Donald Trump’s First 100 Days: Economy, Border & Ukraine

[00:00:00]
Anchor News
This is an ABC News special from inside the White House.

[00:00:05]
Terry Moran
When you step back in the Oval Office after you were re-elected, what went through your mind? Triumphant when you walked back?

[00:00:12]
Donald Trump
Yes, there's a feeling of triumph.

[00:00:14]
Anchor News
President Donald J. Trump on his 100th day in office from the number one issue, the economy.

[00:00:20]
Terry Moran
People are worried, even some people who voted for you saying, I didn't sign up for this. So how do you answer those concerns?

[00:00:28]
Donald Trump
Well, they did sign up for it, actually.

[00:00:30]
Anchor News
To immigration.

[00:00:31]
Terry Moran
It is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted a staggering decline. But there are questions about your methods.

[00:00:42]
Anchor News
To Elon Musk.

[00:00:43]
Terry Moran
Did Doge go too far, too fast, too reckless?

[00:00:47]
Anchor News
And the concerns from many Americans about the impact of tariffs.

[00:00:51]
Donald Trump
Everything's gonna be just fine.

[00:00:53]
Anchor News
President Trump, the first 100 days, the interview in the Oval Office with ABC News anchor and senior national correspondent, Terry Moran.

[00:01:04]
Terry Moran
Earlier today, I sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an exclusive interview on his 100th day of his second term. It was a great opportunity to ask him some wide-ranging questions about the issues that most concern so many Americans. We talked about the economy and its tariffs. We talked about immigration and those deportations. And you can see here, the White House has put up some posters that they say show some of the violent criminals that have so far been deported. We talked about a lot more as well. The president's answers were provocative, at times combative, and always he was strong in his convictions about his policies. But before we get to the interview, we begin tonight with a look inside the Oval Office that Donald Trump has transformed.

[00:01:54]
Donald Trump
Hello everybody, how are you? This is the Oval Office. This is the Resolute Desk, which is really something very spectacular. There's nothing quite like it. And it gives you a choice of about seven different desks. But this is the one I chose. Ronald Reagan had it. FDR had it, a few people had it, but I found it to be the most beautiful.

[00:02:17]
Terry Moran
It is amazing.

[00:02:18]
Donald Trump
This is an amazing space and amazing, maybe architecturally wonderful, but amazing for what it represents. It represents the U.S. and if properly used, a lot of good things can happen.

[00:02:34]
Terry Moran
i see ronald reagan over there right to your left

[00:02:37]
Donald Trump
being in the oval office is very important save ronald regan here and they put him a little bit larger sort of seemed to fit very nicely uh you have uh democrats a little bit you have

[00:02:52]
Terry Moran
Franklin Roosevelt.

[00:02:53]
Donald Trump
Franklin Roosevelt. So you look at that picture and people say, well, what's he doing up there? But look, he was a serious president, whether we like it or not. He was a four-termer and, uh, You have Lincoln, you have Washington, but you look over here, that's Monroe, the Monroe Doctrine.

[00:03:12]
Terry Moran
Why is he up there?

[00:03:13]
Donald Trump
I think the Monroe Doactrine was... Pretty important, you know, that was his claim to fame. Over here, you have the original of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and, of course, you have the Declaration of Independence.

[00:03:26]
Terry Moran
What does it mean to you?

[00:03:28]
Donald Trump
Well, it means exactly what it says. It's a declaration. It's a Declaration of Unity and Love and Respect. And it means a lot. And it's something very special to our country.

[00:03:40]
Terry Moran
Lincoln's portrait up there. I'm not familiar with that one.

[00:03:44]
Terry Moran
But I think when I'm looking at that famous line in the second inaugural, with malice toward none, with charity toward all...

[00:03:52]
Donald Trump
Well, he was, uh... Great president he went through a lot

[00:03:57]
Terry Moran
and the Oval Office is always changing between presidents and changes something does what does this say? About how you feel about the country and the office. Well,

[00:04:06]
Donald Trump
I think it says I love the country I mean, I'm putting pictures of presidents up that have never been up pictures that were largely used and in many cases, you know, great men, in this case men, but great men of great achievement

[00:04:22]
Terry Moran
and your every detail, you know, this is your office may have very detailed person.

[00:04:30]
Donald Trump
I'm a very clean person I like cleanliness I like to see this space be treated properly. I've added a lot to the space in terms of beautification. in terms of modernization.

[00:04:43]
Terry Moran
That's a gallery of presidents.

[00:04:45]
Donald Trump
It really is, it really is. And it's an honor to have you people with us.

[00:04:49]
Terry Moran
Mr. President, thank you for doingthis. 

[00:04:51]
Donald Trump
Thank you very much. 

[00:04:52]
Terry Moran
Here in the Oval Office. It's special. A hundred days into your second term. So what's the one thing, just one thing, that you think is the most significant thing you've done so far in these 100 days?

[00:05:07]
Donald Trump
Well,I think maybe the border is the most significant because our country was really going bad. They were allowing people to come in from prisons, as you know, and you've heard me say it, but you've heard a lot of people say it. Prisons, mental institutions, gang members, murderers. We had many murderers, 11,888, they think. Some murdered more than one person. So you had murderers coming in. You had everybody coming in, and not just South America, from all over the world. They were emptying their prisons into our country. And now it's totally closed down. And you've seen just yesterday they announced 99.9%. Nobody thought that could happen. And it happened quickly, very quickly. And I think that's very significant. But we're doing other things that are very significant. Results will take a little bit longer because it's one of those, you know, it's complicated. It's many years of trading abuse.

[00:05:59]
Donald Trump
We've been abused by other countries for years and years. They laughed at us. They thought we were stupid people, and we're fixing it. And I think that's gonna be very, very important. But I don't...

[00:06:11]
Terry Moran
We have a lot of ground to cover.

[00:06:12]
Donald Trump
Yeah, I would really say that the border is so important. You know, just can't- And we'll get there. Immigration, huge.

[00:06:18]
Terry Moran
And we're gonna get there. But I wanna start with the economy, the number one issue for so many people, for just about everybody. It's one of the main reasons that you're back in this office. And now we have this trade war with China that Moody's and other analysts say is going to cost American families thousands of more dollars per year. And there is a lot of concern out there. People are worried, even some people who voted for you saying, I didn't sign up for this. So how do you answer those concerns?

[00:06:48]
Donald Trump
Well, they did sign up for it, actually, and this is what I campaigned on. I said that we've been abused by other countries at levels that nobody's ever seen before. We were losing $3 billion to $5 billion a day on trade. We were losing a trillion and a half to two trillion dollars a year. Not sustainable. They were taking advantage of us like they've never I could have left it that way. And at some point there would have been an implosion like nobody's ever seen. But I said no we have to fix it. I've wanted to do this for many years. You know, I had the best economy during my first term. We had a tremendous economy, tremendous success. And we did tremendous numbers of tariffs on, we took in a lot of money from tariffs, China in particular, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs.

[00:07:40]
Donald Trump
We had no inflation, as you know. We had an incredible economy. We were given credit for a great economy. But I said, we have to fix this. Otherwise, it's just not self-sustaining.

[00:07:49]
Terry Moran
One of the things you ran on was you said you'd bring prices down on day one. And that it would happen fast. And that it Would happen fast. I have. Most economists will tell you that tariffs will raise prices. So don't your tariffs cut against that promise you made to bring prices down?

[00:08:08]
Donald Trump
No, because I had massive tariffs on China, if you remember, in my first term, and we had essentially no inflation, like around 1% inflation, which is like a perfect number. And then when Biden took over, it went through the roof. It went to probably the worst inflation we've ever had. I mean, we had an inflation nightmare. Now, if you look at what's happening now, we're only there for 100 days, as you say. And in 100 days, we took over. We had bad inflation for four years, for two years, especially two years of his administration. I would say record setting like we've never seen. They say 48 years, the worst in 48 years. I say it was much worse than that. Right. So now if you look at what's happened, energy is down. Gasoline hit $1.98 in a few states during the last couple of days.

[00:09:05]
Donald Trump
It was $3.50 and $4 and $4.50. But gasoline is way down. When I took over, you remember the big thing with eggs. They hit me the first week. Eggs, eggs, eggs. Like it was my fault. I didn't cause this problem. This problem was caused by Biden. What's the problem with eggs? And they said they've doubled. Well, eggs are down 87 percent since I got involved. A lot of that is by the way. And there were plenty of eggs for Easter, which we just went through. There were plenty of legs for Easter. They were saying you won't have enough eggs for Easter. We and our my secretary did a fantastic job on eggs. Groceries are down. Everything is down. Interest rates are the same. Interest rates should be down. But we have a federal reserve that wants to be stubborn. They want to be cute.

[00:09:52]
Terry Moran
We'll get to that.

[00:09:54]
Terry Moran
You said something a couple of weeks ago that struck me. You said concerning the tariffs, which economists say are going to raise prices. You said, quote, hang tough. It won't be easy. You said that to the American people. Is that what Americans should expect? Some hard times?

[00:10:10]
Donald Trump
I've said that during my campaign. Look, we won a campaign by a lot. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by a lot, you know, we had a tremendous campaign. I said all these things during my campaign, uh, I said, you're going to have a transition period. We've been ripped off by every country all over the world. They're laughing at us. They thought we were stupid people and we were. And I said, that's not going to happen. When a hard times, hard times are ahead. I don't think so. I think times are ahead look, since I came in gasoline is down, groceries are down, egg prices are down. Many things are down. Just about everything. You know, you don't have the drop in fuel and energy and oil like we did. I took it from maybe three dollars and 20 cents, maybe more than that, down into a low, a much lower number.

[00:11:00]
Donald Trump
When you have that kind of a drop, you're not going to have inflation.

[00:11:03]
Terry Moran
Not now, but it's the tariffs, right? We still have 145% tariffs on China. Your Treasury Secretary said we basically have an embargo on China.

[00:11:10]
Donald Trump
Look, you're trying to say something's going to happen, Terry. No, no, okay, well, you know business, I want to ask you. Terry, I do know business.

[00:11:17]
Terry Moran
Yes, so 145% tariff on China, and that is basically an embargo.

[00:11:23]
Donald Trump
They deserve it.

[00:11:23]
Terry Moran
It'll raise prices on everything from electronics to clothing

[00:11:27]
Speaker 3
to building houses you don't know that you don't know whether or not China's mathematics China probably will eat those tariffs but at 145 they basically can't do much business with the United States and they were making from us a trillion dollars a year they were ripping us off like nobody's ever ripped us off and And by the way, we have other countries that were just as bad. If you look at the European Union, it was terrible what they've done to us. Every country, almost every country in the world was ripping us off. They're not doing that anymore.

[00:11:56]
Terry Moran
I want you to think about the boom that this country has had in small businesses, mom and pop Etsy stores, small businesses.

[00:12:03]
Donald Trump
Really? They haven't had a boom because of inflation. The boom was inflationary boom. The people were wiped out with inflation. I mean, you read the news, you do the business stuff, I assume.

[00:12:14]
Terry Moran
Now face, now a lot of them built those businesses on the trading model.

[00:12:19]
Donald Trump
Yeah, and they're going to make more money now.

[00:12:20]
Terry Moran
They sourced their products overseas overseas and now they're looking at an extinction.

[00:12:26]
Donald Trump
I've been here.

[00:12:27]
Terry Moran
There's disaster for them.

[00:12:28]
Donald Trump
I've been here for three months. I've taken a trade deficit down to a number that's very, very starting to get really good. I've only I just got here. We had a country that it was not sustainable. What Biden did to this country, between the open borders where criminals poured into our country, between every country in the world ripping us off on trade. It was not sustainable.

[00:12:53]
Terry Moran
So your message to those small businesses who are saying we can't live a month, two months with these tariffs. Apple got a big deal. Is there something for them?

[00:13:02]
Donald Trump
No, not only Apple. We've got seven to eight trillion dollars being invested in our country in two months. Biden didn't have that over a year. I mean, if you look at Biden, nobody was really investing in this country. Everybody was ripping off our country. Apple's putting up 500 billion dollars, but that's only one of many companies. Companies are flooding into our country right now.

[00:13:24]
Terry Moran
The So your answer to the concern about the tariffs is everything's going to be hunky dory?

[00:13:28]
Donald Trump
Everything's going to be just fine. It wouldn't have been if I didn't do this. I had a choice. I could leave it, have a nice, easy time. But I think ultimately you would have had an implosion. Our country. had inflation that was worse than they've ever had it before you don't mention that why don't you mention that we had the worst inflation probably in the history of our country people say 48 years probably in the History of our country we had the Worst inflation and people were dying over the inflation you know that now the grocery prices prices are coming coming down, down the the energy energy prices are coming, down gasoline's coming down. It's all heading in the right direction.

[00:14:08]
Terry Moran
Okay, let's move on to immigration. coming up it is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted a staggering decline but there are questions about your methods.

[00:14:25]
Anchor News
President Trump, the first 100 days continues.

[00:14:32]
Terry Moran
Let's move on to immigration. And as you said, it is an undeniable fact that illegal crossings at the southern border have plummeted a staggering decline. But there are questions about your methods. And so I want to ask you about my message methods, about your methods, how you're accomplishing to work. Do you acknowledge that under our law, every single person who gets deported gets a hearing first to make their case?

[00:15:01]
Donald Trump
Well, are we talking about people that are citizens of our country or not?

[00:15:05]
Terry Moran
No, you're not deporting citizens at this point.

[00:15:07]
Donald Trump
Well, let me ask you, did they get hearings when Biden allowed 21 million, because I think the number is 20 million people to flow into our country. You had 21 million people that came into our country through a stupid open border. And they were prisoners and they were people that you don't want in many cases in our country, right? They came from all over the world. They came from the Congo. They came from South. They came from all over the word. We're talking about some of the roughest countries in the world they had here, including terrorists, by the way. Now, did we give them a hearing when they came in?

[00:15:45]
Terry Moran
Well, the law requires that every single person who is going to be deported gets a hearing first.Do you acknowledge that?

[00:15:52]
Donald Trump
I'll have to ask the lawyers about that. All I can say is this. If you're gonna have 21 million people, and we have to get a lot of them out because they're criminals, we're gonna have to act fast. We can't. Do you think we can give 21 million trials? Let's say each trial takes two weeks. Is that what you want us to do? The law is the law, sir.

[00:16:12]
Terry Moran
The law is to learn.

[00:16:13]
Donald Trump
The law doesn't say anything about trials.

[00:16:15]
Terry Moran
No, not trials. Hearings.

[00:16:17]
Donald Trump
These people came in. They're not citizens. They came in illegally. They came into our country illegally. We have to get them out.

[00:16:23]
Terry Moran
There's a legal process for that.

[00:16:24]
Donald Trump
I can't. Sure. And we follow the legal process. I can't have a trial, a major trial for every person that came in illegally. We have thousands of murderers that came in.

[00:16:37]
Donald Trump
They're going to murder people. They already have murdered people in our country. We have to get them out. We have to go out fast.

[00:16:43]
Terry Moran
Really bad guys. But in our country, even bad guys get due process.

[00:16:48]
Donald Trump
If people come into our country illegally, there's a different standard. These are illegal. They came in illegally,

[00:16:54]
Terry Moran
but they get due process, right?

[00:16:56]
Donald Trump
Well, they get a process where we have to get them out. Yeah.

[00:17:00]
Terry Moran
Okay, let's talk about the Venezuelans.

[00:17:01]
Donald Trump
They get whatever my lawyers say.

[00:17:03]
Terry Moran
Right. All right, let's talking about the Venezualans. You deported more than 200 Venezuelans to that prison in El Salvador. You say they're violent, they're gang members, they're terrorists. Many of them don't have a criminal record at all.

[00:17:18]
Donald Trump
I'm not so sure about that if you take a look.

[00:17:20]
Terry Moran
I want to read you something.

[00:17:21]
Donald Trump
Excuse me. When you look at those people, they were violent people. They were violent people,

[00:17:28]
Terry Moran
but many of them don't have a criminal record at this point. It's based on their lawyer, what their lawyers have said. Joe Rogan said this. Joe Rogan, one of the leading podcasters, Trump supporter, about the deportation of Venezuelans. He said, quote, rounding up gang members and shipping them to El Salvador with no due process, he said, was dangerous and added, quote, we got to be careful that we don't become monsters while we're fighting monsters. Is Joe Rogan right?

[00:17:59]
Donald Trump
Oh, I agree with that 100 percent. Yeah. We want to be careful and we are careful. We're doing something that has to be done. We have a country that's very sick. Joe Biden, and it's not him, because I don't even think he knew what the hell was happening, but the people around him are vicious people. And what they've done to t he country is unbelievable. They've allowed 21 the president million people to pour into our country. Many of these people are criminals. to be They've allowed the, you mentioned Venezuela, the jails of Venezuela to be emptied into the United States. Do you know Venezuela crime is way down? Way, way down. You know why? Because their criminals are now living happily in the United States of America and we're we're getting getting them them out. out. And And I I was was elected elected to to get get them them out. out And and we're we're get them them out.

[00:18:47]
Terry Moran
Under out the law.

[00:18:48]
Donald Trump
And we're getting out fast. fast and And we're going to get them out legally. Now, in some cases, we have judges. In some cases, they're radical left judges. What happened the other day where a judge was protecting a criminal was horrible. And I think she's got big problems, frankly. And there are a couple of them like that. The I want to talk about one more. The Wait a minute. We have to be treated fairly by judges. And we're not being treated fairly by all judges.

[00:19:13]
Terry Moran
Oh, that's a subject. So you're saying that you don't like some of the rulings, some of the court orders?

[00:19:17]
Donald Trump
Well, I think the rulings will be overturned, yeah. All right.

[00:19:20]
Terry Moran
Well, let me ask you about one man and one court order. Kilmer Abrego Garcia, he's the Salvadoran man who crossed into this country illegally, but who is under a protective order that he not be sent back to El Salvador. Your government sent him back to El salvador and acknowledged in court that was a mistake. And now the Supreme Court has upheld an order that you must return him to facilitate his return to the United States. What are you doing to comply? Well,

[00:19:44]
Donald Trump
the lawyer that said it was a mistake was here a long time, was not appointed by us, should not have said that, should not've said that. And just so you understand, the person that you're talking about, you know, you're making this person sound. This is a MS-13 gang member, a tough cookie, been in lots of skirmishes, beat the hell out of his wife. And the wife was petrified to even talk about him, OK? This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland.

[00:20:12]
Terry Moran
I'm not saying he's a good guy. It's about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir.

[00:20:17]
Donald Trump
He came into our country illegally.

[00:20:18]
Terry Moran
You could get him back. There's a phone on this desk.

[00:20:20]
Donald Trump
I could.

[00:20:21]
Terry Moran
You could pick it up, and with all the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, send him back right now.

[00:20:27]
Donald Trump
And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that.

[00:20:30]
Terry Moran
But the court has ordered you to facilitate that.

[00:20:33]
Donald Trump
I'm not the one making this decision. We have lawyers that don't want to do this. But the buck stops in this office. No, no, no, I follow the law. You want me to follow the law? If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I'd probably keep him right where is.

[00:20:47]
Terry Moran
The Supreme Court says what the law is.

[00:20:48]
Donald Trump
Listen, I was elected to take care of a problem that was, it was a unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man, a man that turned out to be incompetent that you always said was wonderful, great genius, right? And now you find out all of the media now, they're saying what a mistake they made. A man who was grossly incompetent allowed us to have open borders where millions of people float in.

[00:21:15]
Donald Trump
I campaigned on that issue. I wouldn't say it was my number one issue, but it was pretty close. I campaigned in that issue. I've done an amazing job. I have closed borders. He said you couldn't do it. You wouldn't be able to do it. It would never happen. Well, it happened. And it happened very quickly. Wait a minute. When we have criminals, murderers, criminals in this country, we have to get them out and we're doing it. And you'll pick out one man. But even the man that you picked out, he said he wasn't a member of a gang. And then they looked and on his knuckles he had MS-13. There's a dispute over that. Wait a minute. Wait a minute, he had MS13 on his knuckle tattoo.

[00:21:53]
Terry Moran
He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way. But let's move on.

[00:21:56]
Donald Trump
Wait a minute... Hey, Terry, Terry,

[00:21:57]
Terry Moran
he did not have the letter MS-13...

[00:22:00]
Donald Trump
It says MS-13,

[00:22:02]
Terry Moran
that was Photoshopped.

[00:22:04]
Donald Trump
That was Photoshopped, Terry, you can't do that. Hey, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you're doing the interview I picked you because frankly, I never heard of you, but that's okay But I picked you Terry and but you're not being very nice. He had ms-13 tattoo agree to disagree I'll go on to something Do you want me to show you the picture?

[00:22:23]
Donald Trump
I saw the picture. We'll-we'll-we-we'll read it this way. Here we go. Here we go!

[00:22:27]
Terry Moran
Don't Photoshop it. Go look at his hand. He had MS-13.

[00:22:29]
Terry Moran
He did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. I'm not an expert on them. I want to turn to Ukraine, sir. I want to get to Ukraine.

[00:22:37]
Donald Trump
He had M.S. as clear as you can be, not interpreted. This is why people no longer believe the news, because it's fake news.

[00:22:46]
Terry Moran
When photographed in El Salvador, they aren't there. But let's just go on. They aren't there when he's in El Salvador.

[00:22:51]
Donald Trump
Oh, they weren't there, but they're there now, right?

[00:22:53]
Terry Moran
No, they're in your picture. Terry.

[00:22:56]
Terry Moran
Ukraine, sir.

[00:22:56]
Donald Trump
He's got MS-13 on his knuckles. All right. Okay.

[00:23:01]
Terry Moran
We'll take a look at that.

[00:23:01]
Donald Trump
It's such a disservice. We'll take look at that, sir. Why don't you just say, yes, he does, and, you know, go on to something else?

[00:23:08]
Terry Moran
It's contested.

[00:23:09]
Terry Moran
Ukraine.

[00:23:10]
Anchor News
Coming up, the Russia-Ukraine war.

[00:23:13]
Terry Moran
You think he wants peace? You think Vladimir Putin wants peace?

[00:23:17]
Anchor News
And that historic meeting. President Trump, the first 100 days continues.

[00:23:28]
Terry Moran
I want to turn, I was just in Rome, and to that moving photograph of you and President Zelensky sitting in St. Peter's Basilica talking peace. It went around the world. Sure. Take us into that moment.

[00:23:45]
Donald Trump
Well, look, Ukraine is a very serious, very tough situation. And this is Biden's war. This is not my war, but I want to see if I can solve it because probably close to 5,000 young soldiers a week are being killed, Russian and Ukrainian. We also spend a tremendous amount of money in Ukraine, and Europe should be spending much more than us. They're not. They're spending much less. It's been badly handled by the Biden administration. It's been handled all the way around, all the way. That moment, The moment was a moment of solace, in a sense, because tremendous numbers of people are dying. A lot of his people are dying, they're being killed. And I feel very badly about it. I feel very bad about it. That's a war that would have never happened if I were president, and it didn't happen for four years.

[00:24:37]
Donald Trump
It was never even a thought of it happening.

[00:24:39]
Terry Moran
It does feel like something's happening after that meeting with Zelensky in St. Peter's. You posted this on social media. There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas and cities and towns over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe-

[00:24:54]
Donald Trump
Well, that was part of my post, but you're right. That was a part of a post.

[00:24:57]
Terry Moran
And it says, it makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. He's just tapping me along.

[00:25:03]
Donald Trump
Yeah, that's possible.

[00:25:04]
Donald Trump
He might be- He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that... He would like to stop the war. I think that if it weren't for me, I think he'd want to take over the whole country personally. I always felt. So when I left, there wasn't even a chance that this would happen. When Biden got involved, I won't say whether or not he handled it properly, but obviously it wasn't good because the war started. Putin went in, the war started, I believe that Putin wanted to get all of Ukraine, once he went in. And I think part of the reason he went in, he saw what happened in Afghanistan, how incompetent, how incompetently Milley and all these guys handled that. It was one of the greatest embarrassments of our lifetimes, but maybe in the history of our country. Okay. So Putin went in.

[00:25:52]
Donald Trump
I think Putin wanted all of Ukraine. I think if I didn't win the election, he would have gotten all of Ukraine I think he would have taken all of Ukraine I think his first choice, Never with me, he would have never gone in with this group of losers. He went in. He saw what happened in Afghanistan. He said, wow, this is my chance because it was always the apple of his eye. I talked to him. Ukraine was the apple of His eye. I think he wanted the whole country. You said because of me, I do believe that he's willing to stop the fighting. Don't forget, he wants to say

[00:26:26]
Terry Moran
you think Vladimir Putin wants peace.

[00:26:29]
Donald Trump
I think he does, yes. I think he has. I think because...

[00:26:32]
Terry Moran
Even with the raining missiles on?

[00:26:33]
Donald Trump
I think he really... His... His dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he's not gonna do that. Do you trust him? I think. Do you trust them? I don't trust you. I don't just, I don't trust a lot of people. I don't try to trust you. Look at you. You come in all shooting for bear. You're so happy to do the interview. I am happy. And then you start hitting me with fake questions. He started telling me that a guy whose hand is covered with a tattoo doesn't have the tattoo, you know. All right. I mean, you're being dishonest. No, I'm not. No, I am not. Do I trust, I don'T trust a lot of people, But I do think this.

[00:27:07]
Donald Trump
I think that he, let's say he respects me. And I believe because of me, he's not going to take over the whole. I HIS DECISION, HIS CHOICE WOULD BE TO TAKE ALL OF UKRAINE OVER. IT'S A WAR THAT NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED. IT DID HAPPEN BECAUSE OF INCOMPETENT PEOPLE.

[00:27:25]
Terry Moran
LAST QUESTION ON THIS.

[00:27:26]
Donald Trump
BUT IT NEVER SHALL HAVE HAPPEN.

[00:27:27]
Terry Moran
IF THERE IS NO PEACE DEAL, WILL THE U. S. CUT OFF MILITARY ADDITION? I DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU THAT. I WANT TO LEAVE THAT AS A BIG FAT SECRET BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO RUIN A NEGOTIATION.

[00:27:38]
Terry Moran
I WOULD BE WORRIED IF I WERE UKRAINIAN.

[00:27:39]
Donald Trump
I WAS NOT HAPPY WHEN I SAW shooting missiles into few towns and cities and That was not something that I like seeing and I thought it was inappropriate, but I think the whole war is inappropriate again It's a war that shouldn't happen This was a war that if the election weren't rigged and it was totally rigged the 2020 election of or rigged You wouldn't have that you wouldn't have had the have the embarrassment embarrassment of of Afghanistan. You You wouldn't wouldn't have October October 7th 7th with with Israel Israel. You You wouldn't wouldn't had add any any of the the problems problems that that you have guys right right now. now. And That's one. you I wouldn't wouldn't have had inflation either.

[00:28:14]
Terry Moran
I want to ask one question about defense secretary Pete Hegseth. There's a lot of turmoil at the Pentagon right now. There's the signal chat with his wife on it where he's discussing that attack in Yemen. There's another signal chat discussing the attack on Yemen. There's a reporter accidentally involved. You said the other day that you with the secretary. Did you take him to the woodshed?

[00:28:36]
Donald Trump
I had a talk with him and whatever I said I probably wouldn't be inclined to tell you but we had a good talk. He's a talented guy, he's young, smart, highly educated and I think he's going to be a very good defense, hopefully a great defense secretary, but he'll be a very good defense secretary. The

[00:28:56]
Terry Moran
You have 100 percent confidence in Peter

[00:28:57]
Donald Trump
I don't have 100 percent confidence in anything. Okay? Anything. Do I have 100 percent? It's a stupid question. Look, uh- The President

[00:29:07]
Terry Moran
It's a pretty important position. Secretary

[00:29:08]
Donald Trump
No, no, no. You don't have a hundred percent. Only a liar would say, I have a hundred percent confidence. I don't a hundred percent confidence that we're going to finish this interview. The

[00:29:17]
Terry Moran
We will.

[00:29:20]
Anchor News
Coming up, President Trump on Elon Musk and Doge.

[00:29:24]
Terry Moran
Did Doge go too far, too fast, too recklessly?

[00:29:30]
Anchor News
President Trump, the first 100 days continues.

[00:29:36]
Terry Moran
Elon Musk and Doge, everyone knows that there's wasteful government spending. It's really important. But the cuts have had some serious consequences. There have been cuts to foreign aid programs that save lives and keep people alive overseas. There's been research at the National Institutes of Health on cancer, on Alzheimer's, that has had to be stopped. And the question I think people have is, did Doge go too far, too fast, too recklessly?

[00:30:05]
Donald Trump
No, I think Doge has been, look, saved $150 billion. Billion. We saved, that's a lot of money. There's also a lot of things right now under investigation, which is going to increase that amount by a lot. That's a tremendous amount of money. There are some things where when I heard about them, I put them back, as you know. There are things that I'm considering right now putting back. But overall, we've saved hundreds of billions of dollars.

[00:30:32]
Terry Moran
Well, the original promise was $2 trillion, went to $1 trillion, now it's $150 billion and heading south. Well, know.

[00:30:35]
Donald Trump
You don't know what it's going to be because we have things at a very high level that are being looked at right now. We also found tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse, as you know. We found a lot of fraud. There was a lot of fraud. Fraudulent things were taking place, and we ended that. And those people are going to be suffering because of it. The

[00:30:54]
Terry Moran
A legal note, fraud is a crime. There have been no referrals  to the Justice Department on any of this. The

[00:30:58]
Donald Trump
Well, you don't know that, do you?

[00:31:03]
Terry Moran
Have there been referrals? Are there criminal referrals?

[00:31:05]
Donald Trump
How would you know that, that there were no referrals?

[00:31:08]
Donald Trump
I think there were referrals.

[00:31:09]
Terry Moran
There's been no investigation from the Justice Department.

[00:31:12]
Donald Trump
How do you know that?

[00:31:13]
Terry Moran
I'm asking you, sir.

[00:31:14]
Donald Trump
No, you're not asking me. You made a statement.

[00:31:16]
Terry Moran
Now I'm asking

[00:31:17]
Donald Trump
him. That was a statement that you made. There have been. Have there been? Yes, there have been.

[00:31:22]
Terry Moran
So there have been referrals for fraud from the work of the judge.

[00:31:25]
Donald Trump
Of there have been! Take a look at some of these things that took place. Billions of dollars were given to people for no reason whatsoever. Of course they had been.

[00:31:32]
Terry Moran
I want to bring up what is truly one of, to a lot of people, one of the biggest achievements of your first term. That is Operation Warp Speed. You got that COVID vaccine up and going and distributed. And a lot of it people took it. And a lot people feel their lives have been saved by it. Now we have this measles outbreak, biggest in a decade in Texas. And it's because people aren't getting their children vaccinated. Do you recommend to parents that they get their children vaccinated from measles?

[00:32:02]
Donald Trump
Well, I recommend the governors to make the decisions. You have a very talented governor of Texas, and he's making decisions, and those decisions are going to be made rapidly. This is a very much different thing than COVID in terms of rapidity and speed and other things. Measles have been with us a long time, and I'm not saying good, bad, or indifferent. I'm just saying that the governors are making the decision. It's a federalist decision.

[00:32:27]
Donald Trump
The president is is our leader in so many ways. And your voice counts so much. And you can't tell moms and dads. It's a good thing to get a measles vaccine.

[00:32:38]
Donald Trump
Do I recommend it? Yes, I do.

[00:32:40]
Terry Moran
Okay. Got it.

[00:32:41]
Terry Moran
That was my question. Do it? No. No, I didn't ask.

[00:32:43]
Donald Trump
But I do recommend it, yes.

[00:32:44]
Terry Moran
Good.

[00:32:45]
Terry Moran
Do you think you're...

[00:32:45]
Donald Trump
And I have recommended it.

[00:32:47]
Terry Moran
Do you think the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of, at the very least, vaccine skepticism, do you think Kennedy recommends the measles vaccine?

[00:32:56]
Donald Trump
He did. He did. He recommended it. Yeah, he did. He recommended

[00:33:00]
Terry Moran
He satisfied with his responsiveness?

[00:33:01]
Donald Trump
Yeah, I mean, he recommended that they go out and get the vaccine.

[00:33:06]
Terry Moran
Okay.

[00:33:07]
Anchor News
Still ahead.

[00:33:08]
Terry Moran
I'm asking the justification for going after people you don't like.

[00:33:14]
Anchor News
President Trump, the first 100 days continues.

[00:33:20]
Terry Moran
I want to talk a little bit about presidential power, the powers that you have in the presidency temporarily that the American people have given you, right? You've revoked a lot of people's security clearances. You've revoke people's security details who are still threatened, you know, with death threats. You've gone after law firms because they've employed people you don't like or they have represented people They obviously agreed because they paid me a lot of money. The reason they agreed is because you were Threatening to destroy their business with your executive order that said you can't represent clients for the federal government Thank you. That's a red meat

[00:34:00]
Donald Trump
These are big boys. He's a big these are the biggest most powerful lawyers You. These are not people that are easily intimidated.

[00:34:06]
Terry Moran
As president, you've got all the cards.

[00:34:07]
Donald Trump
They paid hundreds of millions of dollars because They felt, I guess, they probably felt they did something wrong.

[00:34:14]
Terry Moran
It was for survival, sir. No, it isn't. You're crushing their business.

[00:34:18]
Donald Trump
These firms are very powerful firms, and there's 15 of them. And these are firms that probably, look, you have to ask them. In fact, this is a separate story. You have to ask that. Why did you all pay Trump hundreds of millions of dollars in services, et cetera? Why did you do that? I don't know. The You don't think that fact that — We have a clause in the thing that while we admit no wrongdoing, but, you know, it's like one of those things. And now I'm friendly with those firms.

[00:34:48]
Donald Trump
But it's — you know, these are the most powerful firms in the world. And they just signed whatever I put in front of them. I've never seen anything like it. I'm actually surprised myself in a certain way, but they obviously felt they probably did something wrong. I guess that's why they signed.

[00:35:07]
Terry Moran
I guess the question out of that is the concern that people have. Are you using your powers as president to get personal revenge?

[00:35:15]
Donald Trump
No, I'll tell you what. I tell you what you're not. You're really not asking and you should be asking. There has never been a president in this country in the history that was persecuted like I was persecuted by really crooked people, dishonest, horrible people. And it's been proven. So when you say I'm treating people rough, I'm not treating people rough. I was treated worse than any president in the history of our country. And, you know, people figured, well, maybe that's it. Finally, we got, you know—he's leaving town. There goes the helicopter. And then I came back and I came back because I have tremendous support. You know, when you win an election like I won it and you will admit I won all seven swing states. I won the popular vote. I won 700. Let's see, two thousand seven hundred and fifty districts compared to five hundred districts.

[00:36:11]
Donald Trump
That's why the map is all red. And those people feel that I was treated unfairly.

[00:36:18]
Terry Moran
But does that give you the right to go after your political opponents with the powers of this office?

[00:36:22]
Donald Trump
I'm going after all I'm doing. Hey, Biden did something to me. and i did something to Biden and you know why i did it because he's grossly incompetent that's not a man that should be allowed to you know be looking at things that are very confidential but what about because he didn't 71 here's a man that used an auto pen to sign very important documents. Now, who really is... Do you think he knew what... that they were using an auto pen? I mean, he used an auto pen to sign very, very important documents, and so those are really the questions you should be asking. What do you think of the auto pen?

[00:36:59]
Donald Trump
Who wielded the auto pen, because whoever that person was... Think of it. whoever the person that wielded the auto pen, he was really the president of the United States. Because I don't think... I don't that Biden knew anything about it. Fair enough.

[00:37:13]
Terry Moran
But you are the president now. And I'm asking the justification for going after people you don't like.

[00:37:20]
Speaker 3
No, no. People that I think are dishonest. It's not that I don't... I don't even know most of them. They're people that I think...

[00:37:26]
Terry Moran
These people made you angry.

[00:37:27]
Donald Trump
No, it's not anger. These are people that I think are very dishonest. I don't think they're worthy of being able to go into top secret information. I think that's fine. And Biden did that with many of our people. But when you look at it, these are people that I don't think are worthy. That's my decision. It's not a question of anger.

[00:37:48]
Terry Moran
Okay. I understand you just had a phone call with the new Canadian premier, and... They just had this election. Yeah. You were a big issue in it. And Canadians, many of them, are really angry, furious, about your talk about we're going to take over Canada. It's going to become the 51st state. And it kind of is of a piece. A lot of travel is down into the United States from around the world. It feels like there's been reputational damage.

[00:38:16]
Donald Trump
The country's doing great. Well, prices are down, gasoline's down, energy's down, tourism is going to be way up. Where do you see the numbers? The tourism is way up.

[00:38:26]
Terry Moran
Not now.

[00:38:27]
Donald Trump
Now Canada, oh shit, tourism's doing very well. We're doing very well, we're doing very well. Where do you the real numbers come out in about, in six months from now, where do you see the numbers?

[00:38:37]
Terry Moran
But do you think, I'm going to ask you, if I may, do you think the reputation of the United States has gone down under your presence

[00:38:45]
Donald Trump
i know i think it's gone way up but i think we're a respected country again we were left at all over the world we had a president that couldn't walk up a flight of stairs couldn't walk down a flight of stairs couldn' walk across the stage without falling we had a President that was grossly incompetent you knew it i knew it and everybody knew it but you guys didn't want to write it because you're fake news

[00:39:06]
Terry Moran
all right Thank you.

[00:39:07]
Donald Trump
And by the way, ABC is one of the worst, I have to be honest with you.

[00:39:10]
Terry Moran
Okay, thank you for the opinion, but more importantly, thank you, for having us here. I have one more question, it's a big one, it's the question that you know a lot of people have out there. What do you say to people who are concerned you are taking, seizing too much power and becoming an authoritarian president like we haven't had before?

[00:39:29]
Donald Trump
No, I would hate them to think that. I'm doing one thing, I'm making America great again. We have a country that was failing. We have a county that was left out all over the world. We had a leader that was grossly incompetent. He should have never been there. The election was rigged. He should have never been there. Our country suffered greatly, and now our country's coming back like nobody can believe. I have editorials just today where they're saying they've never seen anything like it. They love it. Our country's coming and we're respected again.

[00:39:59]
Terry Moran
Mr. President's Thank you,

[00:40:00]
Donald Trump
Thank you , Terry, very much.

[00:40:02]
Terry Moran
Once again, we want to thank President Trump for inviting us to the White House 100 days into his second term. I'm Terry Moran from all of us at ABC News. Thank you for watching and good night.

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