Many of you know I’m a big fan of Patrick Bet-David….and for good reason.
He provides so much incredible value and analysis on his show over at Valuetainment. And actually, before he started talking about politics, I would follow him because his Business educational videos were so amazing! Then he started talking politics, started speaking out to support President Trump, and the rest is history.
Patrick’s YouTube channel has over 2 million followers, but until now President Trump had never gone on his show.
That all changed this week and it was every bit worth the wait!
Please enjoy below and if you prefer the transcript instead, I also have that for you below.
Watch here:
Full transcript:
Patrick Bet-David: So, before you watch this interview, I want to share a couple thoughts with you. For a guy like me, I used to come up in business. I never liked politics, never paid attention to it. I could care less. My parents got a divorce. I didn’t want to deal with it. I hated politics. Then I realized it matters to pay attention to politics. I’m starting to pay a lot of money, and I’m like, “Wait a minute, what is this all about?”
If you consider yourself the leader of your household, never has there been a more important time than today to pay attention to politics. By the way, if you love Trump and you’re already committed to voting for him, you’re going to love this interview because there are a lot of things he’s never talked about before. If you hate Trump and nothing can change your mind, you’re also going to love this interview. But if you’re part of the independent undecided voter that’s sitting there saying, “I really want to make up my mind of who I’m voting for,” I address three issues.
Personal life—I asked him a question at the end about personal. I played a clip for him. You’ll get to decide if he got emotional or not. You’ll see body language for yourself and say, “I’ve never seen this side before of him,” right? I asked him questions about business. I asked him a question about when he became President. You went into the White House first, who were the power players? Who—who was the most? Was it the Director of the CIA? Was it Big Pharma? Was it military? Who was it? I never thought the answer he was going to give me, and what name he gave to some of the people—I’ve never heard him say that before.
He reacted to a few videos about Barack Obama. Showed him a couple charts he had never seen before. But all I will tell you is, you’re going to see things that’s never been discussed with him before for the first time ever in this interview.
So, with that being said, again, if you consider yourself the leader of your household, where your voice matters, your vote matters, I would pay attention to every single minute of this interview with the one and only President Donald J. Trump.
Patrick Bet-David: Did you ever think you would make it?
President Trump: I feel I’m so—I taste victory. I know this life. Why would you bet on Goliath when we got Bet-David?
Patrick Bet-David: So, we have a special guest in the house today for the podcast. We’ve been waiting to do this for a long time. However, whether you love him or hate him, there’s one thing you have to know. In my opinion, he is the only trifecta we’ve ever had in the history of America. Let me tell you why I call him a trifecta.
We’ve only had one person who’s won in business—became the king of New York, became a billionaire—that’s one. Two, he won in media—number one show, Apprentice, 15 years in a row. Three, he becomes a President. So you got, he won in business, he won in media, he won in politics. Again, there’s never been a person who’s done that. Like I said, whether you love him or hate him, you have to respect him.
Mr. President, it’s great to have you.
President Trump: That was a nice introduction. Thank you very much. You are a one-on-one. Yeah, let’s end the show right now.
Patrick Bet-David: Okay, so I want to get right into it. I got a lot of questions I want to ask. Some of it’s personal, some of it’s business, some of it’s politics. But something happened last week. Barack Obama, he’s at this event. He’s speaking, right? And he’s giving this message about your economy, how great the economy was. And then at the end of it, he says, “You know, you didn’t build that economy. I built this.”
I kind of want to get your reaction on this, uh, talk that he’s given. Rob, if you can put that up.
Rob: And the reason, some people think, “Well, I don’t know.” I remember that economy when he first came—came in being pretty good.
Barack Obama video clip plays: Yeah, it was pretty good ’cause it was my economy. We had had 75 straight months of job growth that I handed over to him. It wasn’t something he did. I had spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans had left me the last time. So just in case everybody has a hazy memory of that, what he didn’t—he didn’t do nothing except those big tax cuts.
Patrick Bet-David: So how do you feel about this, when you see him saying this last week?
President Trump: I think he’s angry. He pretends not to be, but I think he’s an angry guy. He’s a nasty guy. He’s got a little bit of an edge. And, you know, he’s angry about a lot of things. You look at what happened with Biden, and you look at what he did with Biden, he really hurt Biden because, uh, I’m not sure he wouldn’t have imploded anyway. We had the debate, and he was down quite a bit, and they walked out, and they just took it away from him. I mean, if you think about it, they stole the election from a sitting president. That’s—you know, I always say coup, but the word coup, I don’t think it’s accurate enough. They just walked in and took it away from him. That is a legendary thing what he didn’t want to give up. He’s angry. Now they’re all angry. The Democrats, if you think, they’re angry. They’re both angry.
President Trump: But no, I watched that last week, and I think he spoke down to Black men. I thought it was terrible, the way he spoke to them.
Patrick Bet-David: You think it’s effective? You think he still carries the same stick as he did, you know, maybe eight years ago or twelve years ago?
President Trump: No, I don’t think he is. No, I don’t think he does. I think people have gotten smart. And, uh, no, I don’t believe he does at all. He’s—I hadn’t seen him, he’s changed a lot. Visually, he’s changed. I like to say visually, as opposed to from the look standpoint, because of course, looks don’t matter anymore in politics. You know, you say looks don’t matter, doesn’t make any difference, right? Because we want to be politically correct. But they do matter. But he’s—he’s changed. His look has changed actually quite a bit. I haven’t seen him in a long time, and by the way, I think that’s even four years ago. I think it’s even more than it is.
Patrick Bet-David: Well no, but the statement he just made was a couple days ago, and that—yeah, it was a couple days ago, and it’s similar to the statement he made back in 2012 when he told business owners, “You didn’t build that,” remember when he said that?
President Trump: Yeah.
Patrick Bet-David: I don’t know if you remember that whole comment.
President Trump: I do.
Patrick Bet-David: I think this is the speech. Rob, if you want to play this.
Obama video clip plays: You got a business? That—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.
President Trump: So this becomes a pattern.
Patrick Bet-David: A pattern of Communism. You see a pattern of Communism?
President Trump: No, I mean, that’s basically the view. You know, we didn’t do anything, right? Government did it. Somebody did it. Anybody but us.
Patrick Bet-David: Do you think this works with the undecided voter? Do you think the undecided voter that’s sitting there—our audience, they’re entrepreneurs, they’re small business owners, they’re family, they have kids, they want to win, they’ve got dreams, they want to do something. Do you think a message like that from him lands on the business owner, on the undecided voter, on the person that says, “You know what? I think he’s right, I’m going to go vote for him.” You think it works?
President Trump: I think you don’t have that many undecided voters. I think by now you have very strong Trump voters. I don’t think you have strong—you have strong Democrat voters, but I don’t think you have strong Kamala voters. What’s to vote for? I mean, take a look. She can’t do an interview. She hasn’t—has she been in here to do an interview?
Patrick Bet-David: No, not yet.
President Trump: I don’t think you’ll see her. You know, I have a—I hear she’s claiming she’s going to go on Rogan.
Patrick Bet-David: Well, that’ll be interesting. So am I. I heard, uh—
President Trump: But I think I am. I don’t know, I think so. But, uh, it’ll be interesting. It’ll be interesting to see what happens today with Brett Baier. You know, Brett’s two people. He can be very nice or he can be, uh, himself.
Patrick Bet-David: He was tough on you.
President Trump: If he’s tough on her the way he was tough on me. He was very tough on me. He was always—no, he was always nasty to me, and, uh—right? I don’t think he’ll be tough on her. I don’t think he’ll be. Fox is a very disappointing thing. During the day, Fox is just terrible. Terrible.
Patrick Bet-David: But I want to show something with this. When you look at this whole Barack Obama thing, I think the one thing they don’t show—you were talking yesterday, uh, I think it was the Bloomberg event, which by the way, I loved. I love the way you handled the whole tariff conversation. That was a great—
President Trump: I got sort of, uh, I got hoodwinked to go on that, you know. I was supposed to make a speech in front of the Chicago Economic Club, which is a big deal, you know, which is a very prestigious place, beautiful, everything was beautiful. And all of a sudden, I understand I’m being interviewed by this gentleman, and he’s got a reputation for—for being tough.
Patrick Bet-David: Oh, I’d love to see him do, uh, Kamala.
President Trump: We should. He should do Kamala. That would be beautiful. But he’s a tough cookie, and he’s the chairman of, uh, Bloomberg. He’s a big guy. So all of a sudden, I’m being interviewed, and I wasn’t happy about it because I found out that he is—you know, his reputation precedes him. But I decided to do it. You know, you have a choice. Walk out and don’t do it and have a scandal, or go in and do it and hopefully win, or you go in and do it and get killed, which is probably the worst.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: But, uh, it was a great—it was a great interview, actually, and he was nasty, but he wasn’t overly nasty to me. I mean, other people thought he was. I thought nastier was David Muir, when he kept interrupting me during the debate and saying false things, like when I said crime is way up, and he said, “No, no, crime is down.” I said, “You’re wrong about that, crime is up.” And then two days later, it came out that crime is way up. I mean, to me, that was much nastier than, uh, this gentleman. But it was really a study of business. It was a detailed study of business.
President Trump: It was a detailed study of business.
Patrick Bet-David: You’re talking about with the Bloomberg one?
President Trump: With the Bloomberg one. And people loved it. I agree, the tariff one. And the one thing I wanted to show is the following. So, you know how you talked about Jerome Powell, what an easy job he’s got—he comes once a month and he says we’re going to increase the rates. Greatest job there. I think this is the one thing they don’t talk about. So Barack Obama got elected November 4th, okay? Quantitative easing started November 26th, right? And it stayed for 8 years until you got elected, right? So, if you look at that, low, pretty much 0% interest rate, right?
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: And then you get elected, right? If you go to January 2016, for the audience to see that, and then from there, one by one by one, rates are going up, going up, going up, going up, going up. And then Biden comes in, goes back down to zero to try to save the economy. And then, you know, the rest is obviously history, right?
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: But do you think the average person knows, like, the impact of going to 0%? How much does that positively help the economy when the Fed lowers the rates to half a point?
Patrick Bet-David: Yeah, it has a huge impact. The power of the Fed is, I think, pretty strong. Some people disagree with that. They think it’s overridden by the interest rate climate, but I think the power of the Fed is very strong. It’s an interesting graph, actually. Yeah, this just shows that the rates didn’t help you, you know when he says it was—well, they didn’t use them to help me, right?
President Trump: And Powell, I gave him a hard time because he was raising them, and I was never a big fan of his. He was late, and he was early. He was too early and too late, you know. But, um, I had the greatest economy in history. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country, despite that. You know, this is another thing I can say—despite the fact that they weren’t very high, but they were, you know, reasonably high. And, uh, despite the rates not being at zero, I had a pretty good, uh—I had a great—we had a great run.
Patrick Bet-David: Following up on the Barack Obama question, when I think about Van Jones and owning the Black vote, the 2024 election, I saw some numbers that came out which I thought were fascinating, right? Rob, if you can pull this up from CNN. So this is CNN reporting on this just two days ago, okay? Barack Obama, when it comes to Black men ages 18 to 44, he was up 81 points in November of 2012. Clinton—Hillary was up 63 when she went against you. Biden was up 53. Kamala, who is apparently Black, she’s up 41.
President Trump: And what do you mean by apparently?
Patrick Bet-David: I mean, that’s what they’re telling us. We’re supposed to believe she’s Black, and you know, it’s much better than—no, no. See, I would never say a thing like that, but you said it.
President Trump: Well, no, you—you could explain it. Because I understand. I’m very comfortable explaining it because overnight, you know, she’s doing a show, she’s supposed to be Indian, and then all of a sudden now she’s Black. But it’s not landing with the average American.
Patrick Bet-David: So, if you look at—do you think Black men—that’s why she’s not doing well? Some people say that in 2016, you had 13% of male Black voters, 18 to 44. In 2020, you had 18%. In 2024, you’re at 26%. It’s doubled in eight years. The question I’m asking you is the following: Back in 1960, right, 64% of African Americans would vote Democrat, right? The other was pretty much conservative. African Americans have historically been very conservative. Okay, Barry Goldwater, the issue happens, 1964, right? It goes from 64% Democrat to 92%. And it’s been between 85 to 92% since 1964. Right?
Patrick Bet-David: You’ve come in and you’ve shaken things up. Do you think 2024 is going to be one of those moments where African American men, they’re like, “Listen, I’m sick and tired of Democrats feeling like they own me. I think I’m going to go to the other side.” Do you think 2024 could be one of those years that we look back and say they lost the African American vote?
President Trump: They really lost it for a while. The Republicans went, and it started, I guess, with Barry Goldwater, if you look at the charts. But, uh, I did criminal justice reform. That’s a big thing. They’ve been trying to get it. You know, I saw a guy named Van Jones—he’s not any—I don’t think anybody knows who he is. He’s a commentator for CNN. And he came to see me in the White House, and he was crying.
Patrick Bet-David: I remember that.
President Trump: He was crying because he—I just, I have—I bring these things up because it’s a lack of—I don’t know, there’s something about loyalty. You help somebody with something, uh, he came in with a fairly large group of people, uh, mostly Black people, and he was devastated because criminal justice reform wasn’t going to happen. Uh, Obama didn’t do it and, uh, didn’t even come close. Bush didn’t try. Nobody. Nobody was going to do it. And I’m the only one that could have done it. And he was with a group of people that were—they were begging to do it. They were five votes short, and they were had to be conservative votes because there was nobody else left, right? And I guess you needed the 61 or 60-something, maybe 66. But 61 is a hard vote. And he made a plea to me, Van Jones, total sob bag, he made a plea to me to help him and help this group of people, and they explained how for years they’ve been trying to get it, and they’ve been unable to get it. And I said, “Well, let’s take a look at it.” And, um, I studied it for a little while and, uh, spoke to them, and I said, “You know what? I’m going to help you. It’s going to help the Black people in particular, and I’m going to get it for you guys.”
Patrick Bet-David: And?
President Trump: And I called up five very conservative senators. And I’ll never forget, one of the senators who was in charge of it, he was literally leading the charge against it. And I mean, his whole career was this—he was going to stop criminal justice reform. Not because he was, uh, you know, anti-Black, just he didn’t like it. He didn’t want it. And he was in the papers every day. He’s fighting and fighting it, winning very easily. And I helped him get elected. Without me, he wouldn’t have gotten elected. I’ll never forget it.
President Trump: I called him up. Now, he’s in the heat of passion. He is fighting this all the way. Not something he would ever give up. You couldn’t—you know, there are some things you can—I call him up. He gets on the phone. I didn’t say a word. I said, “Hello.” And he goes, “I’m giving it to you.” I said, “What are you giving me?” He said, “I’m giving you criminal justice reform. That’s why you’re calling, right?” I said, “It is why I’m calling.” He said, “You got me elected. I disagree with you, but I’m giving it to you.” Just like that. I said, “That’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard.” Because I also have the opposite, where I got a lot of people elected, you know, when I endorse somebody. In history, and I don’t want to brag, but in history, you can get another chart on that one. I mean, I’m like 289 and, and almost nothing for endorsements.
President Trump: And he said, “You got me elected. I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you. And I did.” But I got a lot of people elected. And some of them get—and I said, “That’s the coolest thing.” I said, “Thank you.” I said, “You mind if I call a couple of the others?” “Nope, you do whatever you want.” Now, this is a guy who was the leader of the fight. I didn’t even ask. He knew what I was calling for, because he knew that I was going to help Van Jones. This Van Jones guy, I was going to help him. And you’ll understand why I’m being nasty to him now. Because what happened later is disgraceful.
President Trump: So, I said, “Thank you very much, Senator. I’m so happy that I did help you.” I think loyalty is a great thing, and that was. So, I had his vote. I then called four other guys, all of whom were against it, and I said, “I’d love to have,” and they, you know, they don’t do it for a lot of presidents, but they do it for me. And I got them five votes that they needed, and criminal justice reform passed right then. And I was happy for them. I was happy for everybody. Everybody was happy. They couldn’t believe they got it done. And it was something that really, the Black population wanted far more than anybody else. I’ve never even heard it mentioned with other people. It was mostly the Black population, and they’d been fighting it for, like, what you’d say, 40, 50 years, right?
Patrick Bet-David: Since ’64, yeah.
President Trump: So, we, 40, 50 years. Yeah, yeah. So, I got it done. I got something done—get a lot of things done that nobody else could have gotten done. So, what happens is, uh, Van Jones and all, they have—they called for a news conference that night. The vote was taken, they got it done, and I said to my wife, “Come on over here. This is beautiful. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. Watch this. This, uh, gentleman was in my office a number of weeks ago, and they needed votes, and I got it done. It’ll be nice to watch somebody really say something nice about your husband.” I said that to Melania.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: And, uh, I said, “Watch this.” And they got up, and they spoke, but Van Jones got up, and it was a little—I get, I don’t get too embarrassed, you know. He got up. He thanked this one, he thanked that one, he thanked this one, this one, that one, that one. The only one he didn’t thank was Donald Trump.
Patrick Bet-David: Wow.
President Trump: And I look at that sleazebag now, and I say, “Uh, he’s got bad ways. Bad ways.” I—I looked at him then, and I saw him last night, and he was on CNN, which is dying, by the way, in the ratings because they have people like him on. And I watched him last night say how he hopes I’ll be defeated, and, uh, we should defeat him. We have to fight him. He shouldn’t be allowed to be—and I said, “You know, uh, normally I’d say I wish I had that vote back, but I did the right thing.”
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: But why do I—why do I think he praised you? Why do I think he got emotional crying, giving you credit about what you did?
Patrick Bet-David: No, I don’t know. All I can tell you is he was crying in my office—that’s probably what you heard before he got it. He was crying. He was literally—they went over to him with handkerchiefs. He was crying. Tears were pouring down his eyes before. But after, he wasn’t crying—not that I know.
Patrick Bet-David: So he didn’t mention you the night of the news conference.
President Trump: He was leading the news conference, and I don’t need it. I get mentioned plenty of times, etc., etc., but I watched last night—it’s a good place to say this, actually. It’s better than writing out a truth or whatever. But I watched last night, and I watched him talk about how I must be defeated. You know, I’m a bad guy or something.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: And Van Jones is saying this?
Patrick Bet-David: Yeah, yeah, he said it last night.
President Trump: I saw him last night. I—I don’t watch CNN, honestly. I don’t watch it, but I happened to be—you know, I’m passing it, and I see him on, and I watched him talking about essentially negative about me. You know, what difference does it make? Nobody cares what they do. They’ve, uh, they’ve been fighting me for years, and, you know, I became president. I did much better the second time than I did the first. And now I’m doing it the third time, and, uh, if the election’s not rigged, uh, we’re going to win. If it is rigged, I guess that’s a different story, but we’ll find out pretty soon.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: But, uh, but I watched this guy last night against me. Even if he was a little against me, but he wasn’t—he was like, you know, “We have to defeat Trump. We have to defeat him.” And I’ve watched him a little bit over the years, and every time I watch him, I say, “What a, what a sleazebag he is.” You know, what a bad guy. But I did it for Black people. I did it for—it was—it was purely—the only people that saw me about criminal justice reform were, uh, African Americans. That’s all. And I did it for them.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: I also did Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and, uh, I got them financing. I would see, uh, the heads of colleges come down after two years. They would come to Washington, like, 45, 50 people, a group. They’d always come in a big group, and I got to know them a little bit because they had to come through my office to get funding. And after the second time, I said to them, “Why do you keep coming down here for funding? Don’t they give you—” He said, “No, they make us feel like beggars.” That was the term.
Patrick Bet-David: Wow.
President Trump: And a couple of them, I got really friendly with. Some of them I still see a little bit. And I said, “Uh, what does that mean?” He said, “Every year we come down for funding for the Black colleges and universities.” And they play a great role—a very important role, in my opinion. So I said, “So you mean every year you come down?” “We do, we get our—we come down together, and we go and see senators and congressmen, or we try seeing a president.” But I got to know them, and I said, “You know, this is no way to live, where you come down—” And I ended up getting them more money than they even wanted, and I got it done. And I got it long-term. And I said, “Fellas, I just got this done for you, and I want to tell you a little secret. I’m unhappy about it.” They said, “Why?” I said, “Because I’ll probably never see you again. You’ll never come down to Washington to see me.”
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: And—and I meant it actually in a friendly way because I got used to seeing them. They were always coming down looking for money. I took care of their needs long-term—more money than they wanted. I said, “You’re going to need more money than that,” and I got it for them. And, uh, I think that’s why Black men really like me. And I think Black women do, too. But they have a woman who is Black—although you would say she’s Indian, but, uh, she is Black.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: But she—really a lot of people didn’t know, which is true, but I learned about it just a couple months ago.
Patrick Bet-David: You mean the fact that she’s Black or that she’s Indian?
President Trump: The fact that she’s Black. I thought she was Indian until a couple months ago. Things change. I mean, a lot of people, because if you follow baseball, Samy Sosa kind of, you know, you sometimes have to respect people. They change, right?
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: So I thought maybe she was doing a Sammy Sosa the other way. Samy changed, right? People change. If you remember Sammy Sosa—oh, he could hit the ball.
Patrick Bet-David: He could hit the ball.
President Trump: 66 home runs, I think, one year, right?
Patrick Bet-David: Yeah, yeah.
President Trump: But I want to show you this—and by the way, the only reason I want to show you this is because I think Van Jones is scared of giving you credit. This is what Van Jones said after what you did, and it was the most uncomfortable moment on CNN because he had to thank you. If you can play this clip, Rob, I think this is the clip.
Patrick Bet-David: Go for it.
President Trump: Significant.
Patrick Bet-David: Do you think—this is, by the way, one of your partners in working on this, Jared. This is how many years ago?
Rob: This is the date on this—five years ago, December 18th, 2018. So you just got that. That’s pretty cool.
Patrick Bet-David: Yeah, so this is six years ago. If you can play this clip.
Van Jones video clip plays: My father went to prison, and who—who fought on this as hard as—this is history. This is history right now. You’re witnessing history on the floor of the U.S. Senate. There’s a Christmas miracle underway, where for the first time in a generation, Republicans and Democrats are arm in arm tonight saying we are sending too many people to prison. They’re coming out bitter and not better. We want to make a tremendous difference. I want to say, uh, Hakeem Jeffries on the left, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump on the right have brought together a coalition like I’ve never seen—literally the National Association of Manufacturers, Fox News…
Patrick Bet-David: I’m glad you see it because, to me, you see, when I think about him—obviously, you know his history. He was close to Obama, Communist, all that stuff, you have to kind of drop it. But at the same time, they don’t want him saying something like this. I want to give Jeff—Jared—and you—to give that credit.
President Trump: Right.
Patrick Bet-David: This is the part where even Dems are sitting there saying, “How the hell do we argue against the fact that a Republican president that we’re not supposed to like did this?” Cut him off. Just give him 30 seconds, 40 seconds, let’s go to the next topic to bash him again. But it was kind of great to see Van Jones saying this about you.
President Trump: It was, but again, uh, right after that, he—it was over. He has to go back. He has to go back. A real man would not have done that, and—and I’m glad I saw that, but it really doesn’t mean anything because he said it, and then after that, he—he took it back.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: I want to show you something, and this kind of goes maybe to the next point. So, yesterday, a new Gallup poll came out, okay? If you look at this Gallup poll—this is literally from yesterday—Americans’ trust in mass media from ‘72 to 2024. It officially hit the lowest in the history. We’re talking ever. Not—not, uh, one of the lowest. This is the lowest ever in the history of America. Americans don’t trust mass media anymore. And even recently, I don’t know if you saw the numbers that came out two weeks ago. I’m sure you follow some of the stuff. Every one of the guys at CNN, MSNBC—they’re all getting a lower salary when they’re renewing their contracts. They’re not getting paid the kind of money they were making.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: And, by the way, you may not like me saying this to you, but I think—I think I kind of want to see your reaction to this. I know a lot of people will say, “Well, you know, he has, uh, you know, XYZ, felon this, charged 91, 53 were dismissed, 32 of this, and 12 are the ones that are remaining.” I think the only one that Letitia James, Jack Smith, and maybe even Fani, if they wanted to claim that you—you did commit a crime, is you—you kind of—you kind of did kill mainstream media.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: If you think about it.
Patrick Bet-David: They did, and that could be a crime for those guys.
President Trump: I’m very proud of it.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: And I want to show you this clip, because this is the first time ever the phrase “fake news” was ever used, and from this moment on is when the decline started. Rob, if you can go and play this clip.
Video clip of Trump: Since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question?
Reporter: Since you’re…
Video clip of Trump: No, Mr. President-elect…
Reporter: Mr. President-elect…
Video clip of Trump: Since you are attacking our news organization, can you give us a chance…
Reporter: You are attacking our news organization…
Video clip of Trump: Can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir?
Reporter: Sir, can you…
Video clip of Trump: Sir, go ahead.
Reporter: Can you stay…
Video clip of Trump: Quiet. Quiet.
Reporter: Mr. President-elect…
Video clip of Trump: Don’t be rude.
Reporter: Can you state categorically that nobody…
Video clip of Trump: No. I’m not going to give you a question.
Reporter: Can you state categorically…
Video clip of Trump: You are fake news.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: Isn’t that disgusting? Think of it. That would never happen to a Democrat. But isn’t that disgusting?
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: He’s a—he’s a lowlife, the guy. And as you know, but, uh, and he has his own show. He gets no ratings at all. Nobody on CNN gets ratings.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: But isn’t that disgusting? I’m just watching that, and isn’t it a shame that people can behave that way against the president, you know? And, yeah, I think I got—I think I’m responsible for those numbers up there where they went down. I’m—and frankly, I’m proud of it, because they—I’m also responsible for the term “fake news,” and that’s a great term, but it’s not strong enough. I think “corrupt news” is a better term, but it doesn’t play as well. But they’re corrupt people. And disgusting people. But he is, uh, well, he—he wasn’t as bad as some. I mean, in a certain way, he was louder, but he wasn’t as smart as some. I mean, some are much smarter.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: He’s not a smart one.
Patrick Bet-David: Did you think you were going to say “fake news,” or was it just—it kind of came out and it stuck, you’re like, “This is going to stick.” Was it intentional?
President Trump: I don’t know if that’s the first time I’ve used it, but I do get credit for having—you know, having been an originator of the term. I mean, you know, a lot of times I come up with—I have a very fertile mind—I come up with very good names for people. Very creative. Pocahontas, uh, a lot of good names.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: But, you know, I don’t know if that’s the first time, but I thought of that term often, and more so as I was running. You know, I—I actually used to get great press when I was an entrepreneur. I would get very glamorous press, very beautiful press. I went—I went the exact opposite. And I was amazed, and I—I really learned how corrupt it was. I didn’t think of it as that corrupt because, you know, I’d do something, and they’d give me credit. Um, but, uh, no, I—I had a very different life, actually, when you think about it. But then I run for president, uh…
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: And all of a sudden, it flipped.
President Trump: I had a very different life, actually, when you think about it. But then I run for president, uh, so 92% of the people that run for president—presidents—92% were politicians, and 8% were generals. So, I wasn’t a politician. I wasn’t a general, so I was the only one that wasn’t in that group. No, there were no admirals. They were all either politicians or they were—sort of an interesting point—most people don’t know that. Some people said that’s interesting; other people say, because even Reagan would be a politician ‘cause he was a two-term governor.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: He was a politician.
Patrick Bet-David: He was a politician.
President Trump: He was a governor. There were some that were businessmen, but they were then ran for the Senate, or they were in Congress, and you know, they went from there to the presidency. But, um, nobody ever went right to the presidency. You know, I never ran for office. All of a sudden, I’m president. And I—I really learned about the press early, in the hard way, because I went from one extreme to the other. I got great press, and then all of a sudden, I was treated like by a…
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: Like that. And I—I really—I fought them very hard. They’re very dishonest. They’re very corrupt. Not all of them, but a big percentage of them. I would say, um, in the 80s—that’s a lot.
Patrick Bet-David: That’s a lot.
President Trump: That’s a lot—a big percentage—they’re very corrupt.
Patrick Bet-David: Have they always been? Has it always been the case? You’ve been around media, TV…
President Trump: Yeah.
Patrick Bet-David: …you know, for a long time.
President Trump: I don’t think it’s ever been like this. Yeah, I’ve been around it for a long time. I don’t think it’s ever been like this. When you think, I started off, Patrick, I used to have a story written about me, and without fail, somebody would call after the story was written but not published. And they were called fact checkers. “Hello, sir, we’re calling about a story that we wrote about you. Is it true that you own this? And is it true that you did this and, uh, that you spent, uh, X dollars? Could we check that number?” Blah, blah, blah. And it would go on for a while to a point where you’d get somebody else to just do it.
Patrick Bet-David: Right.
President Trump: But they—without fail, I’d have—if there were any details in a story—not always—but if there were any details, always. And they would call. Fact checkers. “Hello, sir, my name’s Jim Smith. I’m a fact checker for the New York Times,” and they’d check the facts of a story. And I think they at least—at least were trying to be real. I haven’t had a fact checker call me in 30 years. You know, they don’t call anymore.
Patrick Bet-David: You think that’s because of the Fairness Doctrine Act of 1987? Because prior to that, media platforms had to actually give both sides of the story, and then once that was dropped, they lost the accountability. They could say whatever they wanted to say, and it was kind of free-for-all, like, let me go after them.
President Trump: Well, for you, when you became a president, you know, if someone’s running for office, you have to sit there and think about issues. Here’s what I’m running on: wall, border, you know, economy, XYZ. Great. Obama, I’m going to go after healthcare. Well, Jimmy Carter, I’m going to go human rights. You pick and choose what you’re running for. But there’s also an element of, “Who are going to be my allies? Who are going to be my enemies?” Did you sit there and say, “The enemy of the people is media. I’m going to go after them.” Or did you say, “No, this happened accidentally.” Was this intentional, or was it accidental?
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