Silke Jasso
In an eight-minute excerpt from a longer interview aired on Super Bowl Sunday, Donald Trump gave Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly a major look at how he’d work with a country (and a world) that’s not always on his side, even going so far as to ally with a “killer” like Vladamir Putin.
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They opened up with the latest on the Iran Deal, which Trump sees very negatively and has since the campaign trail. He says it’s one of the “worst deals,” one that emboldened Iran because “they lost respect, they couldn’t believe anyone could be so stupid to make a deal like that.”
One foreign leader he views very warmly, unyieldingly so, is Vladamir Putin. He calls the Russian president a “leader,” saying it was “better to get along with Russia than not,” even after the nation intervened in the 2016 Presidential Election and now seems to be doing the same in France’s.
Of Putin, Trump said “Will I get along with him? I have no idea.”
Bill O’Reilly countered by asserting that Putin was a “killer.”
“There are a lot of killers. We got a lot of killers, what, you think our country is so innocent?” Trump shot back.
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He went on to detail relations with Mexico, which he said were “very good” even in the wake of a phone call in which he told the Mexican government he would invade the country to “handle” the drug cartels if Mexico would not.
“I wanna help him with it, he’s a good man,” Trump said of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Trump argues Mexican cartels are also our problem, saying “Those cartels are operating in our country and are poisoning the youth of our country.”
O’Reilly moved on to the topic of Mexico as a destination for American jobs, asking if Trump had decided on a tariff for the country yet.
“I’ve turned it around already,” Trump said. He went on to say these companies “wanted to do what was right,” though O’Reilly laughed and disagreed, saying “You intimidated them, they’re afraid of you! Why didn’t they do the right thing in the past?”
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The segment continued with Trump’s recent threats to withdraw federal funding with American institutions that wouldn’t take his side. OReilly said the state of California threatened to become a sanctuary state, putting it on a “collision course” with the rest of the country.
“I don’t wanna defund anybody,” Trump began, but “if they’re gonna have sanctuary cities, certainly I would do that, it would be a weapon.”
O’Reilly then challenged Trump on the issue of voter registration, which he said lacked “data to back it up.” Trump responded with “Look at the registration, you have illegals, you have dead people, it’s really a bad situation.” When O’Reilly pressed him for data on his specific claim that “3 million illegals voted,” Trump said “Forget all of that.”
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In fulfilling campaign promises, Trump says Americans should expect a tax cut before the end of the year and a replacement for Obamacare by next year. The Republican party has had eight years to come up with a replacement. Trump defended the long repeal and replace process:
“[Repealing Obamacare] is very complicated, Obamacare is a disaster, it doesn’t work.”
Finally, Bill O’Reilly closed the segment by asking about two things: whether Trump ever found himself in awe at his new office, and who he had in the Super Bowl. Trump said it was a “surreal experience,” but “you’ve got to get over it, because there is so much work to be done.”
In tonight’s game, the President has the Patriots by 8 points. The remainder of the interview will air on the O’Reilly Factor tomorrow and Tuesday.
