Donald Trump
Appearances
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Presidential Debate Reaction, Biden Hot Swap?, Tech unemployment, OpenAI considers for-profit & more
Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the questions. And let me ask the crowd, what did Trump do?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Well, first of all, I don't think I've ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, the first question. You don't even say, hello, how are you? Are you with ABC? Because I think they're a fake news network, a terrible network. And... I think it's disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the black population of this country.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I've done so much for the black population of this country, including employment, including Opportunity Zones with Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, which is one of the greatest programs ever for black workers and black entrepreneurs. I've done so much. And, you know, when I say this, Historically, black colleges and universities were out of money.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
They were stone cold broke and I saved them and I gave them long term financing and nobody else was doing it. I think it's a very rude introduction. I don't know exactly why you would do something like that. And let me go a step further. I was invited here and I was told my opponent, whether it was Biden or Kamala, I was told my opponent was going to be here. It turned out my opponent isn't here.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
You invited me under false pretense. And then you said you can't do it with Zoom. Well, you know, where's Zoom? She's going to do it with Zoom and she's not coming. And then you were half an hour late. Just so we understand, I have too much respect for you to be late. They couldn't get their equipment working or something was wrong. I think it's a very nasty question. I have answered the question.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I've known her a long time indirectly, not directly very much. And she was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know. Is she Indian or is she black?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I respect either one. But she obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the way. And then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went she became a black person. Just to be clear, sir, do you believe I think somebody should look into that, too, when you ask a continue in a very hostile, nasty town.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And now it's a much tougher deal to make than it would have been before it started. Millions of people. I think the number is going to be a lot higher when you see this all at some point iron out. I think the numbers are going to be the death numbers are going to be a lot higher than people think.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
When you take a look at the destruction and the buildings coming down all over the place in Ukraine, I think those numbers are going to be a lot higher. They lie about the numbers. They try and keep them low. They knock down a building that's two blocks long. These are big buildings. And They say one person was mildly injured. No, no. A lot of people were killed.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And there are people in those buildings, and they have no chance. Once they start coming down, there's no chance. So that's a war that absolutely has to get done. And then you have Israel, and then you have a lot of other places that are talking war. The world is a rough place right now. And a lot of it's because of the fact that America has no leadership.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And I believe that she'll be probably worse than Biden. I watched the interview the other night. I mean, it was just a softball interview.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I don't know. I can't believe the whole thing is happening. We had a man in there that should have never been in there. They kept him in a basement. They used COVID. They cheated, but they used COVID to cheat, and they cheated without COVID too. But you had somebody in there, and now we have a woman that is not – I mean, she couldn't do an interview. This was a really soft interview.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
This is an interview where they're given a multiple-choice – questions, multiple guests. I called up multiple guests and I don't think she did well. I think she did very poorly.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
So I've done a lot of debating, only as a politician. I never debated. My first debate was the Rosie O'Donnell debate, right? The famous Rosie O'Donnell debate, the answer. But I've done well with debates. I mean, I became president. Then the second time I got millions more votes than I got the first time. I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got the first time, you would win.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
You can't not win. And I got millions of more votes than that. lost by a whisker. And look what happened to the world with all of the wars and all of the problems. And look what happened with inflation because inflation is just eating up our country, eating it up. So it's too bad. But there are a lot of things that could happen. We have to get those wars settled.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I'll tell you, you have to get Ukraine done. That could end up in a third world war. So could the Middle East. So could the Middle East.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I don't know. I can tell you that all of this would have never happened and it would have been very easy because you don't have, like, that question wouldn't be asked. You know, that's a tougher question. Once that starts happening... Because he has taken over a lot of territory. Now, I guess they're insurgents now too, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
So, you know, it's a little bit interesting that that's happening and that it can happen. And it's interesting that Putin has allowed that to happen. Look, that's one that should have never started. We have to get it stopped. Ukraine is being demolished. They're destroying a great culture that's largely destroyed.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And with some people, it's the stick, and with some people, it's the carrot. I think the stick probably is generally more successful in that we're talking about war. But the kind of destruction that we're witnessing now, nobody's ever seen. I mean, it's a terrible thing. And we're witnessing it all over. We're witnessing it in all parts of the world. And a lot of things are going to get started.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Look what's going on with China. Look at Japan. They're starting to rearm now. They're starting to rearm because China's getting, you know, taking over certain islands. And there's a lot of danger in the war right now in the world. There's a lot of—and there's a great possibility of World War III. And we better get this thing done fast because five months with people like her—
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And him, he's checked out. He just goes to the beach and thinks he looks good in a bathing suit, which he doesn't. He's sort of checked out. Hey, look, you know, you can't blame him. That was a coup. They took it over. They took over the presidential deal. The whole presidential thing was taken over in a coup. He had 14 million votes. He had no votes, not one.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And nobody thought it was going to be her. Nobody wanted it to be her. She was a joke until six weeks ago when they said we're going to have to politically, they felt they had to pick her. And if they didn't pick her, they thought there'd be a problem. I don't know if that's right or not. I actually don't think it's right, but they thought it was right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, there are ways. Now, here's the problem. If I tell you how, and I'd love to do it, but if I give you a plan, like I have a very exacting plan how to stop Ukraine and Russia, and I have a certain idea, maybe not a plan, but an idea for China. Because we do, you know, we're in a lot of trouble. They'll be in a lot of trouble too. But we're in a lot of trouble.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
But I can't give you those plans because if I give you those plans, I'm not going to be able to use them. They'll be very unsuccessful. You know, part of it's surprise, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
No, I had a very good relationship with him, and I had a good relationship with Zelensky too, but I had a very good relationship with Putin.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I think the fraud was on the other side. I think the election was a fraud. And many people felt it was that, and they wanted answers. And when you can't challenge an election, you have to be able to challenge it. Otherwise, it's going to get worse, not better. And there are lots of ways to solve this problem. Go to paper ballots. Do it the easy way.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I mean, the paper ballots, and you have voter ID, and you have same-day voting. And you have proof of citizenship, which is very important because we have people voting that are not citizens. They just came in and they're loading up the payrolls. They're loading up everything. They're putting students in schools that don't speak a word of English.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And they're taking the seats of people that are citizens of our country. So, look, we have... the worst border in the history of the world. We have coming into our country right now millions and millions of people at levels that nobody's ever seen. I don't believe any country's ever seen it. And they would use sticks and stones not to make it happen, not to let it happen. We don't do anything.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And we have a person who was the border czar who now said she wasn't really the border czar, but she was. She was the border czar, but she was in charge of the border. And we have her, and she's saying very strongly, oh, I did such a good job. She was horrible, horrible. The harm she's done. But we have people coming in from other countries all over the world, not just South America.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And they're coming in from prisons and jails. They're coming in from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they're street criminals, right off the street they take them. And they're being given to our country, drug dealers, human traffickers. We're destroying our country. This is a sin what's been allowed to take place over the last four years. We're destroying our country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And we'll see how that all works out. But it's not even believable. And now you see, you saw in Aurora, Colorado, a group of very tough young thugs from Venezuela taking over big areas, including buildings. They're taking over buildings. They have their big rifles. but they're taking over buildings. We're not going to let this happen. We're not going to let them destroy our country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And you know, in those countries, crime is way down. They're taking them out of their prisons, which is good because it's good for them. I do the same thing. By the way, if I ran one of those countries, any country in the world, I would make sure that America has every one of our prisoners. Every one of our criminals would be here. I can't believe they're going so slowly, but some aren't.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
But they all are doing it. And we can't let that happen. They're emptying out their prisons and their mental institutions into the United States of America. We can't let that happen.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, I don't focus on the past. I focus on the future. I mean, I talk about how bad the economy is, how bad inflation is. Now bad things like, which is important, Afghanistan was, in my opinion, the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to our country. And because of that, I think Putin went in. When he said how stupid we were, Putin went in.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
But it was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. I really believe that. But, you know, we left 13 dead soldiers alive. Think of it, 13 dead soldiers, many soldiers horrifically hurt with arms and legs and everything else gone. We left hostages behind. We left Americans behind. We left military equipment, the likes of which nobody's ever left behind before.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Billions and billions of dollars of equipment. They're now selling the equipment. They're one of the largest arms dealers ever. in the world. And very sad, very sad. And we were there for a long time. I was going to get out. We were getting ready to get out. Then we got interrupted by the election. But we would have been out with dignity and strength.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
We were having very little problem with the Taliban when I was there because they knew it was going to be tough. I dealt with Abdul. Abdul was the leader. And We got along fine. He understood. But, you know, they were shooting. They were killing a lot of our people before I came down. And when I got there, I said, I spoke to him. I said, you can't do it. Don't do it anymore.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
We went 18 months before this happened, this horrible day happened. We went 18 months and nobody was shot at or killed.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
That was the stick, yeah. It doesn't have to be, but that was the stick.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, I hope it's not a close one. I mean, I don't know how people can vote for somebody that has destroyed our country. The inflation, the bad economy, but But to me, in a way, the worst is what they've allowed to happen at our border, where they've allowed millions of people to come in here from places that you don't want to know about.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And I can't believe that that's going to be a close election. You know, we're leading in the polls, and it looks close, but I think in the end it's not going to be a close election.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, you've got to get the criminals out of here fast, right? The people from mental institutions, you've got to get them back into their mental institution. No country can afford this. It's just too much money. You look at what's happening in New York and Chicago and L.A. and lots of places, and you take a look at what's happening. There's no country can afford this. We can't afford it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And we've got to get the bad ones out immediately. And the rest have to be worked on. You know, it's happened before. Dwight Eisenhower was sort of a moderate president, moderate type person. But he hated when he saw people pouring into the country. And they were. Nothing like now. You know, I probably got elected in 2016 because of the border issue.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And I told people what was happening and they understood it. And I won the election. And I won the election, I think, because of the border. Our border is 25 times worse right now than it was in 2016. I had it fixed. The last week of the famous chart that I put up was exactly that. You know the chart. When I looked to the right, I said, there's the chart. Bing. That was not a pleasant experience.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
But the chart that I put up said, and that was done by Border Patrol, that was the lowest number that we've ever had come into our country in recorded history. And we have to get it back to that again. We will.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I know nothing about it. And they know that too. Democrats know that. And I purposely haven't read it because I want to say to you, I have no idea what it's all about. It's easier than saying I read it and all of the things. No, I purposely haven't read it. And I've heard about it. I've heard about things that are in there that...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And there are some things in there that everybody would like, but there are things that I don't like at all. And I think it's unfortunate that they put it out, but it doesn't mean anything because it has nothing to do with me. Project 25 has absolutely nothing to do with me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, I just put out a paper. And first of all, medical marijuana has been amazing. I've had friends and I've had others and doctors telling me that it's been absolutely amazing, the medical marijuana. And we put out a statement that we can live with the marijuana. It's got to be a certain age. It's got to be a certain age to buy it. It's got to be done in a very... concerted, lawful way.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And the way they're doing it in Florida, I think, is going to be actually good. It's going to be very good. But it's got to be done in a good way. It's got to be done in a clean way. You go into some of these places, like in New York, it smells all marijuana. You've got to have a system where there's control. And I think the way they've done it in Florida is very good.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
So we put out a statement today. We're going to put out another one probably next week.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
more specific although i think it's pretty specific and we'll uh we'll see how that all goes that's a referendum coming up in some states but it's coming up and we'll see how it does i will say it's been very hard to beat it you take a look at the numbers it's been very hard to beat it so i think it'll generally pass but you want to do it in a safe way
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, I don't think there was any tension. And I've always liked him, but I don't know him. I mean, I only see him when I walk into the arena with Dana and I shake his hand. I see him there and... I think he's good at what he does, but I don't know about doing his podcast. I mean, I guess I'd do it, but I haven't been asked, and I'm not asking them. I'm not asking anybody.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
It sounds like a challenging negotiation situation. No, it's not really a negotiation. And he's sort of a liberal guy, I guess, from what I understand. But he likes Kennedy. I found this out before Kennedy came in with us. He's going to be great. Bobby's going to be great. But I like that he likes Kennedy. I do too. You know, he's a different kind of a guy, but he's got some great things going.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And, uh, I think he's going to be, beyond politics, I think he could be quite influential in taking care of some situations that you probably would agree should be taken care of.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Yeah, I do, but not that often. Honestly, you know, I do a lot of reposting. The ones you get in trouble with are the reposts because you find down deep they're into some group that you're not supposed to be reposting. You don't even know if those groups are good, bad, or indifferent. But the reposts are the ones that really get you in trouble. When you do your own words, it's sort of easier.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
But the reposts go very quickly. And if you're going to check every single little symbol, and I don't know, it's worked out pretty well for me, I tell you. Truth is very powerful, truth. And it's my platform, and it's been very powerful, very, very powerful. It goes everywhere. I call it my typewriter. That's actually my typewriter.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I'd like to do something late at night. I'm not a huge sleeper. But whenever I do them past like 3 o'clock, they criticize you the next day. Trump was up. truthing, okay? Trump was truthing at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there should be no problem with that. And then when you think about time zones, how do they know that you're, like, you know, in a time zone, like an eastern zone?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
So, but every time I do it after, like, 2 or 3 o'clock, it's like, why is he doing that? But it's gotten, I mean, you know, truth has become a very successful... platform. And I like doing it. And it goes everywhere. As soon as I do it, it goes everywhere.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, you can get rid of these two people. They're terrible. They're terrible. You don't want to have them running this country. They're not equipped to run it. Joe, it's a disaster. And Kamala, I think she'll end up being worse than him. We'll see. I think a lot's now, you know, the convention's over with, and I see I'm leading in just about all the polls now.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
They had their little honeymoon period, as they call it. And we'll see how that all goes. Who knows?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Yeah. I think you have to criticize, though. I think they're nasty. They came up with a story that I looked down and I called soldiers that died in World War I suckers and losers. Okay. Now, number one, who would say that? Number two, who would say it to military people? Nobody. It was a made-up story. It was just a made-up story. And they like to repeat it over again. They know it was made up.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I have 26 witnesses that nothing was said. They don't want to hear about that. Like she lied on McDonald's. She said that she worked at McDonald's. It's not a big lie, but it's a big lie. They just went and they checked. And unless she can show something, they don't talk about it. The presses are going to follow up with it, but I'll keep hammering it. But she never worked at McDonald's.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
It was just sort of a cool thing to say, hey, I worked at McDonald's. But one of the worst was Two days ago, I went to Arlington at the request of people that lost their children. There'll always be children to those people. You understand that. That's not politically incorrect thing to say. The mother comes up, I lost my child. But, you know, the child is the soldier.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And lost the child because of Biden and because of Kamala. Just as though they had the gun in their hand because it was so badly handled. It should have been done at Bagram, which is the big air base. It shouldn't have been done at a small little airport right in the middle of town where people stormed it. It was a true disaster. And they asked me if I'd come and celebrate with them three years.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
They died three years ago. And I said, I'm going to try. I got to know them because I brought them here, actually. One night, they almost all came here. And they said, I wonder if Trump will actually come and see us. I heard they were here. So we stayed for like four hours listening to music up on a deck right upstairs. Beautiful. And they were great people.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
So they called me over the last couple of weeks and they said, we're going to have a reunion, our three-year reunion. Would you be able to come? And it was very hard for me to do it logistically, but I said, I'll get it done. And I got there and we had a beautiful time. I didn't run away. I didn't just walk in, shake hands and walk out like people do.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And I wasn't looking at my watch like Joe Biden does. And it was amazing. So I did it for them. I didn't do it for me. I don't need the publicity. I mean, I get more publicity probably than anybody. You would know that better than me, but I think maybe more than anybody. Maybe more than anybody that's ever lived. I don't know, but I don't think anyone could have any more.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Every time you turn on television, there's like nine different stories all on different topics in the world. As an example, you interview a lot of people, good people, successful people. Let's see how you do with this interview versus them, okay? I mean, I'll... I can tell you right now, you're going to get the highest numbers you've ever had by sometimes a factor of 10.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
But when a Gold Star family asks me to come in and spend time with them, and then they said, sir, we did a ceremony, and then we went down to the graves, which was quite a distance away. They said, sir, would you... come to the grave, and then they said when we were there. It's very sad, actually, because these people shouldn't have died. They shouldn't have died.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
They died because of Biden and because of Kamala. They died because it's just like if they pulled the trigger, okay? Now, I don't know if that's controversial to say, but I don't think it is. Afghanistan was the most incompetently run operation I think I've ever seen, military or otherwise. They were incompetent. But the families asked me if I'd go. I did go.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Then the family said, could we have a picture at the tombstone of my son? And we did. Son or daughter, there was a daughter too. And I took numerous pictures with the families. I don't know of anybody else that was in the pictures, but they were mostly families, I guess. That was it. And then I left. I spent a lot of time with him.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Then I left, and I get home that night, and I get a call that the Biden administration, with Kamala, is accusing me of using Arlington for publicity. Just the opposite. Just the opposite. And actually, did you see? It just came out. The families actually put out a very strong statement defending me. They said, we asked him to be there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, look, I respect the fact that everybody's in there. And, you know, to a certain extent, life is what you do while you're waiting to die. So you might as well do a good job. I think in terms of what's happening now, I think, you know, we have a chance to save the country. This country's going down. And I called it with Venezuela. I called it with a lot of different countries.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And this country is going down. If we don't win this election, the election coming up on November 5th is the most important election this country has ever had. Because if we don't win it, I don't know that there'll be another election. And it's going to be a communist country. We're close.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
come to reality it's just being used during the campaign to you know uh groceries are too expensive we need them cheaper so let's let's talk about price controls and that's never going to come to reality it could come to reality look i mean she came out with price control it's been tried like 121 different times at different places over the years and it's never worked once it it leads to communism it leads to socialism it leads to having no food on the shelves
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And it leads to tremendous inflation. It's a bad idea.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Yeah, they do. So I figure it's all right to call them a communist. Yeah, they call me a lot worse than I call them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
They'll call me something that's terrible, and then I'll hit them back. And they'll say, isn't it terrible what Trump said? I said, well, wait a minute. They just called me. So I believe you have to fight fire with fire. I believe they're very evil people. These are evil people. You know, we have an enemy from the outside. And we have an enemy from within.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And in my opinion, the enemy from within are radical left lunatics. And I think you have to fight back.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
You know, we had no wars when I was president. That's a big thing. Not since 78 years has that happened. But we had no wars when I was president. We defeated ISIS, but that was a war that was started that we weren't anywhere near defeating. But think of it, I had no wars. And Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, said the world has to have Trump back because everybody was afraid of Trump.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Now, that's what he said. So I'm not using that term, but I think they respected me. But he said China was afraid, Russia was afraid, everybody was afraid. And I don't care what word they use. Probably that's even a better word if you want to know the truth. But let's use the word respect. They had respect for me. They had respect for the country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I mean, I ended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Russian pipeline. Nobody else could have done that. I ended it. It was done. Then Biden comes in and he gave it, he approved it. So we're defending Germany and these other countries for peanuts compared to what it's worth. And they're paying the person we're defending them against billions and billions of dollars for energy.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I said, how does that work? And we had it out with them and it worked out good. And they paid hundreds of billions of dollars. Or you wouldn't even have a NATO right now. You wouldn't have NATO if it wasn't for me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
No, I don't think so. Look, I've been there for four years. I could have done a big number in Hillary Clinton. I thought it looked terrible to take the president's wife and put her in prison. She's so lucky. I didn't do anything. She's so lucky. Hillary is a lucky woman because I had a lot of people pushing me to, they wanted to They wanted to see something.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
But I could have done something very bad. I thought it looked so bad. Think of it. You have the President of the United States. And you also had Secretary of State, right? She was. But you're going to put the President's wife in prison? And yet when I got out there, you know, they have all these hoaxes. They're all hoaxes. But they have all these...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
dishonest hoaxes, just like they did in the past with Russia, Russia, Russia. That was a hoax. The 51 different agencies or agents, that was a hoax. The whole thing was a hoax. There were so many hoaxes and scams. And, but I didn't want to put her in jail. And I didn't. And I explained it to people. You know, they say, lock her up, lock her up. It doesn't, we won.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I said, we don't want to put her in jail. We want to bring the country together. I want to bring the country together. You don't bring the country together by putting her in jail. But then when I got out, they went to work on me. It's amazing. And they suffer from massive Trump derangement syndrome, TDS. And I don't know if it's curable from their standpoint.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Oh, yeah, sure, I'll do that. I would do that. I'd love to do that. I have to do that. But they also are pushing me on Kennedy. And I did release a lot, but I had people come to me and beg me not to do it. But I'll be doing that very early on. Yeah, no, but I would do that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I don't think I had, I mean, I'm not involved. I never went to his island, fortunately. But a lot of people did.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
He was a good salesman. He was a hale and hearty type of guy. He had some nice assets that he'd throw around, like islands. But a lot of big people went to that island. But fortunately, I was not one of them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Yeah, it's very interesting, isn't it? Probably will be, by the way.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Now, Kennedy's interesting because it's so many years ago. They do that for danger, too, because it endangers certain people, etc., etc. So Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing. But yeah, I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I think you can't care that much. I know people that care so much about everything, like what people are saying. You can't care too much because you end up choking.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I have a friend who's very, very successful, and he's in his 80s, mid-80s, and he asked me that exact same question. I turned it around. I said, well, what about you? He said, I think about it every minute of every day. And then a week later, he called me to tell me something, and he starts off the conversation by going, tick, tock, tick, tock.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
This is a dark person, you know, in a sense, but it is what it is. I mean, you know, if you're religious, you have, I think, a better feeling toward it. You know, you're supposed to go to heaven, ideally not hell, but you're supposed to go to heaven if you're good. I think our country is missing a lot of religion. I think it really was a much better place with religion.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
It was almost a guide, you know, to a certain extent it was a guide. You want to be good to people. Without religion, there's no real, there are no guardrails. I'd love to see us get back to religion, more religion in this country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Look, I love the country. I want to see the country be great. And we have a real chance of doing it, but it's our last chance. And I appreciate it very much.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
No, it's cool. And about 20 guys that you pay a fortune to, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Maybe equally, maybe both. I don't like losing and I do like winning. I've never thought of it as to which is more of a driving force.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, they do have something different. The great champions have something very different, like the sports champions. And you have champions in other fields, but you see it more readily in sports. You see it over a weekend or you see it during a game. And you see that certain people stand out and they keep standing out. But it's there for you.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
It doesn't take a lifetime to find out that somebody was a winner or a loser. The sports thing is very interesting, but I play golf with different people, and there's a different mindset among champions. There's really a very different mindset. There's a different thought process. Talent-wise, sometimes you can't tell the difference in talent, but at the end of a seemed to win.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And it's very interesting. Like as an example, Tiger or Jack Nicklaus, he was a phenomenal winner. And he does have a different way about him. And Tiger has a different way about him. And Michael Jordan. And there's never one, you would think that there'd be one way. Arnold Palmer was the nicest guy you'd ever meet. And then you have some champions that aren't really nice.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
They're just focused on doing their job. So you have, you know, there's not one type of person. But the one thing I would say that everybody seems to have in common is they're very driven. They're driven like beyond.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
They don't give up, but they do seem to be, you know, they have a passion that's maybe more than people that don't do as well. You've said that politics is a dirty game in the past. Yeah, it is a dirty game. It's certainly true.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Well, you win the decade by getting the word out and by using sense. You have to have a feeling where it's going. You also have to have a feeling of what's right. You can't necessarily just go what's popular. You have to do what's good for a country if you're talking about countries or But you have to get the word out. And you have to just continuously, like, for instance, you have a great show.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
You have a great podcast. It's very well watched. And I'm sitting here and I do this. A lot of people see it. And I do other things. And a lot of people see that. And I go traditional also. You have traditional television, which is getting a little bit older and maybe less significant, could be less significant, I don't know. But it's changing a lot. The whole plane of platform is changing a lot.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
It's changed a lot in the last two, three years. But from a political standpoint, you have to find out what people are doing, what they're watching, and you have to get on. I just see that these platforms are starting to dominate. They're getting very big numbers. I did spaces with Elon, and they got numbers like nobody's ever heard before. So, you know, this is...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
You wouldn't do that on like radio. You wouldn't do that, those numbers, no matter how good a show, you wouldn't do those numbers on radio. You wouldn't do them on television.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Yeah, and they're different, very different. I have a lot of people that are in business that are successful, and they'd like to go over to politics. And then you realize they can't speak. They choke. You know, it's hard to make a speech in front of, let's say you're talking about a big audience, but I get very big audiences.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And, you know, for many people, it's virtually impossible to get up and speak for an hour and a half and have nobody leave. You know, it's not an easy thing to do. And it's an ability. But I have many people that are very, very successful in business, would love to do what I did. And yet they can't pull the trigger. And in many cases, I don't think it would work almost for everybody.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
It's not going to work. It's a very tough thing to do. It's a big transition. And now if you talked about people in the business and politics going into business, likewise, that wouldn't generally work out so well either. It's different talents. It's different skills. I have somebody who wants to go into politics so bad, but he's got a little problem. He's got stage fright.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Now, he's a total killer, but if he gets up into a stage in front of people, he doesn't do well, to put it mildly, actually. I mean, he does badly.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
Look, if you're a politician, you have to be able to speak in front of large crowds. A lot of people can't do that. I've seen it. They can't even think about doing it. And they don't. There are many people in business right now. I could name them, but I don't want to embarrass anybody. They've been talking about running for president for 15 years.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
And they're very big in business, very well known, actually. But it takes guts to run. Like for president, I can tell you, it takes guts. It's also a very dangerous profession, if you want to know the truth, but dangerous in a different sense, too. But it takes a lot of courage to run for president. It's not easy.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
But you have, and you know the same people as I do, there are a lot of people that would like to run for president that are very, very successful in business, but they don't have the guts to do it. And they have to give up a lot.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#442 – Donald Trump Interview
I think the deal, and I wouldn't talk about it too much because I think I can make a deal. If I win as president-elect, I'll have a deal made, guaranteed. That's a war that shouldn't have happened. It's terrible. Look, Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, and she's probably worse than him. That's something that should have never happened. But it did happen.
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Is everyone pretending to understand inflation (or just me)?
Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've done for the world. And the tariff will be substantial in some cases.