02:50 - 00:03:09 (19 sec)

No. Because, uh, my supporters are very smart and they do, a lot of them wear masks and some don't, that's their choice. But they're, you know, when you're outside, you have a lot of room, uh, and everything that I've read and everything that I've seen is outside is better in terms of COVID or as I call it the China Virus.

Donald Trump

00:03:09 - 00:03:14 (6 sec)

Right? But COVID. And, uh, no, I, I think we have a very safe environment.

Joe Donlon

00:03:14 - 00:03:27 (13 sec)

I want to ask you a question Walter Cronkite asked Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy before their first debate in 1960. What single quality is the most important that you bring to the White House?

Donald Trump

00:03:27 - 00:03:46 (19 sec)

Well, I think I bring an aura that people know, I know what I'm doing. I know what is happening. I know where we should be going. Um, I negotiate properly so that we don't get ripped off by all of these countries all over the world, that have been ripping us off. I understand the military, I've rebuilt the military.

Donald Trump

00:03:46 - 00:04:07 (21 sec)

I understand the cost of doing it, how to do it, how to do it for the right cost. Uh, I think I understand things, uh, as a businessman that other people don't, but just, uh, as a person, I understand things. So, and, and I can tell you this, it's the opposite with Joe Biden. He has a lot of experience, but it's been bad experience.

Donald Trump

00:04:07 - 00:04:15 (8 sec)

And he hasn't been able to do it. I've done more in 47 months than he's done in 47 years. He will never be able to do this job.

Joe Donlon

00:04:15 - 00:04:35 (20 sec)

Let's talk about the pandemic. It's obviously changed everyone's lives. I want to ask you, you've talked about, we've done all we could, let me ask this in a different way. Let's say there's a pandemic developing in China 10 years from now, and the US President calls you up and says, "What's the first thing I should do?" What would you say?

Donald Trump

00:04:35 - 00:04:49 (14 sec)

Well, let me start off by saying, we have done an incredible job on the pandemic, as you call it. We have done an incredible job and China should have never allowed it to happen. They should've kept it, they could've kept it confined as they did for the rest of China.

Joe Donlon

00:04:49 - 00:04:50 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:04:50 - 00:05:16 (26 sec)

But they let it escape to the world, and it's a terrible thing that they did. But what I would do would be not much different than what we've been doing. We closed up our country. We closed it up strong. We banned China. We banned Europe. We did a lot of things that we did them early. Now, every, you know, they say, if you would have done it two weeks earlier, nobody -- When I, when I closed up this country and when I did the bans, everybody said, "Oh, you don't, you shouldn't do it.

Donald Trump

00:05:16 - 00:05:35 (19 sec)

It's too early, too early." Now they say, "If only you did it a week earlier." Um, we've done an unbelievable job with ventilators, now with vaccines, with everything else. The only thing I've done poorly is the public relations. But that's 'cause I have a fake press. The press is fake. They don't write the truth.

Donald Trump

00:05:35 - 00:05:39 (5 sec)

And we have done an incredible job, considering the fact that this is a terrible situation.

Joe Donlon

00:05:39 - 00:05:45 (6 sec)

So would you say then earlier, "Close the borders, button up until we get this thing figured out?"

Donald Trump

00:05:45 - 00:06:02 (17 sec)

Yeah. But that was never even given as an option early. Nobody thought of it early and nobody felt we had a problem. If you look at early, people weren't thinking we had a problem, Dr. Fauci a month and a half later thought there was no problem. And, and I say that not out of disrespect, I say it out of respect.

Donald Trump

00:06:02 - 00:06:19 (17 sec)

Uh, others said the same thing. They'd never thought there was going to be this kind of a problem. They never understood the disease. They'd never understood where it comes. They didn't know it affected older people with ailments, as opposed to young people that are not, you know, they're, they do very well, relatively speaking.

Donald Trump

00:06:19 - 00:06:37 (18 sec)

I mean, they do incredibly well. Uh, so they didn't understand the disease. Now, uh, I closed it up early. I closed up the country. Now, if we didn't do that, you'd have two and a half or three million people dead, not 200,000. We shouldn't have one person because China should've taken care of it.

Joe Donlon

00:06:37 - 00:06:53 (16 sec)

One of the frustrations people have is the mixed message that we're hearing from the microphones here. Mask, no mask, open, don't open, school, no school. The CDC released some new guidelines yesterday and then pulled them back. Why isn't there a more unified message that everyone can rally around?

Donald Trump

00:06:53 - 00:07:13 (21 sec)

The CDC is people that have been there for a long time, long before me and I, I also don't like the fact that they send out mixed messages. They put stuff in, they put it out, you know, it's, I don't know, they've been there a long time. The CDC, uh, comes out with all different messages. Now I'll give you an example, uh, wear a mask, don't wear a mask.

Donald Trump

00:07:13 - 00:07:30 (16 sec)

You know, at one point they were saying, don't wear a mask. Dr. Fauci said, don't wear a ma -- Everybody was talking about like masks were bad thing. Then they come like masks are the greatest thing you can do. You know, you get all these different messages. Uh, and I guess I'm somewhere in the middle, to be honest with you.

Donald Trump

00:07:30 - 00:07:49 (19 sec)

Uh, look, uh, we had, uh, a case the other day where, uh, a waiter comes over and he's playing with a mask. He's playing with his basketball over the pla -- Then he's serving food and I'm saying, "Oh, that's nice. That's nice." It's, you know, there's a, there is a mixed message there. But if you remember the original message was don't wear masks.

Donald Trump

00:07:49 - 00:07:59 (10 sec)

Then all of a sudden they say, "Wear masks", but I have been offered masks. I'm okay with masks. In fact, I wear them, under certain circumstances, I wear them.

Joe Donlon

00:07:59 - 00:08:03 (4 sec)

The Big Ten just announced they're going to start playing football. You were pushing for that. Why was that so important to you?

Donald Trump

00:08:03 - 00:08:23 (20 sec)

Well, I wasn't only pushing for it, I'm the one that got them to do it. And, uh, no, I think you need the spirit of it. It's a fantastic thing. Big Ten, especially those great States we have the Big Ten, including a place they just left, Ohio. I mean, they are so happy about it, but no, it was closed up and I called the commissioner.

Donald Trump

00:08:23 - 00:08:42 (19 sec)

I said, "Commissioner, you got to open this up, this is crazy." And we started talking and we also talked tests. You know, we have the greatest tests in the world and we started talking about tests and he was great. He did a great job. And then we started talking to the heads of the schools and the heads of the, you know, people responsible.

Donald Trump

00:08:42 - 00:08:57 (14 sec)

And I actually thought we were going to open with maybe a few missing, but we ended up opening the entire Big Ten. So it was a, it was a great thing. You know, who, the ones that really wanted, were the parents and the players and the coaches.

Joe Donlon

00:08:57 - 00:08:57 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:08:57 - 00:08:59 (3 sec)

They were fantastic. We all came together, we got it done.

Joe Donlon

00:08:59 - 00:09:08 (9 sec)

Theodore Roosevelt said, "It isn't how long you're president that counts. It's what you accomplish." What would you say is your single biggest accomplishment in your first term?

Donald Trump

00:09:08 - 00:09:35 (27 sec)

Well, first of all, I think we've accomplished more than any other administration in the history of our country in the first three and a half years. Nobody's done -- If you look at a list of accomplishments from the military to the Vets, to, to, uh, the biggest tax cuts in history, biggest regulation cuts in history, whether it was eight or four or in one case, more than eight years, nobody has done what we've done in three and a half years.

Donald Trump

00:09:35 - 00:09:54 (20 sec)

But if you'd ask me what, uh, what's my biggest accomplishment, I think the rebuilding of the military is a very big accomplishment. I think taking care of our Vets is a very big accomplishment. And I think the largest regulation cuts in the history of our country is a big -- 'Cause that really gave us the founda -- This is why we're coming back so fast.

Donald Trump

00:09:54 - 00:10:02 (7 sec)

We're coming back because we had such a great foundation, you know? We're coming back faster than any country, anywhere in the world.

Joe Donlon

00:10:02 - 00:10:02 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:10:02 - 00:10:16 (14 sec)

And the reason is because we have, we had such, we have such a great foundation. But I, you know, if you were going to ask me, well, look at the Supreme Court. I will have three justices, many presidents go without any-

Joe Donlon

00:10:16 - 00:10:17 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:10:17 - 00:10:30 (13 sec)

-- nominations. I will have three in my first term. Uh, maybe almost as important as that, I'm going to have 300 federal judges appointed in my first term, approximately.

Joe Donlon

00:10:30 - 00:10:31 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:10:31 - 00:10:44 (13 sec)

Uh, and that's unheard of, you know, it's a record. So you could say judges, a lot of judges and justices of the Supreme Court are a big accomplishment. We've had a lot of accomplishments and I think that's why the spirit is so good.

Joe Donlon

00:10:44 - 00:10:48 (5 sec)

You are clearly the most media savvy president we've had. You understand how this --

Donald Trump

00:10:48 - 00:10:50 (1 sec)

I don't think I am, um --

Joe Donlon

00:10:50 - 00:10:50 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:10:50 - 00:10:53 (3 sec)

I mean, you might, I think I get the worst press of any president in history.

Joe Donlon

00:10:53 - 00:10:59 (6 sec)

Well, no, I mean, you understand how the media works, I guess. My question is why is it so contentious do you think?

Donald Trump

00:10:59 - 00:11:21 (22 sec)

Because, uh, I'm doing things that nobody thought were possible and I'm getting them done. They can't believe that I'm getting them done. Do you know who they say had the worst press of any president ever to serve, the Great Abraham Lincoln. They say that Abraham Lincoln got the worst press. I said, "There's no way." People said, "No, it's worse than you." I said, "No way.

Donald Trump

00:11:21 - 00:11:34 (13 sec)

I guarantee I win that one." I get worse than Abraham Lincoln, but because I've done more than anybody thought could be done. And because it happens to be a different philosophy, a different, you know, a different kind of a thing.

Joe Donlon

00:11:34 - 00:11:35 (0 sec)

Donald Trump

00:11:35 - 00:11:54 (19 sec)

I like, uh, people having great healthcare, 180 million people with their great healthcare plans. Other people like socialized medicine, you know, what can you say? So there's a difference there. But, uh, it's not totally unique, but I, yeah, I think the press has been bad, but I also think been very fake.

Joe Donlon

00:11:54 - 00:11:55 (1 sec)

Are you going to win on November 3rd?

Donald Trump

00:11:55 - 00:12:13 (18 sec)

Based on our achievements, I should. Based on the enthusiasm, I should. Based on the massive crowds that we're getting, I should. I've had one of the most successful administrations in history, because people that were there for eight years have not done anywhere near what I've been able to do in four years.

Donald Trump

00:12:13 - 00:12:38 (25 sec)

But the reason I want to do it for eight is we've got to strongly keep this going. It's gotta, sort of like a tree. You put it in and sort of doesn't do too well, all of a sudden it starts grabbing hold. Uh, because what we've done with the tax cuts and regulation cuts, all the things we've done, the military, uh, there's more to come and it's important that it does come.

Donald Trump

00:12:38 - 00:13:00 (22 sec)

But I will say this, we've done more, I've done more, the administration has done more in four years than I would say most, most people have done in eight years, almost all, but almost all presidents have done in eight years. But I do think we're going to win. I think we might win in a very big way. Let's see what happens.

Joe Donlon

00:13:00 - 00:13:06 (6 sec)

Last question. What's a question you wish someone would ask you that hasn't been asked?

Donald Trump

00:13:06 - 00:13:30 (25 sec)

Uh, why do you have such tremendous access and the press treats you unfairly, negatively? And I've gotten used to it. I mean, to be honest with you, it's like, I've totally gotten used to it. And you know, it's incredible how smart the American public is. They get it, they get it and it makes them, it gives them energy, anger, but it also gives them great energy.

Donald Trump

00:13:30 - 00:13:43 (13 sec)

But it's been a great four years. I've really enjoyed it, even though it's been witch hunts and everything else, it's been, you know, terrible in certain ways, but it's been great because I've accomplished so much for the American people. And that's very important to me.

Joe Donlon

00:13:43 - 00:13:45 (2 sec)

What's been the highlight. What will you always remember?

Donald Trump

00:13:45 - 00:14:03 (18 sec)

I've had many highlights. I've had many highlights. I think, uh, the victory was a highlight. It showed what can be done, but the biggest highlight is all of the achievements. I mean, we've had so many, of Space Force, whoever heard of Space Force, you know, that's that hasn't been done in 75 years since the air force.

Donald Trump

00:14:03 - 00:14:19 (15 sec)

Space Force, and we don't even talk about it. Uh, we've had many successes, many highlights, and I think we're gonna have many more highlights. And actually I think the next four years are going to be really incredible. Added on together, it'll be something very unique.

Joe Donlon

00:14:19 - 00:14:20 (1 sec)

Thanks for joining us on this issue.

Donald Trump

00:14:20 - 00:14:28 (8 sec)

Thank you very much. Thank you.