Former (and Future) President Donald Trump On Chairman Xi, VP Harris, And The Closing Days Of Campaign 2024

The Hugh Hewitt Show

Former President Trump joined me this morning:

Audio:

10-24hhs-trump

Transcript:

HH: Good morning. I am back now with Former President, and I believe future President Donald Trump. Good morning, Mr. President. Welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show.

DT: Good morning.

HH: I believe, and I have to tell the audience, full disclosure, I have already voted for you and J.D. Vance. And so I’m not a bipartisan or non-partisan person. I’m hoping you win. I am cautiously optimistic. I appreciate you’ve made the program part of your closing kick. So this is a hypothetical, Mr. President. If somehow Kamala Harris managed to win this, she would have to deal with Xi Jinping, with whom you have dealt for a long time. How would Xi handle her?

DT: Like a baby. He’d take all the candy away very quickly. She wouldn’t have any idea what happened. It would be like a grand chess master playing a beginner. We would lose our country or be in World War III. It could be that that would happen, too, because she’d get exasperated. She’s in no way able to handle him. He’s a fierce individual. I watched her charade last night on CNN. It was an embarrassment that she’s running for president representing a major party.

HH: That was pretty bad. I’ve spent two hours talking about that last night. I think she’s melting down, and her internal polls are bad. But I want to stay on Xi for a moment. I think he’s the biggest threat to America. I think he’s dictator for life, and I think he’s ruthless. Can you deter him from attacking Taiwan, Mr. President?

DT: Yes. But I don’t think he’s a threat to America if you have the right president. I got along with him very good. I was tough on him, too. I had, you know, we took in $400 billion dollars-plus worth of tariffs. He wasn’t thrilled with that, but I had a good relationship with him until COVID. That was a bridge too far, and I broke it up.

HH: But he’s leaning in pretty hard on Taiwan right now. He encircled the island this week with their live fire drills. Do you think you can stop him from this nonsense, because it would crash the world economy if he did that.

DT: You don’t know what’s going to happen. He’d rather do it under them than have to do it with me. Very simple.

HH: There’s a guy named Jimmy Lai who’s very important to America’s Catholics, to the world’s Catholics. He’s a Catholic in Hong Kong, and he’s, you know, a great publisher, a billionaire like you. Xi has him in jail. Do you think you could speak to Xi when you’re back in the presidency about getting Jimmy Lai out and out of the country?

DT: 100%, yes.

HH: Thank you.

DT: And don’t forget, I got basketball players, I mean, you know, look. When I was there, basketball players stole things from Louis Vuitton and great stores, right? And they were being drafted, and to be drafted. It was a big story. And it was an automatic 10 years in China. I got them out. I said listen, do me a favor. Let these guys out. They went there with the national basketball team, USA, was playing China.

HH: Yup.

DT: And they got caught stealing things. And I got them out, and I got them out relatively easy. I asked him would you do me a favor…

HH: If you get Jimmy Lai out, that will be a great victory for freedom around the world. And he’s an old man. He needs to come and be in America.

DT: By the way, 100%, I’ll get him out. He’ll be easy to get out. But we don’t have people that even talk about it. We don’t have people to talk. We have…

HH: No, we don’t. They’ve abandoned him. So Mr. President, everything about deterring China from attacking Taiwan, and we’re going to get to Iran in a moment, depends upon your secretary of Defense. Now I’ve got a lot of friends who are on your list – Tom Cotton, Mike Pompeo, Michael Waltz, my son actually works for Waltz. Will you get your secretary of Defense named early, like the week of the election so they can get to work?

DT: I could. Yeah, I could, except it sounds, are you talking about earlier than the victory? I’d rather have the victory first and then name people after.

HH: No, no, after the election, like the first week after the election.

DT: Oh, yeah, I’d do that very soon. I could do it. I have, I have many good choices. I have four or five good choices. You named a couple of them. And they’re very good. A lot of really very good choices.

HH: Because that’s the chain of command – you to the secretary of Defense, then the combatant commanders.

DT: Yeah, that’s right.

HH: And that SecDef has to be strong.

DT: Gotta have a guy you can work with. And you have to have a guy that can be…for that position. No, absolutely. But I’ll tell you, you say Jimmy Lai. That’s going to be so easy. I’ll get him out. There’s no reason for him being there right now except that he doesn’t respect Biden and Kamala. Who would? Who would respect them? They can’t find…I watched her last night, and she’s like a child almost.

HH: It was pretty awful last night. She can’t communicate very well, and today’s Wall Street Journal number…

DT: I think it was the worst performance, yeah, it was the worst performance. She hasn’t had a good one, but this was the worst performance. When you watch her over a longer period.

HH: And I know you’re joining me by cell…

DT: And last night, you know, with Bret Baier, the way they were rushing the questions, you know, her people were screaming at him to stop. Now with you, because you have a tendency to go much longer than you agree to, my people will say, “Thank you, sir. Thank you.” And you go through them like it’s candy, okay? You go through them like Grant took Richmond, okay?

HH: Your comms people are pros. Your comms people are pros. Let’s go back to the biggest threat – nuclear war. It’s probably Iran. And our enemies, the other ones can be deterred with someone like you and a good secretary of Defense. I’m not sure about Iran, because they’re run by fanatics. We talked about it last time. Do you think you can get Israel and our Gulf State allies to get rid of that regime before they get a nuke, Mr. President?

DT: Well, I don’t necessarily know that you have to, but I think that we are in much better position. Had they followed Biden’s advice, they would be waiting for a bomb to drop onto them. But fortunately, you know, Bibi calls me quite a bit, and we have a lot of talks. But I always say make up your own mind. But Bibi has his own opinions. Had Bibi listened to Biden, he would right now be waiting for a nuclear bomb to drop on his head, okay? And now, the opposite. He put them in a very good negotiating position. I think he could survive this. You want to know? I think he’s in position where he can fight them or he can make a deal, and a good deal, a real deal.

HH: And do you think the Abraham Accords will bring in Saudi Arabia quickly after you return to office?

DT: Yes. Yes, very quickly. And not only Saudi Arabia, but many other countries. I even mention, when I did all the things I did with Iran, Iran was broke. You heard me say that. They were ready to make a deal. I could have made a deal with them. But then, we had that accident happen, despite getting millions and millions of votes I got the first time. And it would have been for him to make. So I said good luck, make that deal, it’ll be easy. They never made the deal. And they put us at risk by not making that deal, but they could have made a deal. I really think that Iran right now can be spoken to very easily. And three or four months ago, or a few months ago, I think it would have been much harder.

HH: If necessary, will you use force to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon online, Mr. President?

DT: Yes, I will.

HH: All right. I want to go to a big question, and I want to let you have the floor on this big question. It’s not the greatest connection in the world, but it’s an important…biographers are going to be writing about you for decades and centuries. And one of the questions they’re going to come up against is why do some people hate you so much? I mean, Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real thing. I’ve run into it. We saw it online repeatedly, the stuff they call you, the Hitler stuff, the fascist stuff. I saw your post on Truth Social. Why do you destabilize people this way?

DT: Well, it’s a gift, or it’s something like being left a gift. But it’s one way or the other, because I have a tendency to win. It’s a nice thing, and that bothers people. Sometimes, I play a little bit rough, but they play rough. They are rough and vicious people. They are vicious people. They’re dirty people. They’ve weaponized government. They’ve weaponized everything. And it’s actually made me more popular. It’s hard to believe. That’s, they’re also going to be wrestling with for years, because every time they do something, it makes me more popular. And even I’m surprised about the others. But the people, the thing I’ve learned is the people are very smart. They get it. They get it better than the Democrats get it. And every single time they’ve pulled that weaponization, every single time, with Fanni, you know, Fanni is…with Fanni, with everybody, every time they do this, it’s shocking. You know, my pollster will call me, “Sir, you’re up seven points.” The next time, “Sir, you went up six points.” And it’s rather amazing. But Trump Derangement Syndrome, I don’t know, it’s, I think I’m a nice person. But I’m a negotiator, but I win. And look, I’ve won for the Republican Party. I’ve taken the Republican Party and made into an entirely different party…The Republican Party is a very big, powerful party. Before, it stood, it was an elitist party with real stiffs running it. You know what a stiff is?

HH: Oh, gosh, yes.

DT: A stiff is a person that you know what. They’re stiffs.

HH: And you know, you’re having fun, too.

DT: Yeah, I am.

HH: I do think part of it is that you enjoy yourself and they don’t. But I really, I know biographers are going to study this, this particular line. Were you aware when you got into politics that people would end up hating you this much?

DT: Well, they hated me, and it’s stupid, because I won. You know, when you win, look, I wasn’t supposed to beat Hillary, and I’ll tell you little secrets. That was in, I guess, 2020. I made phone calls for a congressman. And when we had like 38 more than they thought, remember that? That was me. I did that. I did all of that. I did tele-town halls for congressmen. I’m doing it right now.

HH: Yeah.

DT: I’m doing it right now. You’re going to have more congressmen in the Republican Party then you think, because I’m making tele-town halls, meaning I call their districts. And the advantage is I’m the only one people will get, the concept is look, I’m the only one that people get on the phone for, and they get on by the thousands. If I make a call for a congressman who’s even or a little down, even if it’s for somebody that’s even, a little down, or a little up, nothing to worry about, right? A little down, a little up. And then I make 35, 40 calls. Every one of them will win. And nobody knew that in, was it ’20 or was it ’22? I guess it was ’20. And we took in…

HH: But when Ronald Reagan hammered Democrats, when Ronald Reagan crushed them in 1984, they did not hate him. So I don’t really understand how otherwise sane and rational people lose their perspective. You will be there for four years. You will exit in January of ’29. You will restore the American defense system. You will get some trade deals worked out. I’m going to talk to you about the EU going after Apple and the English Labour Party, Great Britain’s Labour Party is going after Elon Musk. I’ll talk to you about all that. You defend America. Why does this upset so many people? You must think about this.

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