Transcript - Interview: Stuary Varney of Fox Business News Interviews Donald Trump - October 17, 2018 | Factba.se

Stuart Varney

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

We have a very special guest, President Trump just walked into the room. I stood up and shook hands and he's with us right now. Mr. President, thanks for being with us.

Donald Trump

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

Well it's only because I like your show.

Stuart Varney

00:00:10 - 00:00:11 (1 sec)

Oh, thank you very much indeed sir.

Donald Trump

00:00:11 - 00:00:12 (1 sec)

Stuart Varney

00:00:12 - 00:00:18 (6 sec)

Really fast, first lady, Melania in some trouble on the plane this morning, everybody OK?

Donald Trump

00:00:18 - 00:00:25 (7 sec)

They're fine, I just spoke to her. They came back, she got on another plane, I said, I hope this plane's better than the first one but yes, they had a problem.

Stuart Varney

00:00:25 - 00:00:26 (1 sec)

What was the problem?

Donald Trump

00:00:26 - 00:00:28 (2 sec)

Yes, they had a problem but she's fine.

Stuart Varney

00:00:28 - 00:00:33 (5 sec)

OK, does anybody ever say to you, you're doing an awful lot of media and you like it?

Donald Trump

00:00:33 - 00:00:46 (13 sec)

Well I don't like it, I like getting the point across, I've heard you say many times that the economy isn't covered properly and it's not. That the economies not covered properly by these so called "mainstream media" and it isn't.

Donald Trump

00:00:46 - 00:00:57 (11 sec)

We went up almost 600 points yesterday and they didn't even have it on the major news, you couldn't find it any where and the economy is doing probably better than it's ever done in history and they don't even talk about.

Donald Trump

00:00:57 - 00:01:07 (11 sec)

And that's because they have their opinion and they'd like to keep their opinion going the way they have it. They do not treat us fairly and therefore if I do the news, they all want me on the news, so I can talk about it myself.

Stuart Varney

00:01:07 - 00:01:12 (5 sec)

Are you going to keep up this pace of media after the mid terms or is this a run up to the mid terms?

Donald Trump

00:01:12 - 00:01:29 (17 sec)

Probably not, no this is just for the mid terms. We want to win, we want to get the republicans nominated and we want to get them elected. We need republicans, you know they talk about majority, we have a majority of this much, I always say if somebody has a cold, just a minor cold, we no longer have a majority.

Donald Trump

00:01:29 - 00:01:43 (14 sec)

So, we need Republicans and we'll have tremendous border security when we do that, we'll continue with the tax cuts because we have other tax cuts planned, we're going to do a lot of cutting of the budget, also by the way, which I know is going to make you happy but we're going to do a lot of cutting.

Stuart Varney

00:01:43 - 00:01:44 (1 sec)

You're going to cut some spending?

Donald Trump

00:01:44 - 00:01:47 (3 sec)

We are, we're going to cut spending absolutely and we had to...

Stuart Varney

00:01:47 - 00:01:48 (1 sec)

That's [Inaudible] Mr. President.

Donald Trump

00:01:48 - 00:02:09 (21 sec)

It's not as tough as you think and frankly there's a lot of fat in there but we had to get the military done last time. You know, President Obama let it go and I could say beyond President Obama, the military was in terrible shape. Now we've got $700 billion approved and we got $716 billion, two years, and our military is rebuilding like it's never been, really never happen before.

Donald Trump

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

We got a raise for the people, they haven't had a raise in 11 years, we got a raise for the great people in the military and you know we're doing a lot of things, a lot of great things.

Donald Trump

00:02:18 - 00:02:35 (17 sec)

But now I'm going to also do some cutting of the budget because there's a lot fat, in order to get that $717, $716 billion we had to give up things to the democrats that I hated to give up, that you wouldn't have liked but I had to. But we had to rebuild the military.

Stuart Varney

00:02:35 - 00:02:39 (4 sec)

What's the big deal, economically in the next two years?

Donald Trump

00:02:39 - 00:02:51 (12 sec)

Well I think we have a lot of things but you know, very big still we've cut regulations more than any president ever and you can go four years, eight years, it doesn't matter, this tremendous regulations that we can be cutting still and we're doing it.

Donald Trump

00:02:51 - 00:03:07 (16 sec)

You know, it used to take 21 years to get a highway built, you know, bad case, but it would take 21 years, we're trying to bring that down to two and maybe even one and by the way, if it's not right, we're not going to approve it but we're not going to take 21 years to find out whether or not we can do it.

Stuart Varney

00:03:07 - 00:03:11 (4 sec)

Is that part of the implementation of the infrastructure rebuilding?

Donald Trump

00:03:11 - 00:03:30 (19 sec)

It's part of that and it's going to start, infrastructure is going to be starting after the mid terms and we think that's going to be an easy one. But we're going to infrastructure, we're going to have everything, just more of the same. Look what's happened with our country and if you look at China they're down $20 trillion and we're up $11.7 trillion dollars in worth, that's a tremendous number.

Stuart Varney

00:03:30 - 00:03:34 (3 sec)

Ready to start talking with China again or are they ready for you?

Donald Trump

00:03:34 - 00:03:55 (21 sec)

I don't think so, I told them they want to make a deal and I said you guy's aren't ready yet, you're just not ready because look, they've been $500 billion a year our of country, it's time that we stopped, OK? We've rebuilt China, you know that better than anybody, you talk about it more than I do I think and it stopped and you see what's happening with China, it's a whole different ball game.

Donald Trump

00:03:55 - 00:04:11 (16 sec)

So, now they're paying 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion hasn't affected our economy, has it, cost's haven't gone up, inflation still low, very low, hasn't had an impact that we see except for one, billions of dollars are pouring into the treasury.

Stuart Varney

00:04:11 - 00:04:21 (10 sec)

Saudi Arabia, we got to find out exactly what happened, when we do find out and if punishment is required, any idea what kind of punishment it might be?

Donald Trump

00:04:21 - 00:04:33 (13 sec)

Well, I hope we're going to be on the better side of the equation, you know we need Saudi Arabia in terms of our fight against all of the terrorism, everything that's happening in Iran and other places but Iran's been the leader.

Donald Trump

00:04:33 - 00:05:02 (29 sec)

Iran has been set back very big when I knocked out the Iran deal, you know it's a different country than it was. When I first came in, if you look through it and you take a look, oh a day before I came in, Iran was taking over the Middle East, they were going to take over everything, from Syria to Yeman to this -- now they're way pulling back, they're having riots in the street, they are a mess as a country and that had to do with the day that I pulled that horrible $150 billion deal we gave them -- the Iran deal, the Iran nuclear deal. We pulled it.

Donald Trump

00:05:02 - 00:05:10 (8 sec)

They're going to come back and negotiate because they're really -- I'm not going to say they have no choice, but they're going to come back and negotiate. And if they don't, that's fine, too.

Stuart Varney

00:05:10 - 00:05:11 (2 sec)

Well, we're not going to walk away from Saudi Arabia.

Donald Trump

00:05:11 - 00:05:12 (1 sec)

No, I don't want to do that.

Stuart Varney

00:05:12 - 00:05:13 (1 sec)

That's an ally --

Donald Trump

00:05:13 - 00:05:14 (1 sec)

I don't want to do that.

Stuart Varney

00:05:14 - 00:05:15 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:05:15 - 00:05:31 (16 sec)

I do not want to do that, and frankly they have a tremendous order -- $110 billion. Every country in the world wanted a piece of that order. We got all of it. And what are we going to do? Again, I've had some senators come up and some congressmen that said, "well, you know, sir, I think what we should do is we should not take that order."

Donald Trump

00:05:31 - 00:05:44 (13 sec)

I said, "who are we hurting? It's 500,000 jobs. It'll be ultimately $110 billion. It's the biggest order in the history of our country from an outside military." And I said, "we're going to turn that down? Why would we do that?"

Donald Trump

00:05:44 - 00:05:55 (11 sec)

So hopefully it's working out. We'll find out. We'll get down to the bottom of it. I hope that the King and the Crown Prince didn't know about it. That's the big factor in my eyes, and I hope they haven't.

Donald Trump

00:05:55 - 00:06:02 (8 sec)

Mike Pompeo just left. He went to Turkey as you know. He's coming back late tonight. I'm seeing him either tonight or tomorrow, and we'll find out.

Stuart Varney

00:06:02 - 00:06:12 (10 sec)

Has anybody every said to you, "Mr. President, let me have your phone. I want to take your phone away from you for just a brief, shining moment. We don't want anymore of these tweets." Anybody ever try that?

Donald Trump

00:06:12 - 00:06:23 (11 sec)

No, and I don't think I'd be talking to you if I did that. That's a way of getting out the message. Look, we have fake news. Everyone's fake. You look at what's -- and I'm not saying you and some of the people on Fox.

Donald Trump

00:06:23 - 00:06:35 (12 sec)

Not all of them, but some of them, but there's so much misinformation being put out. That's my only form of communicating really other than having a press conference every hour. If I do a press conference every hour.

Donald Trump

00:06:35 - 00:06:46 (11 sec)

Now, we're communicating very well. The polls are going through the roof. I think the Republicans are going to do well in the midterms, and I'm doing a lot of work on this. But to be honest with you I get such phony news. Everything's a fake.

Donald Trump

00:06:46 - 00:07:01 (14 sec)

Even yesterday I gave an interview to AP and the headline was totally different from everything I said. The headline was just terrible. Headline -- everything else was perfect. You know, the quotes were all perfect and they've been criticized for it. You know, where did they come up with that headline?

Donald Trump

00:07:01 - 00:07:18 (18 sec)

So if I gave that up -- it's social media. I don't call it tweeting. I call it social media. It goes on your show. Every time I do something you say, "we have breaking news. We have breaking news," whatever it may be, but I really believe if I didn't do that, Stuart, number one I probably wouldn't even be here talking to you.

Stuart Varney

00:07:18 - 00:07:20 (1 sec)

But you like it, too, don't you?

Donald Trump

00:07:20 - 00:07:22 (2 sec)

I do like it. It's a form of getting out the truth.

Stuart Varney

00:07:22 - 00:07:24 (2 sec)

And you like the press conferences.

Donald Trump

00:07:24 - 00:07:26 (2 sec)

Well, I enjoy them.

Stuart Varney

00:07:26 - 00:07:32 (6 sec)

You never miss an opportunity. When a question is shouted at you, you almost always respond.

Donald Trump

00:07:32 - 00:07:52 (21 sec)

What's funny, sometimes I get a really nasty person with a horrible, stupid question from like CNN because they're just so horrible and so fake. But, you know, I get this horrible question from some reporter at CNN. Then I'll hit the reporter back just modestly hard, and the next thing, "President hits reporters, terrible, freedom of the press."

Donald Trump

00:07:52 - 00:08:13 (20 sec)

I say what do I -- they hit me so viciously, I give them a little jab and the story is Trump hits reporter. So, you know, it's pretty unfair stuff, but again you get out there whether I do it this way or whether I do it through social media, but we're definitely getting the word out. We have the greatest economy in the history of our country, and it's not being reported.

Donald Trump

00:08:13 - 00:08:32 (19 sec)

The -- you go to NBC -- which is terrible, terrible new organization -- but you go to NBC, CBS, ABC, I mean, CNN we don't even talk about, but you go to these things. Take a look. I think the other day is was 94 percent, and that's of good stories. In other words, they take a good story and make it bad to neutral.

Stuart Varney

00:08:32 - 00:08:34 (2 sec)

It's never going to change.

Donald Trump

00:08:34 - 00:08:34 (1 sec)

Well, that's what they say --

Stuart Varney

00:08:34 - 00:08:36 (1 sec)

Any negative will always be the headline.

Donald Trump

00:08:36 - 00:08:41 (5 sec)

But that's why I do what I do because I can sort of go over that.

Stuart Varney

00:08:41 - 00:08:43 (2 sec)

You seem to be really enjoying it.

Donald Trump

00:08:43 - 00:08:44 (1 sec)

I have no choice.

Stuart Varney

00:08:44 - 00:08:45 (2 sec)

You do enjoy it.

Donald Trump

00:08:45 - 00:08:47 (2 sec)

Do I have choice? May I ask you?

Stuart Varney

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

You really enjoy it.

Donald Trump

00:08:48 - 00:08:50 (1 sec)

You enjoy what you do, too.

Stuart Varney

00:08:50 - 00:08:51 (1 sec)

Donald Trump

00:08:51 - 00:08:51 (1 sec)

That's why you do it well.

Stuart Varney

00:08:51 - 00:08:53 (1 sec)

I just want to thank you very much for being on the program.

Donald Trump

00:08:53 - 00:08:54 (2 sec)

Thank you, thank you. And enjoy the White House.

Stuart Varney

00:08:54 - 00:08:55 (1 sec)

Thank you, sir.

Donald Trump

00:08:55 - 00:08:56 (1 sec)

We love having you.

Stuart Varney

00:08:56 - 00:08:57 (1 sec)

Thank you very much, indeed.

Donald Trump

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

Thank you very much.

Stuart Varney

00:08:57 - 00:08:58 (1 sec)

Yes, sir. There will be more Varney after this.