Photo of Donald Trump

Interview with Laura Ingraham of Fox News

August 31, 2020

INGRAHAM: Mr President, thank you so much for joining us.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

INGRAHAM: On Friday, Ted Wheeler, the Mayor of Portland sent a letter to you saying, basically we don't want your help. You make matters worse. Saturday, one of your supporters is murdered in Portland by it looks like a suspected Antifa individual. And then on Sunday, Wheeler comes out and Biden, and essentially tries to blame shift to you for the violence there. Your reaction.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, these are terrible and very incompetent people. Portland's been burning for many years, for decades it's been burning, but now it's gotten to a point they don't want to do… I watched the Mayor try and get in with these people. And he went to a protest and he went in there. They almost killed him. If he didn't have security, whatever he had, five security guards, he would have been dead, just like they would have done to Rand Paul, who's a great guy, and his wife, Kelly. It is a disgrace. When you look at what's happening. Now, we sent in Homeland Security. The reason we sent them in was to protect our courthouse. We have a $300 million courthouse, and they wanted to blow up our courthouse or burn it down. "Take your choice, blow it up, or burn it down," they said, and I said, "No, no, that's not happening."

So they wouldn't protect it, because the Mayor said he doesn't care. So we sent in our Homeland people, they did a great job. Homeland Security. Immediately, it was protected. And that's the only reason they were there. I've offered to send in the National Guard. I've offered to send in anybody they want. I could put that out in 45 minutes and it would stop. And I think the people of Portland and the people of Oregon, I know it's a liberal state, considered liberal. They're tired of it. They're tired of living with this curse. They're living with a curse. They say that when you walk through the streets of Portland, this is years and years of burning and it's not-

INGRAHAM: The last 90 days it's been really [crosstalk]

THE PRESIDENT: It's been horrible the last 90 days. But no, it's been going on for many… It's been going on for many, many years. It's like, you're in, I won't name the city, but it's the city someplace in the world that's not so good, okay? It's a terrible situation.

INGRAHAM: The Oregon governor said, "No one is safe in Donald Trump's America." They're trying to turn the tables on you after months of… They're not really saying much about the violence.

THE PRESIDENT: Right? But they won't ever criticize anybody that truly, that's a violent person, frankly. That's violent. They stick up for the violence. The people that are getting hurt, they don't care about. They don't care about these people. It's a weird thing. It's like warped minds. And for the last 93 days, I've been offering to send in… And as you know, they have to take the offer. They have to ask to have help. I've been standing and I've been saying, "Anytime you're ready, we'll put it out."

INGRAHAM: What's motivating them, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it's a sickness, actually. I think they're are also, there's a fear. I watched the way they treated this Mayor Wheeler when he was standing there. And I'll tell you how unfair the news is. NBC news didn't show that he was being shouted at and cursed at. And he ran, literally he had to run for his life, because they were going to really hurt him. He had security. If he didn't, he would have probably-

INGRAHAM: Well, they shot up an apartment building [crosstalk].

THE PRESIDENT: How he can still stick up for them. I think there's a fear. I think he's afraid.

INGRAHAM: Are they afraid that Oregon could be in play because of people's concern about law and order?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. No, I think that like the Mayor Wheeler, I think he's probably afraid for his life. Because if you would have seen him… But I'll show you, had this on NBC news put on and they didn't have the people shouting, they had him standing there, and they talked about how it was a show of great unity. The mayor standing with the people. Those people were going to kill him. They were saying things that I can't repeat right now, but horrible things. But they didn't put that on. I actually happened to see the real tape on Fox. He escaped with his life, and yet he doesn't want any help. It's so unfair to the people of Oregon. We could solve that problem quickly. Like I did in Kenosha. You know, Kenosha went through three or four days of that. You wouldn't have a Kenosha right now. We demanded that they send in the National Guard. Called the governor. And in all fairness, the governor did it. Not enough, but it was enough to put it out. And we ultimately put in where we had 1,000 people and we put it out quickly. You wouldn't have Kenosha right now.

INGRAHAM: In Pittsburgh today, Joe Biden gave a speech, and he spoke directly about this violence.

VIDEO CLIP OF BIDEN: You may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong. But his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is.

INGRAHAM: Your response to the Vice President, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Look, he's a weak person. He's been weak all his life, but now he's really weak. He shouldn't be running for president. He should not be there.

INGRAHAM: But do you want your supporters to confront the left wing protestors? Or do you want to leave it to law enforcement?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't want them to. I want to leave it to law enforcement. But my supporters are wonderful, hardworking, tremendous people. And they turn on their television set, and they look at a Portland or they look at a Kenosha before I got involved and stopped it. Or they look at Chicago, where 78 people were shot last week and then numerous people died. Or they look at New York where violence is up by like what, 150%? It's up by a number that nobody… And people are leaving. They're looking at all of this and they can't believe it. They can't believe it. Whether it's my supporter or not.

INGRAHAM: But you don't want them showing up to try to-

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's a peaceful protest. I mean, they were protesting. They weren't… You know, it's amazing. They want to protest and they get criticized. The other people run through the streets, burn down storefronts, hurt people, beat people and kill people, kick people in the face. That would have happened to Rand Paul, by the way, and his wife, except that you had two, and then ultimately four very good policeman, who took a big beating. They took a big beating and they really saved Rand Paul. In fact, we're going to bring them into the white house and give them some kind of an accommodation because they really… What they did was very brave, actually. I mean, can you imagine? I'm saying policemen were brave because they were escorting, but they're escorting a US Senator and his wife. And as Rand said, he would have been killed if they weren't there. It's a terrible-

INGRAHAM: Isn't it true also, Mr. President, that the Democrats have been in their own way, inciting this violence against individuals for almost as long as you've been in office?

THE PRESIDENT: Sure.

VIDEO CLIP OF REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS: If you see anybody from that cabinet, you get up and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere.

VIDEO CLIP OF SENATOR COREY BOOKER: Please, get up in the face of some Congress people.

VIDEO CLIP OF REPRESENTATIVE AYANNA PRESSLEY: There needs to be unrest in the streets.

VIDEO CLIP OF SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: The domestic enemies to our voting system and our honoring our constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, with their allies in the Congress of the United States.

THE PRESIDENT: It's not only the Democrats, it's the media, the fake news. The news is so fake. Like I told you with the mayor, where they make them look like it's a great unity thing, when actually they were cursing at him and they would have done big numbers on him, but they don't show that. They just show the mayor standing with these very tough thugs and he was gone. Okay? They saved him. But NBC shows it like it's unity with the people. I don't get it. I don't know why they're doing it. And I will say this. At some point I will not be President. Hopefully that'll be in five years from now, but I will not be President. And they're going to die. They're all going to die. Can you imagine if they had to cover sleepy Joe Biden, it won't be very much fun. But much more importantly, our country would go to hell. Our stock markets will crash, as sure as you're sitting there. We will have problems like you've never had. But if you take Kenosha and if you take other parts of the country that I don't even talk about, I could show you things that we've done to stop this kind of a thing that's happening in Portland, and happening in Chicago, and happening in other places.

INGRAHAM: Most red states are cooperating with federal law enforcement and things are relatively calm in red state America. But Biden said again today in Pittsburgh, that essentially you're not going to be safe in Donald Trump's America.

THE PRESIDENT: So if it weren't Donald Trump's America, to just use the expression as I'm president, you would have riots like you've never seen. The Democrats have lost control of the radical left. And if you look at Bernie and the, I call it the manifesto that was agreed to with Biden and his crew, that's further left than Bernie ever was. They won't be able to control these people. These people have lost control of these people and it's hurting them. Don't forget, Biden wasn't going to come out of his basement until the election. Now he had to because the polls are so good for me. Now he had two because the polls are different. So all of a sudden he's in Pittsburgh. He wasn't going to leave his basement. Then he said, "Okay," he's leaving. But he won't leave for 10 days. 10 days is a long time. So in the meantime, like on Sunday, or Saturday, I'm in Texas, I'm in Louisiana. I was going to stop in two other places. Fortunately, they didn't get hit. Arkansas wasn't hit very much, et cetera, et cetera. I would have stopped. But I'm all over the place. I leave early in the morning. I get home late at night. And that's what you have to do as president Joe doesn't have energy.

INGRAHAM: Tomorrow you're going to Kenosha, Wisconsin, of course the scene of so much unrest lately. And the governor says he doesn't want you to come. Why is it important for you to be seen by the people of Wisconsin now?

THE PRESIDENT: Because I am a tremendous fan of law enforcement and I want to thank the law enforcement. They've done a good job. And when the governor says that I shouldn't come or he'd prefer that I not come, I'm the one that called him and said, "Tony, you got to bring out the National Guard." "Well, I don't really want to do it." "Tony, you got to bring it out." And unlike your governor of Oregon, that just keeps saying no, he agreed to it at least. Now he agreed to a small number, but the small number was plenty.

INGRAHAM: But isn't it a political motivation. They don't want you to come to blue state America, because they don't want the media to have to cover what's really happening on the ground. Isn't this political?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, that's true. That's true. If you look at what's going on in, as you call it, blue state America, blue city America. You look at what's going on in New York. You look at what's going on in these states. Chicago is a disaster. Portland. You look at Portland. Now Portland's a little different. That's anarchists. And I actually think in many ways that's easier to handle. I think Portland is very easy to handle, because that's a group of anarchists that are paid by the outside. And you know, we put a lot of people in jail. I don't know if you know this or not. You remember three, four months ago, we were having a problem with monuments? They were ripping down statues and monuments [crosstalk].

INGRAHAM: Democrats didn't say anything about that.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, the Democrats had no control. It actually got out of control even for them. I signed in an executive order, 10 years in jail if you knock down a statue or monument. You haven't heard one thing about it. You haven't. We wouldn't have… They were going after Thomas Jefferson, they were going after Lincoln. And they were going after the Washington monument, that they could knock that one down. They were going after it. And I actually don't even think they know. I think they're just thugs. I don't think it's… It may be an ideology and it may not. It is an ideology for the people that are paying them. And the funny thing is, and the strange thing is, the people that are paying them and all this money, because somebody's doing it [crosstalk] The people paying them, those people will be overthrown. Their lives will be taken away. Their lives will be endangered. They're all going to be gone. They're just stupid foolish people that made a lot of money.

INGRAHAM: But corporations have given an enormous amount of money in the tens of millions, or hundreds of millions, to Black Lives Matter, which is all over a lot of these protests. So what does that mean about these corporations? Why are they paying that money out?

THE PRESIDENT: Because they're weak people led by weak people. In many cases, not all corporations.

INGRAHAM: What's that mean, they're weak people?

THE PRESIDENT: I looked at numbers where one company is giving hundreds of millions of dollars.

INGRAHAM: When you say they're weak, what do you mean? Explain that.

THE PRESIDENT: Because they just do what's the easiest path. That's not the easy path. That's a very dangerous path. Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization. You remember pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon. That was the first time I ever heard of Black Lives Matter. I said, "That's a terrible name. It's so discriminatory." It's bad for black people. It's bad for everybody. And all of a sudden it becomes like, sort of… Although now if you look, it's gone way down, because people are tired of this stuff, what's going on. The Black Lives Matter. If you look at what's going on with the bats and a lot of thugs.

INGRAHAM: Running through DC last night.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, it's terrible, what's going on. But Black Lives Matter came into existence, walking down the street, screaming, "Pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon." And that was about police officers that was representing police. They were pigs, pigs in a blanket, like the sausages or hot dogs, fry them like bacon.

INGRAHAM: Well they were saying worse over the last couple of days. And-

THE PRESIDENT: I think even worse, yeah. Probably. [crosstalk] I don't know, do you get worse?

INGRAHAM: But DOJ's role in trying to really hit the law enforcement accelerator here against these groups, a lot of the individuals coming into Wisconsin have been tracked as out of staters, the ones who've been arrested.

THE PRESIDENT: We have them all.

INGRAHAM: Can DOJ do more? And what could they do to really start putting the fear of God in these violent… Not the peaceful protesters, but violent protesters.

THE PRESIDENT: So they have under investigation a lot. In fact, I'll show you. I just had this, because of this very important interview with you. But I just… And I'll give this to you. In Kansas City, violence has decreased by a third since the initiative began. In Indianapolis, 49 guns confiscated. More than 1000 arrests have been made under the initiative. DOJ is addressing violence and crime across the country. But you don't read that. The FBI and ATF are assisting the Portland police department, but you can't do much when you have absolutely no cooperation.

INGRAHAM: But if they don't think they're going to go to jail for 10 years for doing what they're doing, then they're going to keep doing it. So how does a Trump reelection calm things down in the United States? Biden says he's going to calm things down. [crosstalk] How will a Trump election calm? Why? Why won't he calm things down?

THE PRESIDENT: Biden won't calm things down. They will take over. They will have won. If Biden gets in, they will have won. He's a weak person. He's controlled like a puppet. So it's not going to be calm things down. It's going to be, they will have won. They will have taken over your cities. It's a revolution. You understand that, it's a revolution. And the people of this country will not stand for that. They're not going to stand for that. The vast majority of people feel like me. They feel like… Every time I put law and order up on social media, it gets such an incredible positive response. The people of this country will not stand for it. If you say calm things down. Yeah. Calm things down, because they will have taken over. Take a look at what's going on. And Biden… Well, Biden is, I don't even like to mention Biden, because he's not controlling anything.

INGRAHAM: Who do you think is pulling Biden's strings. Is it former Obama people?

THE PRESIDENT: People that you've never heard of. People that are in the dark shadows. People that are-

INGRAHAM: What does that mean? That sounds like conspiracy theory. Dark shadows, what is that?

THE PRESIDENT: People that you haven't heard of. There are people that are on the streets. There are people that are controlling the streets. We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend and in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. They're on a plane.

INGRAHAM: Where is-

THE PRESIDENT: I'll tell you sometime, but it's under investigation right now. But they came from a certain city, and this person was coming to the Republican National Convention. And there were like seven people on the plane like this person. And then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage. They were coming [crosstalk]-

INGRAHAM: Planning for Washington.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, this is all happening.

INGRAHAM: But the money is coming from somewhere. How can it be tracked?

THE PRESIDENT: Money is coming from some very stupid rich people, that have no idea that if their thing ever succeeded, which it won't, they will be thrown to the wolves like you've never seen before.

INGRAHAM: Women voters, so important to reach out to them-

THE PRESIDENT: Yep.

INGRAHAM: Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you have a deficit among women voters.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's what they said last time, too.

INGRAHAM: Right, well, let's say, for the sake of argument, you have a deficit among female voters, who maybe in some cases, you're too aggressive, your tone or your tweets. What do you say to them directly about what you'll do in a second term?

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. I have to be aggressive because I'm like standing here in a sea of incompetent people, stupid people, and violent people. Very violent.

INGRAHAM: But that's the kind of language. Stupid people-

THE PRESIDENT: That's okay.

INGRAHAM: That's like, a lot of women don't like that.

THE PRESIDENT: It's also the kind, well … Where are we? Oh, we're in the White House. I see. See. Okay? So I'm standing here in a sea of people, and we need law and order in this country, and women see that with me. You're never going to have law and order with Biden. Hey, look at Ferguson. Look what happened during the … You know, people forget. Look at all of those horrible race riots you had during Obama. Ferguson's just one that comes to mind. But you had them all the time. Look at all of what happened with Brown and this one and that one. Look at all of the problems you had under Obama. It was a disaster. It was actually worse than anything.

This is a much different situation. Again, the anarchists in Portland are different than what's going on in Chicago. Chicago can be solved. I think it's actually a little bit more difficult to solve. I think the anarchists, in many ways, are much more solvable, but for women, more than anything else, they want security. They want safety. They have to have safety. They talk about the suburban woman. What I did recently, I ended the regulation that provided low-income housing, that mandated low-income housing-

INGRAHAM: That was Obama's rule.

THE PRESIDENT: That was the Obama rule. It was a disaster.

INGRAHAM: Do you think the suburbs are in danger if Biden is elected?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yeah. We already- [crosstalk]

INGRAHAM: We already know the cities are in danger, but are the suburbs in danger? Because they say that's fear-mongering on the part of Republicans.

THE PRESIDENT: I know the suburbs, look … Westchester was ground zero, okay? For what they were trying to do. They were trying to destroy the suburban, beautiful place. The American dream, really. They wanted low-income housing, and with that comes a lot of other problems, including crime. May not be nice to say, but I'll say it. [crosstalk]

INGRAHAM: You're not saying that all poor people are criminals, though?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm not saying that at all, but it does … There is a level of violence that you don't see. So you have this beautiful community in the suburbs, including women, right? Women. They want security. I ended where they build low-income housing project right in the middle of your neighborhood. I ended it. If Biden gets in, he already said, it's going to go at a much higher rate than ever before, and you know who's going to be in charge of it? Cory Booker. That's going to be nice. Okay. So I think that women are going to want me, well, for a lot of other reasons. The stock markets will crash. As sure as you're sitting there, your 401(k)s will go down to a small percentage of what they are-

INGRAHAM: Biden says he's not going to raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000.

THE PRESIDENT: He's going to do $4 trillion in tax increases. He's going to do things that are going to cost so much on the Green New Deal, which is done by a child. Okay? That's the mind of a child. Because the Green New Deal is ridiculous. It doesn't work. They're going to do things under the Green … You know, the Green New Deal, if you actually did it, is $100 trillion. That's more money than this country could make in a thousand years-

INGRAHAM: They say it's going to be good-paying jobs. All the great-paying jobs that Obama apparently didn't create.

THE PRESIDENT: Let's rip down a building and build a new one with no windows. Okay?

INGRAHAM: The African American community. You've made more strides in outreach to African American voters, than I think of any Republican president in my lifetime. What can you tell the African American community tonight about your commitment to doing more in the second term, and what will that include?

THE PRESIDENT: I've done criminal justice reform. I saved the historically black colleges and universities. What they went through was, for years, including Obama-

INGRAHAM: Defunding.

THE PRESIDENT: Prison reform, criminal justice reform.

INGRAHAM: Next term.

THE PRESIDENT: Opportunity zone. More of the same. And in fact, I actually said in the speech, the best is yet to come. And I've been treated very well, at least in the polls, I hope. I hope that translates because, unfortunately, the African American, the Black community, has been so used to going and pressing the Democrat lever, and what have they got out of it? They've got nothing. Obama didn't give them criminal justice reform. I did. Obama didn't give them opportunity zones. I did. Obama didn't do all of the things, didn't save … Obama could have saved the historically black colleges and universities. He didn't do anything for them. He didn't do anything for them. I've done more.

And I said in the speech, some people would say, you shouldn't say it. It's too aggressive. I said, what's aggressive? I've done more than any president in the United … in the history of our country, except for maybe Abe, and I say maybe, maybe, Abraham Lincoln. The reason I say maybe is I'll explain that to you later. Okay?

INGRAHAM: All right. I want to talk about-

THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. I've done more for the Black community than any president in the United States with the exception of Abraham Lincoln. And it's true. Criminal justice reform was such a big deal, and look what Biden did in 1994, what he did to people, to Black people.

INGRAHAM: He called the criminals predators.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, he called them predators.

INGRAHAM: Super predators.

THE PRESIDENT: Super predators, actually. He called them super predators.

INGRAHAM: So when you see the unrest on the streets, and so much of it is driven by an antipathy toward law enforcement, and more African Americans are stopped by the police. The statistics that are cited over and over again. What can you say to those families who live on those streets, and who are worried? They're worried because they think their sons or even their daughters could be targeted. Because I known you for a long time, you don't want that. You want people to all be treated equally, but they have a caricature of Republican voters, and you're the leader of the party. What do you say to them about that mischaracterization?

THE PRESIDENT: What the Black community wants in this country is they want police, and they want law and order. They don't want what's happening to their communities. They're being affected in a much harsher, meaner matter than anybody else. That includes Hispanics, who aren't doing very well, also. Look, they want law and order. They want the police. They do polls, and the polls are at 82, 83%. They want the police. They've gotten along with the police, and the police have been very badly mistreated because you have one bad apple, and it becomes a story for weeks.

INGRAHAM: St. Louis African American police officer shot in the head and killed-

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yeah. Dorn-

INGRAHAM: Last night. No, another African American just killed yesterday.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, that's true. Yeah. That's true. Killed.

INGRAHAM: It's more dangerous to be a police officer today, do you not think, than it has been in a long time?

THE PRESIDENT: The police are under siege because of things … They can do 10,000 great acts, which is what they do. And one bad apple, or a choker, you know, a choker, they choke. Shooting the guy.

INGRAHAM: You mean they panic?

THE PRESIDENT: Shooting the guy in the back many times. I mean, couldn't you have done something different? Couldn't you have wrestled him? In the meantime, he might've been going for a weapon, and there's a whole big thing there. But they choke. Just like in a golf tournament, they miss a three-foot-

INGRAHAM: You're not comparing it to golf, because of course, that's what the media will say.

THE PRESIDENT: I'm saying people choke.

INGRAHAM: People might, people hack.

THE PRESIDENT: People choke, and people are bad people. You have both. You have some bad people, and you have, they choke. You could be a police officer for 15 years, and all of a sudden you're confronted. You've got a quarter of a second to make a decision. If you don't make the decision and you're wrong, you're dead. People choke under those circumstances, and they make a bad decision. I've seen bad decisions of people that, it looked bad, but probably it was a choke. But you also have bad police, but you also … The vast, not only the vast majority, thousands and thousands of great acts, and one bad one, and you make the evening news for weeks.

INGRAHAM: I know you reached out to Jacob Blake's mom. And she said on camera she was sorry she missed the call. She respects the office of the presidency, and I think she would like to talk to you. Have you tried to talk to her again, and would you talk to her again?

THE PRESIDENT: The call is being made, as I understand it, yes.

INGRAHAM: Fantastic.

On the flu vaccines in Massachusetts, they're mandating that children get flu vaccines in order to go back to school. There's a controversy about that. A lot of parents are like, whoa, we don't want our kids to get the flu vaccines. Are you worried that on the push for vaccines, these fast vaccines for COVID, you might be splitting a coalition of Americans, frankly in both parties, who aren't comfortable with these vaccines?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, once you get to a certain number, we use the word herd, right? Once you get to a certain number, it's going to go away. So, it doesn't have to be. But yeah, I mean, a lot of people are not going to want to do it. A lot of people don't want to do the flu vaccine.

INGRAHAM: Should it be mandatory?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, I never had the flu, but I never had a shot. I never had the vaccine. I come here, the first thing is, sir, you have to have a flu shot. I said, "Why?" "Because you have to have it." I say, "What's the percentage? And I wasn't thrilled with the percentage, it's like 50%, 55%."

INGRAHAM: But Dr. Fauci It might not give "great protection" because it's a Coronavirus.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I said, look, if I've never had it, wouldn't it be good? And then I thought I should have it because I'll set an example. So I had it. So I've had it now three times, and I still haven't had the flu. So maybe I'll give credit to the flu vaccine. I don't know.

INGRAHAM: If you had it-

THE PRESIDENT: If I can say this. I think we're going to have a vaccine very soon. A lot of tremendous work has been done. We're going to have a vaccine, just like we have therapeutics, which to me are even more important. You go into the hospital, you make people better. That's to me the most, and we just did the convalescent plasma, I think. And you have other things too. So I think we're going to have a lot of therapeutics and we're going to have a vaccine very soon as to whether or not people take it-

INGRAHAM: 35% say they're not going to take the COVID vaccine. They don't want it. So it shouldn't be mandatory, then should it?

THE PRESIDENT: You add 35 to the people that have had it. And to all of the other things. People that have had it, where in theory, you can't get it, although they found one person and they're making a big deal. One person got it twice. But if you add it all up, it gives you very good protection.

INGRAHAM: Biden says he would shut down the economy again. If the scientists said that was the right thing to do in the fight against COVID.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

INGRAHAM: Would you?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it's a very dangerous statement for him to make. Look, we did the right thing. We shut it down and now we built it up and we're setting records on job numbers. We're setting records on retail numbers. So this guy comes in, I heard it the other day, if they said, so that means that if some doctor said we have to shut it down, we're going to shut it down. We're setting records. By the way, the stock market is at an all time record right now. You look at what's going on in the stock market. Look at what's going on. We're going to have a phenomenal year, next year. We're going to have a great third quarter. Interestingly, the numbers for the third quarter will come out before the election.

INGRAHAM: Are you worried if something happens in the market and it corrects in October-

THE PRESIDENT: So what happens- [crosstalk].

INGRAHAM: They're like trumps push on the market.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can tell you what is happening. Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to give any stimulus. We should have it. It wasn't the people's fault that China gave us this virus. China gave us the virus. Whether it was through incompetence or on purpose.

INGRAHAM: She called you a domestic enemy and enemy of the state, your supporters. How do you work with her on another stimulus? Will it happen?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I always tell her to go back to San Francisco, take care of your homeless problem. Take care of your problem in California. Because there's nothing like what I'm witnessing out there. Right outside, right where she lives right in her district is so bad. Needles all over the place-

INGRAHAM: Well, will you get a stimulus or not?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we should have. We'd like to get it for the people because it wasn't their fault, but she doesn't want to give it because that will make the economy a little bit better and that would be a terrible thing.

INGRAHAM: If you had to do it all again, I know that's kind of a hard question, but do it all again, would you put Fauci front and center every day in charge of the coronavirus task force?

THE PRESIDENT: I get along with him very well. I disagree with a lot of what he said. He said, "Keep it open for China." That was a big mistake, and he admits it. I get along with him, but every once in a while, he'll come up with one that I say, "Where did that come from?" I inherited him. He was here. He was a part of this huge piece of machine. I didn't put anybody in charge. He was here. He's been here for 40 years.

INGRAHAM: '84, 1984.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. He's been here for many, many years, but you inherit a lot of people. It's part of the machinery and you have some you love, some you don't. I like him, I don't agree with him that often, but I like him.

INGRAHAM: And when you look back on the last four years and the first three were impeachment, Mueller, pandemic, [crosstalk] investigations.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

INGRAHAM: What do you say to the American people about what they don't see when they're doing interviews like this? How you cope with this constant barrage from the Hill. There's always back and forth, that's fine. But it's been different for you.

THE PRESIDENT: It's been different because I've accomplished so much. On the military, I've accomplished, first of all I'm bring in many of the troops home and most of the troops home, even cutting down Germany. Okay? Because they've taken advantage of us like you wouldn't believe. But it's been different for a lot of different

Donald J. Trump, Interview with Laura Ingraham of Fox News Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/370705

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