On October 31, President Trump took part in a wide-ranging interview that may go down in history as one of the most revealing and natural press events he has ever done. As opposed to the brief snippets we often hear on his way to a helicopter, or the staged studio pieces by major American networks, this latest interview was broadcast on LBC, a British radio channel, and the man asking the questions was none other than Mr. Brexit himself, Nigel Farage.
The most stunning aspect of this friendly but penetrating chat is that the U.S. media has so far failed to cover it. With topics ranging from the president’s view on the impeachment vote, to who he expects will be his challenger in the 2020 election, Trump revealed his thoughts on issues important to Americans today.
Liberty Nation is pleased to present a selection of the more important exchanges:
2020 Contender
In what may be the very first time, the president announced who he thought would be the Democrat nominee and, therefore his challenger in the election that is now just one year away.
Nigel Farage: Who is the fight going to be against for November 2020? Who is going to come and take you on?
Donald Trump: Well, it would look like Elizabeth Warren is picking up steam. She's picking up a little steam. I thought she was gonzo. I call her Pocahontas because she lied about her Indian heritage. But she seems to be the one picking up steam, so it could be her.
It could be Bernie Sanders, I guess, maybe. I don't know. Bernie looks like he's shot. But it could be one of them. But in any ... I know one person that's going to say Trump is going to win. That's Nigel, because you said that when it was less fashionable.
On the UN
The question of North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership and the contributions to the organization is likely one that will feature heavily in the 2020 election campaign. President Trump gave his thoughts on what he has done for the NATO and what other nations need to be doing.
Farage: There are some big, big conversations going on at the moment. The European Union, very, very keen to build their own defense capabilities, whilst at the same time I think you would say not paying their way in NATO.
Trump: Well, they're not. I mean, really the European Union is not. Now, the U.K. is. We are current. We're current. We're more than current. We're paying twice as much as we should be and that we're supposed to. We're really paying a big percentage of the total cost to the United States, which has been taken advantage of, but the U.K. is current.
The European Union, if you look at many of those countries are you know, is very similar in makeup. There are right now in NATO, 20 countries that are delinquent, meaning they owe a lot of money. Germany is number one. You know they're down from one to 1.2 or 1.3%, instead of 2%, and 2% is such a very low number.
The United States is at 4%. And try and figure that one out that we're there to protect you. You have a lot of things like Germany paying a lot of money to Russia for the pipeline for energy. A tremendous amount of their energy will be coming from Russia. And that's all fine, but then we're supposed to protect them from Russia. So how does that work?
Impeachment Worries?
Just before the phone interview took place, the House had voted to move ahead with impeachment proceedings – strictly along party lines. Nigel was the first interviewer to ask the president how he felt about the vote and what it meant for the future.
Farage: Of course, we have to talk about, and I'm sure it's the last subject you want to talk about, but the Ukraine and this preliminary vote that has passed in the House this afternoon. I mean, they say, the other side, that you used your position to ask the Ukrainian government to look into the Biden family background. And in doing that, you'd asked effectively for foreign interference in a national election.
Trump: Yeah, it's totally false. We have a transcript. There was an exact transcript of the meeting, and anybody that reads the transcripts understands. It was a perfect phone call with the Ukrainian president, who's a very fine man, a very nice person. We had a great call, and it was a very appropriate call.
Many people were on the call. I knew many people were on the call, not to mention, I'm sure they had many people on the call. But there were many people on the call, and it was a very, very appropriate call.
In fact, when it came up some time after the call was made, when it came up, I said, "Oh, well, that's okay. There's nothing there." You know, having a good memory.
And then you could see the Democrats are desperate. They're desperate, and they have nothing. They've got nothing going. We really call them the Do-nothing Democrats, and it's really sticking because they're doing nothing. It's the only way they're going to try and win the election this way because they can't win it the fair way.
No, the transcript of the call that I had with the Ukrainian president is a perfect and totally appropriate document. They're using that to try and impeach the president of the United States, who won one of the greatest elections in history.
It’s a very important election because there's nobody's that's done what I've done in the first two and a half years. Cutting taxes, cutting regulations. We've rebuilt our military to a level that it's never been. It's never been at a level like this. All beautiful new, the best fighters in the world. The best fighter jets and rockets and missiles. And hopefully, we'd never have to use it, but we have a military the likes of which we never had before, the strongest in the world.
[We’ve] done so much and the Democrats are doing terribly and the Do-nothing Democrats, the only thing they can do is this. In fact, they just had a vote on a procedure. I guess it's procedural votes. They gave us absolutely no rights because they have the majority only in the House. And I didn't have one negative Republican vote.
A Witch Hunt?
Farage and the president took a moment to discuss why it is that his presidency has been marred by one investigation after another, with the president suggesting that the impeachment strategy has been going on since before he even took office. He also took aim at Joe Biden.
Farage: You’ve been through Mueller, which went on and on and on. [And now] they're trying to go through impeachment.
Trump: That lasted for two years. But it actually started, the whole thing started long before I won the election. It started with the insurance policy, where you had two lovers, the FBI agents, that were after Trump, and this was long before the election took place. And they said that Hillary Clinton's going to win, but just in case she doesn't win, we'll have an insurance policy. And all of this stuff is the insurance policy.
… I think what it means and what a lot of people are saying because it's a hoax and high crimes and misdemeanors. Well, what's a high crime and misdemeanor when you have a very appropriate conversation? Now, fortunately, we have the transcript, because they're bringing Never-Trumpers out.
People, I knew many people were on the call. I knew it was probably being transcribed or stenographers doing that. I know all these things. I know when I speak to a foreign leader, people are on the call, and they do that, and they transcribe the call.
…But when you have 25 people or 10 people or five people, or maybe more than 25, when you know the line is crowded with people listening, intelligence agencies, military people that are all listening, would I say something inappropriate? I'm supposed to be a, they even say a very smart person. Right? I don't think I'd be doing that.
Also, would I use Ukraine to beat sleepy Joe Biden? Sleepy Joe, I call him 1% Joe, too. 1%. The guy never came out of these things with 1%, and he's heading down rapidly now. I mean, I don't view him as a very difficult guy to beat. I think it's unlikely that he would have gotten it, but now it seems to be less and less likely that he would have gotten it.
Having a Ball
Toward the end came a question that we so rarely hear: whether or not the president is enjoying his time in office. President Trump provided a full and frank answer and also took the time to take a final swipe at the British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Farage: You've got elements of the U.S. media who are kind of on your case on a regular basis. And the big question I've got to end with: Are you enjoying it?
Trump: Yes, because I'm doing more than anyone ever thought possible, even me. You know they say promises made, promises kept. I'm doing more than I even promised I was going to do. I'm getting things done at a level that nobody ever thought possible. I'm being held up by the Democrats. Frankly, they're trying to put roadblocks. Part of this is exactly what's happening here.
And don't forget there's another big investigation going on, and that's the real deal. That's to investigate the investigators and that's going to come out. The IG report is coming out very soon against these people, and I think we're going to learn a lot. But just so you know, I love doing it. I had a great life before, including going to Turnberry and going to Aberdeen. And going to Doonbeg in Ireland.
Farage: Yes. Playing golf and being free.
Trump: Going to a lot of different places there. And being free, and yeah.
Farage: Being free and living your own life and that. I mean, that's all gone, isn't it?
Trump: I'll never have that again.
Farage: No, you won't.
Trump: I'll never have that again. The day before I announced, Nigel, it was literally, I was the most successful. I had the best, probably the best part of my life ever. And then I announced and look, it's a much different life. It's tougher, but it's something. You know, you're the president of the United States.
I have great relationships with many of the leaders, including Boris. He's a fantastic man. I think he's the exact right guy for the times. I know that you and him will end up doing something that could be terrific if you and he get together as you know, unstoppable force. Corbyn would be so bad for your country. He'd be so bad. He'd take you in such a bad way. He'd take you into such bad places.
But your country has tremendous potential. It's a great country.
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