Source: CNBC, copyright belongs to the original author. Please contact for removal if there is any infringement. Translated by: Cointelegraph Chinese

Joe Kernen: Now let's welcome our guest we've been discussing all morning. President Trump, welcome. Thank you for your call. I wish you could be here in person, but let's proceed this way.

President Trump: Good morning, Joe.

Kernen: We've been discussing the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and employment data this morning. I know you sometimes watch our show. I want to show you a chart. I hope you can see it; if not, I'll describe it for you. This is the response rate from the BLS household survey over the past 10 to 12 years. It has dropped from about 90% timely response rate to 60%, and sometimes even lower. This is arguably the most important data we have about the economy. Yesterday, we had Professor Jeremy Siegel from the Wharton School on, and please bear with me, Mr. President. I know you are familiar with Wharton, but he voluntarily shared the following thoughts about this data.

Recording of Jeremy Siegel from Wharton School: I won't let the Bureau of Labor Statistics off the hook. I mean, you know, you talk about how to fix it, you can't make these surveys mandatory and give them a time limit to fill them out, you know? I think a 60% response rate is unacceptable for the most important statistics we have. It's almost like when we send out the surveys, we say, "Fill it out when you have time. We know you like to go to the beach in the summer. So it might be a little late." You know, that's unacceptable today. We need it. The response rate must improve, and when you commit the biggest error in 50 years, why? Why is there no explanation?

Kernen: A reduction of 258,000 in two months. This is the largest revision since 1968. Mr. President, we are now in the internet age, yet we still cannot obtain any real-time data. We are still using traditional mail to get responses. After all, this is the government, undoubtedly outdated, and certainly not optimal, but manipulated. Where do you get the idea that it is manipulated? Or do you have any evidence?

President Trump: It is indeed outdated, but also very politicized. You know, I recently participated in an election, did very well, won every swing state, won the popular vote, won everything, okay, won all the counties, I think 87% of the counties are Republican. This has never happened before, but I had to go through hellish trials. Just days before the election, they released data showing the country was on fire, performing so well. Then about two weeks later, they revised it down, cutting nearly 900,000 jobs. Do you remember? I said, but, man, I said, what would happen if I lost? Think about it, I would say they gave false data, and then a week and a half later, they revised it.

Kernen: Those are benchmark data; this happens. They do this. They do it twice a year, reconciling monthly data with overall data. It's a big number. Clearly raised concerns…

President Trump: But Joe, this data is manipulated. Biden is performing poorly. He is doing very badly. They announced this amazing data two days before the election, and a little earlier, always these great numbers. You know he is not doing well. You know prices are soaring, inflation is terrible. The whole situation is bad. But think about it, then they made what I believe is the largest revision in history, nearly 900,000 jobs. The result was even worse because later, they made another revision, so they gave false data to win the election. After I won the election, I said, "It's too big to manipulate." But after I won the election, they announced a downward number, in other words, bringing it back to reality. I said, wow, what if I lost? I would blame this. People would say I am a conspiracy theorist. Crazy.

Kernen: Elaine Chao was on the show yesterday. I know, you know she served as Labor Secretary for eight years during the Bush II administration and was also your Transportation Secretary. She said, you know, the director doesn't even get involved in the specifics of compiling all this data. She couldn't possibly choose to manipulate this data to make it look bad; these are statistical changes based on this outdated system. To say it is manipulated is a big leap. Then, Mr. President, this also makes anyone you choose subject to criticism from detractors, saying, hey, he chose someone who would give him the data he wants. So in a way, it undermines confidence in the system. Many people say you absolutely have the right to try to replace the director when things haven't improved. But most people say that might be overstepping.

President Trump: Well, I think when someone says the director is not involved, I don't want to argue with anyone. Why would I do that? She is a very nice lady.

Kernen: Indeed.

President Trump: But when they say no one is involved, this is not political. Come on. Look at the data that came out before the election, this massive, massive flow of good data favorable to Biden, I mean, he doesn't know he's alive. The economy is roaring for Biden. This is a wonderful thing. I said, this can't be happening. The situation is going in the opposite direction. Two weeks later, they said I was right. But even if you look at the raw data, those numbers from a few days ago were very cautious. Then they announced something to make them look even more cautious. Besides that, on some reporting day. I don't know why; it just seems a little more important than most of the time they announce data.

Kernen: Mr. President, we've talked before; the unemployment rate is still very low. It's 4.2%.

President Trump: That's okay. I'm not saying it's shocking the world. What I'm saying is the numbers before the election were shocking the world. I'm not saying these are shocking. But then they announced hundreds of thousands to make it look a little worse than you know, a few months ago, I said, where did these numbers come from? Highly politicized. This is a highly politicized situation. Completely manipulated. Smart people know this. Common-sense people know this. Many people just bury their heads in the sand and refuse to believe.

Kernen: Let's continue discussing this. Which numbers do you believe now? Because if you notice, suddenly the chances of the rate cut you've been wanting and arguing for have skyrocketed because of these numbers. Do you not believe the current numbers? Because they align perfectly with what you want the Fed and Jay Powell to do. As you said, they are not terrible, but you know, maybe due to tariffs, some businesses have delayed some spending, and some consumers may be uncertain about the future, so maybe we see a slight slowdown in the labor market, but based on these numbers, you will get what you want. Which numbers do you believe? Do you not believe the revised numbers either?

President Trump: That's not what I want. I didn't want that. I wanted it a year ago. I wanted it a long time ago. Jay Powell is highly politicized, and I think, you know, I call him "Too Late Jerome," "Too Late Powell," he is always too late. He has always been, except when he lowered rates before the election. You know he did that thing; he solved that problem.

Kernen: Who would you replace him with? I know you occasionally watch our show; we had a long interview with a potential replacement, Kevin Warsh. Were you watching that day, or…

President Trump: He is good. He is good. Sometimes they are all good until you put them in there, and then they don't perform as well. But many of them, I think, I think he is a good man. I say Kevin and Kevin, both Kevins are good, and there are others who are good, but many times, many times, they are good, just like the role we have now, Jerome "Too Late" Powell, he is good. He says, sir, I will keep rates so low. I am a low-rate person, sir, you can always hear him talk about debt. Someone who works for me is a big fan of his, not a fan. He hardly knows him, but he wants him so badly. I did someone a favor; I put him in there, no, he is too late. He is too late. That name will always be associated with him.

Kernen: Can you predict, or do you not know? When will you know, when will you announce?

President Trump: The two Kevins are doing well. I have two others doing well. Look, in the end, there are many qualified people. Now everyone on your call, in terms of your beautiful studio, seems very qualified to me. You are better than most people who make a living at this. But I have looked at many, and actually, no, I think it will be one of the four.

Becky Quick: The other two names are…

President Trump: I will make a decision soon? Don't forget, we have a person leaving early, which is a pleasant surprise. We have a lady who announced two days ago that she is leaving, and I will announce that soon too. That is likely. It will be four months, you know, in the short term. But many people say when you do this, why not just choose the person who is going to lead the Fed? That is also a possibility.

Quick: President Trump, you said there are four names. The media has mentioned two other names. One is Governor Waller. The other is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Are these the four you are considering?

President Trump: Well, I love Scott, but he wants to stay in his current position. I will. I will exclude him because I just asked him last night, is this what you want? No, I want to stay in my current position. He actually said, I want to work with you. It is such an honor. I said, that's great. I appreciate it. But no, Scott wants to do what he said he wants to do. He is doing very well; he wants to do what he is doing, so let's exclude him. He doesn't want it. He will. He likes being Treasury Secretary. He is doing very well. We made the greatest trade deal in the history of our country. We had to do it because we were being exploited by the world, not like we had a choice. If we can get these trade deals, if you have a normal president, he will continue to allow every country in the world to exploit you. We wouldn't have a country anymore. Your show would go off the air. There would be nothing to watch. That would be a disaster. When I took over, we were in such bad shape; egg prices tripled. Not just that, everything went up, and now prices are down. It bothers me. I watched CNN a few nights ago; it is a failed deal. It has no ratings. I might be the only one watching; I see these people talking, um, retracting. Prices are going up. No, no, prices are going down. Since I took office, they have gone down. All prices, except stock prices. Stock prices have gone up significantly, okay, but prices have gone down. If I give you an example, Joe, energy has gone down significantly. Energy dropped to $2.20 a barrel, per gallon. Now for cars, it has dropped to a level.

Kernen: I see it's $2.80.

President Trump: You dropped, I think, about $65 a barrel. But it is going down. There is huge energy. If you notice OPEC and OPEC+, they are drilling more. They want to drill more because I think they want to make me happy because if energy drops low enough, Putin will stop killing. That would be good, even if it is his own people dying, he and Ukraine. But if you let energy drop another $10 a barrel, Putin will stop killing because his economy is terrible.

Andrew Ross Sorkin: Mr. President, this is Andrew. It's great to talk to you. I wanted to ask you about the tariffs you mentioned. On Sunday, you talked again about the idea that revenue from tariffs could provide a dividend for low- and middle-income people. I wanted you to perhaps explain how this would work in practice, and how you are weighing the trade-offs between paying down debt (which I believe you have been talking a lot about) and issuing checks, as this clearly creates our own debt.

President Trump: So we are collecting trillions of dollars, Andrew. If you look at Japan, we are collecting $550 billion, which is like the signing bonus a baseball player would get. He would get a little less, depending on how good he is, right? But they give signing bonuses of $1 million, or $2 million, or $20 million, or whatever amount they give today. It's out of control. But signing bonuses. I got a $550 billion signing bonus from Japan—that's our money. It's our money to invest as we see fit. The European Union, $650 billion. Think about it. They are going to buy $750 billion worth of our energy. They are going to do this, they are going to do that. By the way, they are going to open their countries, which they have never done before. Japan has never—if you do business in Japan, they will arrest you. You are not allowed to do any business. Now Japan has completely opened their country. They are even accepting our rice, which no one said was possible. But more importantly, they are accepting our cars. They are accepting very nice Ford F-150s, which perform well, and I believe will perform well there too, as well as other great things we make here that will also do well there. You would be surprised at some of the great things we manufacture. But Japan has opened all of this. Indonesia has opened their country. South Korea has opened their country. But not just opened; this will be huge business—when you open Korea, it’s a closed country. Now suddenly, we are allowed to sell cars, trucks, and SUVs to Korea. I mean, we are really opening it up. Vietnam is opening their country. You know, these are all closed countries. But the EU is closed. They do not accept our agriculture. I asked—let me say, a prime minister—a very nice prime minister—years ago, I said, "How many cars do you accept a year? Let me guess, one or two?" She said, "No, no, no, you—we do not accept any of your cars." I said, "That's right. That's not good." I said, "That's not right. That's not a good thing, Angela." But they didn't accept a single one, and now they accept all of our cars, all of our trucks, everything is 100% open. Additionally, the EU will pay us $650 billion—we will actually round it down to $600 billion because of certain things. Think about it, they will take out $750 billion—we are a wealthy country again. Now, these are just the deals I am announcing. These are the biggest because the EU is essentially Europe. We have made good deals with all countries, and they are fair about it—

Sorkin: Mr. President—

President Trump: And one more thing, I mean, for your audience, maybe they are not as wealthy as some of your listeners, I am doing something that no one has ever done before. As you know, for 30 years, drug prices in Europe have been, in many cases, one-tenth of what they cost here. The same manufacturing plants, the same everything. One to—I have cited most-favored-nation treatment. Now there is no most-favored-nation treatment—I just say there is because we are not going to pay ten times what they pay in Europe for a pill—

Sorkin: Mr. President—

President Trump: —this will have a huge impact on drug prices.

Quick: Is that the reason—

Sorkin: Mr. President, but what is the binding force of these investments? What is the binding force of these investments? What does it mean that will compel the EU to make these investments? What happens on the other side if they do not make these investments?

President Trump: Well, then they have to pay a 35% tariff. No, no. They lowered the tariffs, so they are paying $600 billion, and therefore, I reduced their tariffs from 30% to 15%. Several countries came—why does the EU pay less than we do? I said, "Well, because they gave me $600 billion." That was a gift. That’s not like, you know, a loan, by the way. That’s not a loan, oh my gosh, due in three years. We have to pay it back. There’s nothing to pay back. They gave us $600 billion, and we can invest in anything we want.

Quick: The deals you announced—

President Trump: No one knows, Becky. No one knows because, you know, they don’t know.

Quick: No, they—we have been trying to figure out the details, Mr. President, so we appreciate your clarification on this.

President Trump: Yes, well, there are no details. The details are $600 billion to invest in anything I want. Anything. I can do anything I want, no matter— the purpose is, they have been, you know, exploiting us for so many years, it’s time they pay up. They have to pay up. We cannot afford the deficit. Look, a few days ago I did some things with Switzerland. I talked to their prime minister. That lady is nice, but she didn’t want to listen; they basically don’t pay tariffs. I said, "We have a $41 billion deficit with you, ma’am." I don’t know her. I said, "We have a $41 billion deficit, and you want to—you want to pay a 1% tariff. You want 1%." I said, "You are not going to pay 1%." We are not going to lose—because I view the deficit as a loss—you know, you have some people, by the way, I—

Quick: Pharmaceuticals are a big issue for Switzerland. I think Roche and Novartis—

President Trump: Well, I will get into pharmaceuticals. They make a lot of money in pharmaceuticals. They manufacture our drugs in China, Ireland, and elsewhere. In about a week or so, we will announce targeted tariffs, which is a—you know, this is a separate category from the 15% tariffs, basically everything. These are what I call exclusion categories. I like to call them exclusions, like steel, aluminum, etc.—

Quick: Right, Section 232—

President Trump: Well, we will announce semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category because we want them made in the U.S. By the way, they are being made in the U.S. You know, we have the largest in the world, as you know, companies from Taiwan are coming over, investing $300 billion in Arizona to build the largest chip and semiconductor factory in the world. But in pharmaceuticals, we will impose initially smaller tariffs on pharmaceuticals. But within a year—

Quick: Mr. Trump—

President Trump: —at most a year and a half, it will rise to 150%, then rise to 250%, because we want drugs made in our country. This is not like Biden’s CHIPS Act, because he doesn’t know what he’s doing; they are giving billions to companies that have more money than they know how to handle—

Quick: Mr. Trump, can I ask you about some things you are doing that are the opposite of the Biden administration, and also your latest—

President Trump: Everything. I think everything.

Quick: —but your latest deal with India. You are unhappy with the trade agreement there, especially because they are buying Russian oil. The Biden administration has sanctioned Russian oil, but then they kind of winked and nodded, appreciating India and China buying some oil because they are worried it will push up oil prices, thus raising prices at the pump. For you, is shutting down the Russians more important than worrying about oil prices?

President Trump: I’m not worried about prices because we are drilling at unprecedented levels. What Biden did was he stopped my drilling. Then the prices, if you remember the first few months, the prices skyrocketed, and he immediately said, let’s go back to what Trump was doing. Let’s go back to it. But by then, they had already messed it up, and energy prices were so high, that’s the reason— that and his crazy spending is the reason—by the way, the largest inflation in our country’s history occurred during the Biden administration. Not in 48 years. You know, they like to say 48 years. This is the largest in our country’s history, the inflation we had during Biden because this guy clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing. But for India—

Kernen: Mr. President—

President Trump: —for India, what people don’t like to say about India is they are the highest tariff country. They have the highest tariffs of anyone. We do very little business with India because their tariffs are so high. So India is not a good trading partner because they do a lot of business with us, but we don’t do business with them. So we set 25%, but I think I will significantly raise that in the next 24 hours because they are buying Russian oil; they are fueling the war machine. If they are going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy.

Kernen: You’ve signed a lot of agreements. I thought India was about to reach an agreement. I’m not sure, you know, what the sticking point is there, Mr. President, but let’s, since we don’t have all day, we have to talk about China—

President Trump: Well, the sticking point with India is the tariffs are too high. Now, I’m going to say this—

Kernen: Right, but we—

President Trump: —India has the highest tariffs ever, and they will give us zero tariffs. They are—

Kernen: So for China—

President Trump: —coming in, but that’s not good enough because—

Kernen: Let’s talk about China—

President Trump: —because of what they are doing with oil, not good.

Kernen: It looks like you are going to have a meeting; people are talking about a meeting with President Xi, and then you specifically said others are saying—I think you even called it fake news or something. Almost—it looks like you are indicating you are not happy, or the negotiations have broken down. We have a few frameworks or some positive initiatives, you know, China, you have had great success with other countries. China is a big issue and an important—not exactly the elephant in the room, but certainly an important trading partner. What’s the situation now? What—will there be a meeting between you and President Xi? What’s the plan? What’s the sticking point now, and how optimistic are you about us reaching a comprehensive agreement?

President Trump: Well, I can have a meeting. We have a good relationship, but I didn’t request a meeting. He requested a meeting. So the fake news announces that Donald Trump wants to meet with China. No, I didn’t want to. No, he requested a meeting, and if we reach an agreement, I’m most likely to have a meeting before the end of the year. If we don’t reach an agreement, I won’t have a meeting. I mean, you know, if we’re not going to reach an agreement, what’s the point of the meeting? But we are very close to reaching an agreement. We are getting along well with China. I’m telling you, you know, you have a perspective, when I imposed a 145% tariff on fentanyl, I imposed it, I actually asked people, "By the way, how are we doing with China now?" Because I keep increasing more, and they said, "Sir, you’ve already reached 145%." I said, "You must be joking." So I had to lower it a bit. But when it reaches 145%—it means our trade with China is zero—China is collapsing. I don’t know if you know that. If you know, you haven’t reported it. But China is collapsing. China is very dependent on the U.S. I have a good relationship with him. I think we will reach a good agreement. It’s not necessary, but I think we will reach a good agreement. But no, they have a saying that Donald Trump really wants to go there. No, I don’t want to. It’s an 8—it's a 19-hour flight. It’s a long flight. But at some point in the near future, I will go. To wrap up this conversation about China, I have a good relationship with President Xi. I always have. Except for that moment during the COVID pandemic, I was very angry with him, basically didn’t want to—frankly didn’t want to talk to him because, you know, it did come from Wuhan, and to be fair, I’ve been saying that from day one. I said I know exactly where it came from, but that did interfere with the relationship. But no, I have a good relationship with President Xi. We respect him very much. They respect us very much. They do not respect Biden. They think he’s a fool. They can’t believe he’s the President of the United States, and neither can anyone else believe that this is happening.

Sorkin: Mr. President, on another topic, The Wall Street Journal reports that you are preparing an order that they say will punish banks that discriminate against conservatives, including possibly Bank of America. I’m actually going to talk to Brian Moynihan later today. Can you tell us about that executive order? What’s in it? What do you think the banks have done?

President Trump: Well, they have indeed discriminated. I was at JPMorgan Chase—I have hundreds of millions of dollars in cash. I can see if they want to, you know, if they want to do something bad because you have no money, and you default. They push people out, but let me give you my own example. I have hundreds of millions. I have a lot of accounts filled with cash. I’m filled with cash, and they told me, "Sorry, sir, we can’t have you. You have 20 days to leave." I said, "You must be joking. I’ve been with you for 35, 40 years." They said—I mean, I have all this, I don’t know what to do. I went to—you can ask him, maybe he won’t admit it. So I said, you know, my people told me we have to leave Chase Manhattan Bank. That’s Jamie and—JPMorgan. So I said, I can’t believe it. Well, I’ve never encountered this before. I’ve never had this happen. It’s not like, oh my gosh, you defaulted on a loan. You know, oh my gosh, I can understand that. That’s different. But no default. I mean, other than cash, nothing. This is really—I have a really great company. And then what happened was I routinely called Bank of America because when I was president—by the way, this was after I left office—I routinely called Bank of America, I talked to him, I talked to a few people, and they had zero interest. Brian was kissing my ass when I was president, and when I called him after I left office to deposit over a billion dollars and a lot of other things, more importantly, to open accounts, which banks always like. They like accounts because they get interest-free, you know, overnight lending and other things. There are many reasons, but they like accounts. I have hundreds of accounts. He said, we can’t do it. No, we can’t do it. So I went to another, another, another, another. I ended up going to small banks all over the place. I mean, I put $10 million here, $10 million there. Put $5 million, $10 million, $12 million. I have them all over, the craziest thing. Luckily I even have them. They are helping me out, and that’s because the banks are discriminating against me very heavily. I was very good to the banks. When I was president, I had the greatest economy in the history of our country. By the way, our economy now will surpass that; you see it happening. But our economy now, because we are a wealthy country again—because of our trade agreements, we are a wealthy country again. But no, they really—they completely discriminate—I think maybe I more, but they discriminate against many conservatives. You know, I told that story, and other conservatives or Trump supporters sitting around the table—I think the term might be more Trump supporters than conservatives. I believe what they did was they went to the regulators. You know, banks fear nothing more than regulators. They fear their regulators and their wives. They fear their wives more than they fear the regulators. But the group they really fear is the bank regulators. I believe Biden or Kamala—I don’t think they are smart enough to do this, but the people around the beautiful resolute desk, you know, those high-IQ radical leftists. I believe they told the banking commission, the bankers—the bank regulators—do everything you can to destroy Trump. That’s what they did. Guess what, I’m the president. How did this happen?

Kernen: Mr. President, you talk about wanting to succeed, not to retaliate. The Justice Department is now using a grand jury to investigate the intelligence community’s assessment of the situation with Russia. That is, you have nothing to do with guiding the Justice Department?

President Trump: No, I have nothing to do with it. Pam is doing a great job. I have nothing to do with it. I’m going to tell you this. They deserve it. I’m glad to hear that. I actually read it, just like you did. I have nothing to do with it. But what they did in the election, what they did even in the last election, but it was too big to manipulate, but what they did in the 2020 election was outrageous. I mean, that was a manipulated election. 100%—

Kernen: Okay, we can’t rehash that. We can’t rehash that—

President Trump: No, no—we’re back to manipulation. Well, you can use this because everyone knows. You know a year ago, if I said it, you would feel uncomfortable. Today, it’s different. I’ve been saying it. That was a manipulated election. But 100% manipulated.

Kernen: We can’t rehash because—

President Trump: I’m sure that will be raised as well.

Kernen: You know, independent sources, even your Justice Department, but then I bring up Bill Barr, but even they decided there was nothing, you know, there were some things, but nothing that would affect the outcome.

President Trump: Well, they were wrong, Bill Barr was wrong, Bill Barr didn’t investigate, he should have investigated, why didn’t Bill Barr give the Durham report? Why didn’t he give that report, the contents of which all came out? Why didn’t he give it earlier? I mean, you know, why did it take so long to do, why didn’t he give it? Why didn’t they announce it earlier? Because it evolved, what happened was it evolved into the Biden administration, the Biden administration buried it, so now you’re too late.

Kernen: How about Texas?

President Trump: But no, they were wrong.

Kernen: Now we are going to do what we are going to do for the midterms or midterm redistricting, based on that will be some kind of quid pro quo or something in blue states, Mr. President. Is—

President Trump: Well, they did that to us, you know, those blue states you’re talking about.

Kernen: They started it.

President Trump: You know, someone gave a good example. In Massachusetts, I got, I think, 41% of the voters very, you know, blue state, but it got 100% of the congressional seats, 100%, so I got 40, 41% or whatever, but the Congress is 100% in Massachusetts, no, it shouldn’t be that way. I should have, we should have several congressional seats, but we have none. Think about that, 100%. In Illinois, you probably have the dumbest governor of all the governors in Illinois. That guy is really sending, I mean, business is flowing out of his state. It’s terrible. What Pritzker is doing is a terrible thing. He is, you know, he is the black sheep of the family. They pushed him out of business. But in Illinois, what’s happening is what they did is terrible. They, you notice, they go to Illinois seeking safety. But that’s all redistricting. California has been redistricted. We should have more seats in Congress. In California, it’s all been redistricted. We have a chance to gain 5 seats in Texas. We have a very good governor, we have good people in Texas. I won Texas. As you may know, I got the highest number of votes in Texas history, and we are entitled to 5 more seats.

Kernen: I don’t know. I have to check that. You know—

President Trump: Check it out. Check it out.

Kernen: They expect—yes, okay.

President Trump: Why don’t you check it out because you know—

Kernen: The fact-checkers expect us to fact-check everything you say on the call.

President Trump: I want you to check. I’m not saying—

Kernen: But for four years, those fact-checkers didn’t—

President Trump: —that’s wrong.

Kernen: —fact-check anything that was said, we don’t need to rehash that. But they expect immediate fact-checking.

President Trump: Joe, why don’t you check—

Kernen: Okay.

President Trump: Because I want you to check. I got the highest number of votes in Texas history. Okay, it’s a big difference.

Quick: Mr. President. Mr. President, can I ask you to go back to the economy? Regarding the jobs report that came out last week, the softness in those numbers, people are trying to figure out where the softness is coming from. Part of it may be due to immigration. Now, people elected you to the White House because they were concerned about the immigration policy in this country, but if you look at last week’s jobs report, it did show a decrease of 1.7 million foreign-born workers from March to July.

President Trump: By the way, that’s a good number, that’s a good number because it means we are getting Americans to work.

Quick: Well, the issue is that immigration has accounted for more than half of the growth in the U.S. labor force over the past three years. So you want to know if this will become a problem. I know you’ve talked to farmers who are concerned about being able to find temporary workers—

President Trump: That’s right.

Quint: I think their request touched you in some way, and you looked at it differently.

President Trump: Well, I think that’s true. We are kicking criminals out of our country because they have an open border policy, because they are fools, and they allow people from prisons, gang members, and drug dealers to enter our country. We are kicking out thousands of criminals, thousands, they are being taken away. We have murderers. We have mentally disturbed people. They are coming out of asylums and mental hospitals, they are coming from places you don’t want to know about. You wouldn’t want to see it, but they are dumping everyone into our country, from the Congo in Africa to all over South America. They are dumping millions of dangerous people into our country, and I am kicking them out. However, I am working with farmers, and the farmers have been great. I also got the highest votes from farmers, I think, that anyone has ever gotten. I take care of farmers. I love farmers. They are a very important part of this country, and we will not do anything to harm farmers; we are working hard, and we will propose rules and regulations. I mean, you will see a farmer working with the same person for 20 years. This person has even been paying taxes and other things. We are looking, looking, we are looking for criminals, murderers, you know, we have 11,888 people who entered our country under Biden, under our great border czar, the border czar. She has never made a phone call, you know, she has never made one. She is the border czar. She has never been to the border; she has never made a call to the border patrol. You know, other than that, she’s doing great, but they have hundreds of murderers, 11,888 murderers, of which 50% have killed more than one person in our country. We have already kicked many of them out, some of them—

Quint: But you said those who have been here for many years—

President Trump: So dangerous, we don’t want to bring them back. We want to keep them locked up in our own prisons because we don’t want them back.

Quint: But those who have been here for many years and have been paying taxes—

President Trump: But they allowed 11,888 murderers, many of whom have killed more than one person, to enter our population, and we are rapidly kicking them out.

Quint: But Mr. President, I just want to hear you clearly. You said those who have been here for many years and have even been paying taxes, you would look at them very differently, perhaps they belong to the workforce here?

President Trump: I want to work with them. In some cases, we send them back to their countries and give them a legal pass to come back. We are doing very difficult and very complex things, but it’s working well. We send them back, and then they are learning, they are learning, they are coming in, they are coming in legally. We have a lot of that going on, but we are taking care of our farmers. We cannot leave our farmers without anyone. You know, these are very special people; you cannot easily replace them. You know, people living in the city center don’t do that work. They just don’t do that work. They have tried; we have tried. Everyone has tried. They don’t do it. These people do it naturally, naturally. I asked a farmer the other day, what would happen if they hurt their back? He said, they won’t hurt their back, sir, because if they hurt their back, they would die. I said that’s interesting, isn’t it? You know, these are very—

Kernen: Mr. President—

President Trump: In many ways. They are very, very special people. Okay, go ahead.

Kernen: No, okay, so we’re starting. So you did get the highest vote count in Texas, so that’s true.

President Trump: I did, but you don’t have to say anything more, Joe.

Kernen: I have to say this.

President Trump: No, no, don’t say anything more.

Kernen: No, I have to.

President Trump: Don’t limit it by saying it. I got the highest vote count in Texas history.

Kernen: I continue, you did, you did. I continue with your statement about that amendment helping Biden, hurting you by 800,000. That was, that was in August. Voters still have plenty of time to see those—

President Trump: No, it was after the election in November. I believe it was sometime in November.

Kernen: No, that was in August.

President Trump: There was a massive downward revision—you will find I was right again.

Kernen: The first time, 800,000 or 900,000 I think was in August, and then later in March 2025 it came out, it turned into 598,000 instead of 818,000, but the initial—

President Trump: Well, listen, 598,000, but there were other downward revisions before the election because the numbers were manipulated, okay? As you said, look at the numbers, look at how many times they were revised downward after the election. But let’s get back to Texas because you said you were going to say something else, I want, I got—

Kernen: You did, okay.

President Trump: The highest vote count in Texas history, they say unless I run again, that record will not be broken.

Quint: Will you run again? The Constitution—

President Trump: No, probably not.

Quint: Okay.

President Trump: Probably not, I think.

Kernen: You won’t fire Jay Powell, we will get to talk about all the things—

President Trump: Hey, Becky, I want to run. I have the best polling numbers I’ve ever had. You know why? Because people love tariffs—

Kernen: That’s among, that’s among Republicans.

President Trump: They love their country; they like that foreigners are no longer exploiting us.

Kernen: But the overall polling numbers—

President Trump: For years, they have exploited us. Friends and enemies. Friends worse.

Kernen: No, no, overall polling numbers, you haven’t.

President Trump: What?

Kernen: Overall polling numbers, you haven’t had the best. You know, I quoted one of those.

President Trump: I have the best; I have the best polling numbers I’ve ever had.

Kernen: For Republicans, among Republicans.

President Trump: I have polling numbers; I’m at 71%. I have the best polling numbers, look.

Kernen: Those are among Republicans. You know you have—

President Trump: No, no, no, among Republicans, 94 and 95%. No, I’m talking about general. Let me put it this way. Yesterday on CNN, there was a gentleman, Harry Enten, who was going crazy about how well Trump is doing. Now, you know, you don’t play that because I think CBS is a shadow. Actually, CNN is slightly better than NBC. I think NBC might be the worst of them, but if you check CNN tomorrow, look at Harry Enten, you will see about the numbers. But that’s okay. We have to defend ourselves, Joe.

Kernen: I know, but there are others they can cite—your haters cite that you are in the 30s in polling, Mr. President, you know—

President Trump: But those are fake polls, Joe, I have a lot of fake polls. You also let me be in the 70s, I have fake polls. Fox has always given me bad polls. You know, they do nothing, but I have never had good polls on Fox. Then I win the election, and I shoot up because, look, I won every swing state, didn’t I? I won every swing state. Andrew, I won the popular vote by millions, even though they desperately tried to cheat. I won by millions. I won counties and all counties. I won 2,750 to 502; I won the election by a landslide. Obviously, that’s what they did, and we only have six months, but my polling numbers are now better, much better than during the election. Part of that, then part of that is because the Democrats are self-destructing. I mean, when you have low IQ people like Crockett, I wonder if she is related to the late great Davy Crockett, who was a great, great, a great gentleman. I wonder if she is related to Davy Crockett, the great old Davy Crockett. But you have this woman, Crockett. She is a low, very low IQ person. A few days ago, someone said she is one of the leaders of the party. I said, you must be joking. They, the Democrats are lost. They have Trump Derangement Syndrome so badly that they can’t walk. They can’t talk. They don’t know where to go.

Kernen: Well, that’s what I mean, there are—

President Trump: Schumer is done. Schumer—I watched him a few days ago; he has lost all confidence—

Kernen: 40% of the country has. So you won’t get above 60 in any poll. It’s said that’s because 40% have TDS, we know that. Mr. President, we used to do this every Tuesday, called Trump Tuesday. Maybe we can start this; this could be something to start again. But we thank you for all your time today, and we hope to continue discussing all these different issues in the near future, if possible.

President Trump: Joe, can I finish one thing?

Kernen: Yes, you are the president.

President Trump: A year ago, a year ago, our country was dead. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. This is what every NATO leader told me; they do anything I want. This is what the King of Saudi Arabia told me, what the leaders of the UAE told me, what the leaders of Qatar told me, many, many people, a year ago we were a dead country. Today, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. I’m glad to help.

Kernen: Mr. President, thank you again. Thank you.

President Trump: Thank you very much. Thank you.

Kernen: You’re welcome. We will see you soon. Thank you.

Related: The U.S. government reaches an agreement with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT across agencies

Original text: “CNBC Interview with Trump: Tariff War Escalation May Affect Drugs and Chips”

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。