President-elect Donald Trump sat down with NBC’s Kristen Welker and expanded on his planned agenda, cabinet picks, and actions he wanted to take on his first day.
(Sorry just getting to this. Very busy day today in my household!)
I know immigration is one of the main topics on people’s lists. Well, Trump didn’t back down when Welker asked him about his plan for mass deportations.
I have to stress this part: Trump CANNOT get rid of birthright citizenship. It is in the 14th Amendment. Congress has to take action on it. The president cannot do anything about it.
(Because Lord knows if I could, I would run for president and eliminate the 16th Amendment at the inauguration.)
KRISTEN WELKER: But is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think you have to do it, and it’s a hard — it’s a very tough thing to do. It’s — but you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally. You know the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been on line for ten years to come into the country. And we’re going to make it very easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test. They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country. They can’t come out of prisons. We don’t want people that are in for murder. So we had 11,000 and 13,000, different estimates. 13,099 murderers released into our country over the last three years. They’re walking down the streets. They’re walking next to you and your family. And they’re very dangerous people —
Trump also reiterated that his administration will first concentrate on the criminals:
KRISTEN WELKER: I just want to make sure I’m clear, which is that you’re saying, yes, you’re going to focus on the people with criminal histories, but everyone who’s here illegally has to go, is what you’re saying.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I’m saying this. We have to get the criminals out of our country. We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institution no matter what country it is. Do you know that in Venezuela their prisons are, are at the lowest point in terms of emptiness that they’ve ever been? They’re taking their people out of those prisons by the thousands and they’re drop — and just to get back, because I know exactly what you’re getting at. Number one, we’re doing criminals and we’re going to do them really rapidly. We’re getting the worst gang probably with MS-13 and the Venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world. They’re vicious, violent people. And you’ve seen what they’ve done in Colorado and other places. They’re taking over, they’re literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity. They don’t care. They couldn’t — they just are — they’re in the real estate business, okay?
However, Trump wants to work with Democrats to keep Dreamers in the country:
KRISTEN WELKER: What about dreamers, sir? Dreamers, who were brought to this country illegally as children. You said once back in 2017 they, quote, “Shouldn’t be very worried about being deported.” Should they be worried now?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: The dreamers are going to come later, and we have to do something about the dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age. And many of these are middle-aged people now. They don’t even speak the language of their country. And yes, we’re going to do something about the dreamers. And —KRISTEN WELKER: What does that mean? What are you going to do?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I will work with the Democrats on a plan. And if we can come up with a plan, but the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the dreamers. The dreamers, we’re talking many years ago they were brought into this country. Many years ago. Some of them are no longer young people. And in many cases, they’ve become successful. They have great jobs. In some cases they have small businesses. Some cases they might have large businesses. And we’re going to have to do something with them. And —KRISTEN WELKER: You want them to be able to stay, that’s what you’re saying?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I do. I want to be able to work something out, and it should’ve been able to be worked out over the last three or four years and it never got worked out. You know, Biden could’ve done it because he controlled, you know, Congress to a certain extent, right? He could’ve done something, but they didn’t do it. I never understood why because they always seemed to want to do it, but then when it comes down to it, they don’t. I think we can work with the Democrats and work something out.
Gah, I hate tariffs. Negotiating tactic? Fine. But please do not use them!
At least Trump admitted he cannot promise we won’t pay more if America places tariffs on products. I appreciate the honesty:
KRISTEN WELKER: Can you guarantee American families won’t pay more?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow. But I can say that if you look at my — just pre-Covid, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And I had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries, but in particular China. We took in hundreds of billions of dollars and we had no inflation. In fact, when I handed it over, they didn’t have inflation for a year and a half. They went almost two years just based on what I had created. And then they created inflation with energy and with spending too much. So I think we will — I’m a big believer in tariffs. I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they’re beautiful. It’s going to make us rich. We’re subsidizing Canada to the tune over $100 billion a year. We’re subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion. We shouldn’t be — why are we subsidizing these countries? If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state. We’re subsidizing Mexico and we’re subsidizing Canada and we’re subsidizing many countries all over the world. And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field.
As I said, using them as a negotiating tactic could work. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Trump right after he threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Then he flew to Mar-a-Lago to visit with Trump:
KRISTEN WELKER: Well, I think — and that takes me to my next question. Are you actually going to impose these tariffs or are they a negotiating tactic?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I’ll give you an example. With Canada, and in particular Mexico, we have millions of people pouring into our country. You agree with that. I spoke with the — both — I spoke with Justin Trudeau. In fact, he flew to Mar-a-Lago, within about 15 seconds after the call ended. It was at Mar-a-Lago, we were having dinner, talking about it. I said, “You have to close up your borders,” because they’re coming in the northern border too, a lot. Not like the southern border, but they’re coming in the Canadian border a lot. And drugs are pouring in. Almost as importantly, drugs are pouring in. Maybe more importantly. Drugs are pouring in at levels never seen before, 10 times what we had. They’re just pouring in. We can’t have open borders. And I said to the president of Mexico and to Justin Trudeau, “If it doesn’t stop, I’m going to put tariffs on your country at about 25%. That’s a very substantial tariff. And in the case of — in both cases, but in the case where it was really visible, within ten minutes after that phone call, we noticed that the people coming across the border, the southern border having to do with Mexico, there was at a trickle. Just a trickle. In fact, I called the border. See, unlike my opponent, I do call the border a lot. And I said, “How’s the border looking today?” They said, “There’s nobody here.” They couldn’t believe it. The military stopped these vast groups of people. You know, we call them caravans. But they had caravans of people, and they largely stopped them. Now, they’re going to have to continue that, but if they don’t continue — and the other thing I told them is no more drugs. And I told that to China too. I had a deal with President Xi. Had the election been different — I’m going to be very nice because we don’t have to get into an argument over 2020 — but had the election been different, the result been different, we would’ve had China giving their maximum penalty, which is the penalty of death, to people that send fentanyl into this country. But Biden didn’t, unfortunately, finish that discussion up. I had an agreement with President Xi, who I got along with very well. We’ve had communication as recently as this week. And I had communication with him where they were going to give the death penalty to anybody sending drugs into the United States.
Trump told Welker he will look into pardons for those in jail for the Capitol Hill riots:
KRISTEN WELKER: Let me ask you about January 6th in a different capacity, okay? I think you’re going to want to answer this question. You promised to pardon those who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. Are you still vowing to follow through with that promise?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: We’re looking at it right now. Most likely, yeah.KRISTEN WELKER: Well, you know —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Those people have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look. But, you know, if somebody was radical, crazy. There might be some people from Antifa there. I don’t know. You know, because those people seem to be in good shape. What ever happened to scaffold man? You know who scaffold man was? He stood on a scaffold telling everybody to go, and nothing happened to him. What ever happened to Ray Epps? Now, I don’t know anything about Ray Epps, but it was sort of strange the way he was talking. Where is he? What happened to him? Because the people that did very little– they arrested an old woman because she– I don’t think she did anything. They don’t even know what she did. These people have suffered. Their lives have been destroyed. And yet in Portland, where they burned down half the city, they burn it down all the time, it’s like a, you know, routine occurrence, they don’t do anything. They attacked the courthouse, federal courthouse. You know, they always say federal building. Okay. They destroyed the beautiful limestone exterior of the courthouse in Portland. They killed people in Portland. Seattle, people got killed in Seattle. Seattle, they took over a big chunk of the city. They took it over. They took the city away. Minneapolis, it looked like when they said, “This is a friendly protest,” and yet over the poor slob from CNN, his shoulder, the entire city was burning down. It looked like World War II. Nothing happened.KRISTEN WELKER: But —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Wait. Nothing happened. They took over the police statement — they took over the police station in Minneapolis. They burned it down. Nothing happened to anybody.KRISTEN WELKER: I just want to —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: And yet, these people —KRISTEN WELKER: Yeah.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: – have been in jail. And I hear the jail is a hell hole. They’ve done reports. And you would say that’s true. They’ve done reports. This is the most disgusting, filthy place. These people are living in hell.KRISTEN WELKER: Let me just —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: And I think it’s very unfair.KRISTEN WELKER: But let me —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: So yeah, most likely, I’ll do it very quickly.KRISTEN WELKER: Very quickly. Okay. But some of them, 169 of them, have pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Because they had no choice.KRISTEN WELKER: 900 pleaded guilty to other crimes. They’re also going to be eligible for a pardon from you?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Listen, it’s a very tough system. Do you know, almost nobody– I saw people that didn’t even go into the building and they were convicted. And you had the police saying, “Come on in. Come on in.” I mean, you know, the police are saying, “Come on in, everybody. Come on in.” They had people — you know, you have a lot of cameras. They don’t want to release the tapes. They don’t want to release the tapes.KRISTEN WELKER: But you’re going to consider pardoning even those who pleaded guilty to crimes, including assaulting police officers?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Well, sometimes they say, “Here’s your choice.”KRISTEN WELKER: You’re not ruling it out?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Look. I know the system. The system’s a very corrupt system. They say to a guy, “You’re going to go to jail for two years or for 30 years.” And these guys are looking, their whole lives have been destroyed. For two years, they’ve been destroyed. But the system is a very nasty system.KRISTEN WELKER: Okay. Let’s move on —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I’m going to look at everything. We’re going to look at individual cases —KRISTEN WELKER: Everyone?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.KRISTEN WELKER: Okay.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: But I’m going to be acting very quickly.KRISTEN WELKER: Within your first 100 days, first day?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: First day.KRISTEN WELKER: First day?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. I’m looking first day.KRISTEN WELKER: You’re going to issue these pardons?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: These people have been there, how long is it? Three, four years.KRISTEN WELKER: Okay.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: You know, by the way, they’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.
Welker also asked Trump about the January 6 Committee, especially since rumors have started that President Joe Biden might issue preemptive pardons for people like Liz Cheney.
There are a few other good points in this long exchange.
Trump told Welker he would not direct the FBI or DOJ to target these people. He would take a hands-off approach, and if the agencies find any wrongdoing, they can take action. People have been acting scared that Trump would push Kash Patel, his pick to run the FBI, to punish his political opponents.
Trump condemned the J6 Committee and pointed out a few actions they took that the DOJ could possibly investigate, though:
KRISTEN WELKER: Let me ask you about some of this new reporting. NBC News is reporting that President Biden is considering giving preemptive pardons to the likes of Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, and Anthony Fauci. If President Biden doesn’t issue those pardons, do you think they are going to wish that he had? Are they going to be —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know.KRISTEN WELKER: – pursued?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I can tell you this about Cheney. And she’s a so-called Republican. I think she hurt the Democrats terribly. When I saw that Kamala put Cheney out on the campaign trail, I said, “That’s the end of Kamala.” I really did. I thought it was a terrible move, especially if you’re a Democrat. But Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps. So the unselect committee went through a year and a half of testimony. Wait. They deleted and destroyed all evidence of — that they found. You know why? Because Nancy Pelosi was guilty. Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 troops. You wouldn’t have had a J6 because other people were guilty. The people that said that I attacked two Secret Service agents in a car, I grabbed one around the neck. I was then rebuffed and I grabbed the other one. These are two of the toughest men anywhere on the planet. And they happen to slightly younger than me. You know, just a little bit. Let me just tell you. They testified. They said it was total bullshit. And all of this stuff came out. People lied so badly. Now, listen, this was a committee, a big deal. They lied. And what did they do? They deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony. Do you know that I can’t get — I think those people committed a major crime.KRISTEN WELKER: Sir?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: And Cheney was behind it.KRISTEN WELKER: Well —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee.KRISTEN WELKER: We’re going to —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: For what they did —KRISTEN WELKER: Yeah —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: – honestly, they should go to jail.KRISTEN WELKER: So you think Liz Cheney should go to jail?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: For what they did —KRISTEN WELKER: Everyone on the committee you think —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I think everybody —KRISTEN WELKER: – should go to jail?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: – on the — anybody that voted in favor —KRISTEN WELKER: Are you going to direct your FBI director —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: No.KRISTEN WELKER: – and your attorney general to send them to jail?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: No, not at all. I think that they’ll have to look at that, but I’m not going to — I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill.KRISTEN WELKER: When you say that, it carries weight though. You know, you’ve tapped these people to lead the Justice Department and FBI —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: They can do whatever they want.KRISTEN WELKER: Okay.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Biden can give them a pardon if he wants to. And maybe he should. Just remember, unselect committee. A year and a half of sworn testimony, and after getting all of the testimony, they deleted it, wait, and they destroyed almost everything. There’s nothing left. It’s unprecedented.KRISTEN WELKER: And they deny doing that —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: If you do that in a civil case —KRISTEN WELKER: Yeah.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: – you go to jail.KRISTEN WELKER: You know they deny doing that. And officials say that the order never came in for the National Guard —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: They put out a statement —KRISTEN WELKER: But — On January 6th. Let me ask you this about January 6th —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Wait. Bennie Thompson —KRISTEN WELKER: I think you’re going to want to answer this.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: – wrote in his statement that he has destroyed all evidence.KRISTEN WELKER: Let me ask you this about January 6th —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: It’s amazing. I wish you could be a — you know, you have such potential. If you could be just—just non-biased. You hurt yourself so badly. I’m telling you, they deleted and destroyed all the evidence. Everyone knows it. And you slough it off like it doesn’t mean anything.KRISTEN WELKER: No. I’m just saying they deny it. That’s all I’m saying.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Kristen, if I did it, you would be standing up on that chair shouting at me. And you know what I’d do? I’d say, “You got me.”KRISTEN WELKER: Let me ask —PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: They have done something so illegal. They have a committee sworn to, and because it was so bad — the only reason they did it is because the testimony turned out to be in favor of me, like Secret Service testified and disputed everything. It made them into a bunch of liars. Not Secret Service, it made the people. They got rid of it because it made Nancy Pelosi, the mayor of D.C., so many people look like criminals. And I will tell you, it’s illegal for them to delete and to destroy that evidence.
Trump ramped up his rhetoric against other members of NATO for not paying their portion and relying on America for everything.
He once again threatened to pull out of NATO if the members didn’t step up. I cannot blame him, especially since all NATO does is issue strongly worded letters:
KRISTEN WELKER: NATO. Do you commit that the United States will remain a member of NATO while you’re in office?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Again, they have to pay their bills. If they play their bills, absolutely.KRISTEN WELKER: But not if they don’t pay their bills?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: But NATO’s taking advantage of us. Because we were — look, two things. Number one, they take advantage of us on trade, meaning the European nations, okay, like terrible. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our food product, they don’t take anything. It’s a disgrace. And on top of that, we defend them. So it’s a double-whammy. So let me just tell you, I was able to get hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO just by a tough attitude. I said to the countries, “I’m not going to protect you unless you pay,” and they started paying. And that amounted to more than $600 billion. That’s a big thing. Otherwise they wouldn’t even be fighting. They wouldn’t have any money to fight. If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re doing a fair — they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I’d stay with NATO.KRISTEN WELKER: But if not, you would consider the possibility of getting out?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Trump stuck to his promise that there will be hell to pay if Hamas doesn’t release the hostages:
KRISTEN WELKER: Let’s turn to the Middle East now, sir. There are still American hostages being held in Gaza. You said this week that if the hostages aren’t released before Inauguration Day, quote, “There will be all hell to pay.”PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Correct.KRISTEN WELKER: What exactly did you mean, and do you still think that the hostages are alive?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I’m not a big believer in the fact that there are too many of them living, sadly. Because I’ve seen the way they’ve been treated. I talk about the young girl that was pulled by her hair violently and thrown into the back of a car like she was a sack of potatoes. And I said, “You know, that’s hatred.” And then I said, “How did that young girl do?” Beautiful young girl, just dragged by her hair. You remember. Blood pouring all over her body. You can imagine the parents. Thrown into the back of a car by some horrible guy. And I said, “How is she?” “She’s dead. She died, sir.” I don’t think you have as many. I mean, I hate to say it, I think you have far fewer hostages than people think.KRISTEN WELKER: Really? Have you spoke –PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: That’s what I think. It’s only my opinion, but I’ve been right on just about everything.KRISTEN WELKER: Are you going to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu, with whom you have a very good relationship, to end the war in Gaza?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Sure.KRISTEN WELKER: And have you already started that process?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I want him to end it, but you have to have a victory. People forget about October 7th. That was as violent — and you know what’s happening? I noticed that a lot of people are saying, “Oh, it never really happened.” That’s like the Holocaust. You know, you have Holocaust deniers. Now you have October 7th deniers, and it just happened. No, October 7th happened. And I’ve seen the pictures. It is — what happened is horrible.
What a mic drop. Welker asked Trump if he would finally concede the 2020 election to end the country’s division.
Yeah, the country is divided. But Trump isn’t president right now:
KRISTEN WELKER: Yes. And sir, I don’t have to tell you this, because you’ve talked about it. It comes at a time when the country is deeply divided, and now you’re going to be leading this country for the next four years. For the sake of unifying this country, will you concede the 2020 election and turn the page on that chapter?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: No. No, why would I do that? But let me just tell you –KRISTEN WELKER: You won’t ever concede –PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: – when you say the country is deeply divided, I’m not the president. Joe Biden is the president.KRISTEN WELKER: But you’re going to be the president.PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: No, no. I’m not the president. So when you say it’s deeply divided, I agree. But Biden’s the president, I’m not. And he has been a divider. And you know where he divided it more than anything else, and it probably backfired on him. I think definitely is weaponization. When he weaponized the Justice Department and he went after his political opponent, me. He went after his political opponent violently because he knew he couldn’t beat him. And I think it really was a bad thing, and it really divided our country.KRISTEN WELKER: Sir, Democrats have control of the White House now. They didn’t in 2020. If they are going around stealing elections, why didn’t they do it this time –PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: When you say Democrats have control now –KRISTEN WELKER: Of the White House. So why didn’t they steal this election? Since they have more power now?PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Because I think it was too big to rig.KRISTEN WELKER: So you won’t –PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: It was too big to rig.
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