PAT ROBERTSON: Well, Mr. President,

I am so glad to see you.

I'm so proud of everything you're doing--

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.

Let me ask you, you have just gotten back from the G20.

You were traveling around the world.

What do you see as the major problem facing the world

today, what's the major danger?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, we have many problems.

And I was left a very, very tough meal,

I will say that, Pat.

It was a mess.

And I think we're doing very well,

but North Korea certainly is a big problem.

The Middle East is a total mess.

Other than in five months, we have done more against ISIS

than anybody has done since the beginning

and we're having tremendous success with that.

But I would have to say Middle East is in a tough situation,

but we're getting it straightened out.

And ultimately, we want to start investing money

back in the United States, at our home.

But we have to get rid of ISIS, we

have to get rid of the terrorists--

as you know better than anybody.

And the other is North Korea.

We have somebody that is--

we will find out what he is, we're going to find out, and--

He has launched intercontinental missiles,

is there a possibility that we might

want to knock some of those down on the launchpad,

or right after launch?

Well, you know, we wouldn't want

to be speaking about anything, but we're looking

at lots of different ways.

We're working with other countries, including China.

I think China would like to see this problem go away,

it's a big problem for them.

And, the advantage we have is trade,

we have big trade with China.

And I have a very good relationship

with President Xi--

who I like a lot, and I think he likes me.

We were just spending a lot of time together,

and they are very strong with regard to--

as you know-- with regard to North Korea.

Will they get tough with North Korea?

I know that you were so close when he was there

to visit Mar-a-Lago.

Well, we're going to see, we're going to see.

I would say that we had a good chance,

they had an election where President Moon

got elected to South Korea.

He has a much different attitude, or a much different

take, on how to handle the situation than his predecessor

in South Korea.

He's, perhaps, softer on the issue,

but maybe not, because I like him a lot,

I think he's going to be a strong person.

I think he's got strong views, stronger

than people would understand.

So, we'll see how it all works out.

I think China wants to help us.

We're going to find out whether or not they do,

but China would-- in my opinion--

like to be able to help us.

What's out leverage with them?

Well, our leverage with China is

that China makes hundreds of billions of dollars

a year with us on trade.

And I want to renegotiate trade deals.

But I would certainly be a lot easier in a trade deal if they

were going to help us with North Korea than if they weren't.

So, we're going to see.

The relationship is very good with China,

it's very good with the president of China,

who is a terrific person.

We will find out whether or not they want to help.

And maybe they do, and maybe they don't.

What about that consortium of Arab nations

that went against Qatar?

Your Secretary of State was not too favorable to what

was being done.

How will he handle that one?

Well, Rex is doing a terrific job.

But he and I had a little bit of a difference,

only in terms of tone.

So, we went to Saudi Arabia.

We had one of the great meetings ever--

54 Muslim countries.

And I got up, made a speech, got nice reviews.

It's almost like, you're making a speech.

But, I said, we gotta stop the funding of terrorism.

Tremendous money, and they're funding terrorism.

So we gotta stop it.

So, they are working very hard on that.

And I believe they're going to do it.

It was one of the most incredible two days.

As an example, Saudi Arabia put up hundreds of billions

of dollars of money going into buying

our planes, and our military equipment,

and investing in our country.

And I said, you have to do that, otherwise I'm not going.

So they spent hundreds of billions of dollars

right in front of us.

They were signing and big people from the biggest countries

and companies--

General Electric and all of the big companies-- many of them

were there, getting contracts.

All good work for our workers.

That was one of the things.

But the other thing is that-- and very important to me-- was

the funding of terrorism has to stop.

And they fund terrorism.

Some of those countries, many of those countries.

So, we had a tremendous summit, and I think

things are going to work out.

I think it was a very, very important and very impressive

two days--

Oh, absolutely.

And now, as you know, Qatar.

Yeah.

Which, a lot of people call it "Kuh-tar."

But Qatar is now a little bit on the outs,

but I think they're being brought back in.

Because they were known as a funder of terrorism.

Now, we said, you can't do that, you can't do that.

We have to starve the beast.

And the beast is terrorism.

We've got--

So we can't have wealthy countries funding that beast.

How do we handle the big military installation

we've got in Qatar, what do we do with what?

Well, we'll be all right.

Look, if we ever had to leave, we

would have 10 countries willing to build us another one,

believe me.

And they'll pay for it.

You know, the days of us paying for things

are going to be largely over.

They'll start paying.

We go out, we build, we this, we that.

But you're right.

We're going to have a good relationship with Qatar.

And we're not going to have a problem with the military base,

but if we ever needed another military base,

you have other countries that would gladly build it,

believe me.

You went to the G20, and you met for the first time--

front face-to-face-- with Vladamir Putin.

And George Bush had once said he stared into his soul

and came away satisfied.

What do you think, can we trust him?

Well look, we had a good meeting.

I think we had an excellent meeting.

One thing we did, is we have a ceasefire--

PAT ROBERTSON: Yes, sir.

--in a major part of Syria where there was tremendous

bedlam and tremendous killing.

And by the way, this is now four days.

The ceasefire has held for four days.

Those ceasefires haven't held at all,

that's because President Putin and President Trump made

the deal, and it's held.

Now, I don't know what's going to happen.

Maybe, as we're speaking, they start shooting again.

But this has held, unlike all of the other ceasefires that

didn't mean anything.

So, that was a great thing that came out of that meeting.

I think a lot of things came out of that meeting,

but I do believe it's important to have a dialogue.

And if you don't have a dialogue,

it's a lot of problems for our country and for their country.

I think we need dialogue, we need dialogue with everybody.

Sure.

It was a great G20.

You had 20 countries, I get along,

I think, really fantastically with the head of every country.

Well, you're going to France right away

to meet with Macron--

That's right.

--and you had a will for Bastille Day,

instead of July the 4th, that's their special holiday.

That's right.

Well, I was invited by the president--

the new president of France, who is a very good person,

very good guy.

And don't forget, I terminated for our country the Paris

Accord.

So that's not that easy for them.

But I terminated because it was not fair to our country.

We have other countries that had much better deals

than we did, to put it just in a very simple form.

And then I said, why do we not have a better deal?

And nobody could give me the answer.

I said, I'm terminating.

So I terminated.

But I'm going to be with the president.

And I think it's going to be very exciting.

It's 100 years since World War I. It's--

PAT ROBERTSON: Really?

--turns out to be the exact date.

So, we're going to watch something

that I think will be very beautiful.

And I think it's very important for our country

to be represented one hundred years since the First World

War--

Well, Lafayette, we're here, we've come back.

Here we are.

Here we are.

Oh, that's good.

Well, back to Putin, what do you think he wants?

I know he said what he wants, what do you think his game is?

Well, he wants what's good for Russia.

And I want what's good for the United States.

And I think-- like in a case like Syria, where we can

get together, do a ceasefire.

And there are other cases, there are many other cases,

where getting along can be a very positive thing.

But always, Putin is going to want Russia,

and Trump is going to want United States,

and that's the way it is.

And sometimes you're not going to get along on things,

and sometimes you will.

But we had a good meeting, it was a face-to-face meeting,

it was a long meeting, it was two hours and 15 minutes.

Everyone was surprised by the amount of time,

but that was a good thing, not a bad thing.

Yeah, I think we got along very well.

And I think that's a good thing.

That's not a bad thing.

Yeah, of course not.

You know, people said, oh, they shouldn't get along.

Well, who are the people that are saying that?

I think we got along very, very well.

We're a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they.

That's right.

It doesn't make sense not to have

some kind of a relationship.

Well, we used to have that thing called mutual--

Right.

-destruction of mad.

And it's still there, because he can hurt us,

he can decimate our country, and we

can do the same thing to him.

It's something you don't even like talking about.

But, again, we're the most powerful country in the world.

And we are getting more and more powerful

because I'm a big military person.

As an example, if Hillary had won,

our military would be decimated.

Our energy would be much more expensive.

That's what Putin doesn't like about me.

And that's why I say, why would he want me?

Because from day one, I wanted a strong military--

he doesn't want to see that.

And from day one, I want fracking, and everything else,

to get energy prices low and to create tremendous energy.

We're going to be self-supporting,

we just about are now.

We're going to be exporting energy.

He doesn't want that.

He would like Hillary, where she wants to have windmills, OK?

He would much rather have that because energy prices will

go up, and Russia, as you know, relies very much on energy--

Gazprom--

There are many things that I do

that are the exact opposite of what he would want.

So what I keep hearing about that he would have rather had

Trump, I think, probably not.

Because when I want a strong military--

she wouldn't have spent the money on the military.

But when I want a strong military, and when

I want tremendous energy--

we're opening up coal, we're opening up natural gas,

we're opening up fracking.

All the things that he would hate, but nobody ever

mentions that.

Well, Gazprom held Europe by the throat.

They were the monopoly, and now US

is breaking into that monopoly with our exports of LNG, right?

Right.

We are, we have LNG exporting all over.

We have taken off some of the regulations that

would make it impossible for the energy companies,

impossible for banks, impossible for a lot of different things.

You couldn't build a house in some places.

And many of those restrictions have been taken off,

some are being taken off.

We have statutory weights, meaning

have to wait a certain period of time.

And the country is doing really well.

So, the stock market is the highest it's ever been.

We have almost $4 trillion in gain, 4 trillion.

I hope you're taking advantage of that.

But we have four, almost $4 trillion--

I'm into the market, believe me.

No, but when you think of that, that's--

Yeah, well, the Trump effect.

--creating value.

We have a lot of tremendous things

ready to go, tremendous projects all over the country.

Don't forget, when I came in, one of my first acts

was the Keystone Pipeline.

And the Dakota Access Pipeline.

These two things got approved immediately,

they would have never been built.

And it's thousands and thousands of jobs,

and it was, look, it was my honor.

To me it was a no-brainer.

The regulatory burden on American business has been,

really, worse than taxes.

Right.

And you have lifted, how many regulations

have you lifted so far?

Oh, oh, just thousands.

And what we've done is we've given the farmers back

their land, we've given the homebuilders

the right to put up a house.

You had cases where a farm would have a little puddle someplace.

A puddle, you know, and when I grew up,

we used to call it a puddle.

You too, probably.

And they considered it a lake.

And if you touched it, bad, bad things

happen to you and your family.

We've given the farmers back their farms.

We have so many things planned in the future,

too, with the tax cuts.

And the death taxes, we're ending the death taxes.

There's so many things we have planned.

But the farmers are so happy now,

the homebuilders are happy.

We have our most jobs ever in our country.

Now we have to take care of those people that

have given up looking for jobs.

You know, you have a large group of people in this country that

have given up--

I would talk about them a lot in speeches--

You're right.

They'd given up looking for jobs.

They're going to be looking very soon,

and they're going to be getting those jobs.

I was talking to Mike Pence a few minutes ago.

And he thinks that, possibly, that health care bill

could go through.

There are two pieces of legislation

the American people were really anxious to see put through.

One is this iniquitous Obamacare has got to go and be replaced.

Right.

Number two, we've got to have a tax cut,

especially for small businesses--

DONALD TRUMP: Right.

--corporate tax.

How far along are you along--

And number three is infrastructure,

which we're going to do also.

PAT ROBERTSON: Yeah, exactly.

But number one, repeal and replace.

I am sitting in the Oval Office, with a pen in hand,

waiting for our senators to give it to me.

For years, they've been talking about repeal,

replace, repeal, replace.

I think they passed it 61 times--

repeal and replace.

But that didn't mean anything, because you

had the minority-- the Republicans--

they didn't have the majority, so it wasn't

going to get to the president.

But if it ever did, Obama wasn't going

to sign it, so it didn't mean--

Now, we have a president that's waiting to sign it.

I have pen in hand.

So now it means something.

Those other times, those many, many times

that they passed it--

What's the holdup?

You have very good people.

These are very good people.

We have 52 senators.

It's very hard to get all--

we need almost all of them.

You need almost all of them.

And that's the holdup.

And states are somewhat different.

But with all of that being said, has to get past,

they have to do it.

They have to get together and get it done.

What'll happen if they don't?

Well, I don't even want to talk about it, because I

think I would be very bad.

I will be very angry about it.

And a lot of people will be very upset.

But I'm sitting, waiting for that bill to come to my desk.

I hope that they do it, they've been promising it for years.

They've been promising it ever since Obamacare,

which has failed.

It's a failed experiment.

It is totally gone.

It's out of business.

And we have to get this done-- repeal and replace.

Mitch McConnell is a tactician of great skill,

you think he can pull it off?

It's his job.

He's got to pull it off.

Mitch has to pull it off.

He's working very hard, he's got to pull it off.

All right, the next thing is taxes.

It looks like to me, lowering the corporate tax

to get us in line with the rest of the world

is, again, a no-brainer.

Can you get that one through?

I think after health care, taxes are going to be so easy.

Health care is very hard.

Health care is hard because you'll

do something a little bit this way,

and you'll pick up that final vote,

and you lose four votes over here.

Now you move it back--

It's this very tiny little road, it's about two feet wide,

and it goes throughout the country.

So, health care is much tougher than taxes.

Now, I think taxes are going to be very well.

In fact, our plan is we're talking about massive tax

cuts, the biggest tax cut in the history of our country.

We're going to get people back again,

we're going to bring back $4 trillion from overseas.

Money that can come back into this country because of our tax

code.

We're going to bring back $4 trillion--

could be more than that--

from corporations that can't get their money back

into our country.

I'm going to give a tremendous tax cut for the middle class,

we're bringing it down to 10%.

We're bringing corporate taxes down to 15%,

I hope we can get that number approved.

Maybe they'll want to do something and negotiate.

But we will have--

if we get what we want, it will be the biggest tax

cut and the greatest tax reform in the history of our country.

Would you settle for the tax cut without reforming

the whole tax code?

Or do we need to rework the whole thing--

Well, I think we can do them simultaneously.

The code is too complicated, H&R Block won't be happy.

But people go out, they spend a lot of their money

on getting other people to do their taxes.

Yeah, I'm one of them.

I know, you understand.

And it's unnecessary.

So, simplification is very important,

reform is very important.

And the biggest thing to me is tax cut.

We are going for very large tax cuts for businesses,

and for the middle class.

Tremendous tax cuts.

The Chairman Brady is on board with what you ought to do.

He's a great guy.

He'll line up.

Have you got anybody in the Senate of like mind?

Well first of all, Chairman Brady

is a great guy, who really knows the subject.

He'll never disappoint you.

And so there--

I think-- really good in the Senate.

I think we're going to do very well.

Again, like health care-- this is simpler than health care,

believe it or not.

But, like health care, I think we're going to get it done.

And then I want to go to infrastructure.

We have to rebuild our country-- our roads, our bridges,

our tunnels, our schools.

We have to rebuild our country.

PAT ROBERTSON: Exactly.

We will have--

in another few months--

have spent $7 trillion dollars in the Middle East--

$7 trillion.

And then if you want to spend $2 on building a school in Iowa,

or in Pennsylvania, or in Florida,

they don't want to give you the money.

But we've spent-- in a very short period of time--

we will be up to $7 trillion.

How ridiculous is this?

And here's what we got for it--

nothing, nothing.

The Middle East is a mess.

Now, I'm there for one reason.

We got to get rid of the terrorists.

That's the reason.

And we're almost there, we have really made headway.

As I said, we've made more headway

in the last short period of time than they have ever before,

by far, during this long period of time.

But when you think that we've spent--

we will have spent $7 trillion, think of it.

We've spent, as of a few months ago,

we actually have spent $6 trillion in the Middle East.

That we have nothing for, nothing.

I want to rebuild our bridges and our roads.

I have a friend who's a trucker.

And he loves-- he's very proud of his equipment,

he buys very big.

And he buys the best trucks.

He's very proud of it.

He said, in the past, when we went from Los Angeles

to New York, it was fine.

Now, by the time he gets to New York--

with all the problems on the roads, and potholes, and--

he said, I've got to fix my equipment all the time.

He wants to go to a different level of truck,

meaning downward.

Where do you go-- we have to fix our roads,

and we have to fix our infrastructure.

So infrastructure is very important.

Somebody suggested the Federal Reserve has a big slush

fund that maybe they could pass over

for infrastructure without actually having to raise taxes.

How do you get the money for that?

Oh, we'll get the money.

We're going to get the money and we're going to grow.

And I say it, we're going to have tremendous growth.

We're being held back by all these regulations, which I'm

knocking out left and right.

Even Dodd-Frank, with the banking business,

I have people--

friends of mine-- they want to go get a loan, they can't--

Great people, and they can't get loans.

We're doing things on Dodd-Frank,

in terms of the banks.

We have many, many things that we're doing.

But we're going to have growth, and we're going

to grow out of our problems.

Hey, we owe $20 trillion dollars.

The Congressional Budget Office uses this.

They don't use dynamic scoring, they use static scoring.

Right.

Can you get past them, so you can--

We're going to get past it.

And we're going to get past it to a large extent

because we're going to have a country that's

going to be much more dynamic.

If we do GDP and 1%--

because we're basically, for the last year, at around 1%.

I call countries--

I'm friendly with all, let's say the top 20 countries,

where I just left--

how are you doing, to a major country, I won't use names.

Oh, we are not happy, we are not happy.

What's your GDP?

8%, 11%, 10%, 9%.

And I say, how you doing?

We are not happy.

So we're at 1%, and we're supposed to be happy?

We have the highest taxes anywhere in the world.

We're going to lower them.

We're going to lower them substantially.

We're going to have tremendous growth.

I'd like to make a prediction.

If you get health care and tax reform,

you're guaranteed another four years in office,

if you want it.

Well then I'll see you at the inauguration.

Anyhow.

Well, I appreciate so much what you're doing.

By the way, the Evangelicals of America

voted 83% in the last election for you.

And I want you to know there are thousands

and thousands of people praying for you, all the time.

Thank you, Pat.

That's so nice.

--and holding you up.

The evangelicals were so great to me.

And they did, they came out in massive numbers.

And on top of that, I got 83%.

But that came out in record numbers,

they never came out like that.

And we've really helped, because I've gotten rid

of the Johnson Amendment.

Now we're going to go try and get rid of it

permanently in Congress.

But I signed an executive order, so that now people like you,

that want to hear from--

ministers, and preachers, and rabbis, and whoever it may be--

they can speak.

You couldn't speak politically before, now you can.

And I want to hear from you and others that we like.

Franklin Graham, I had such--

Dr. Jeffress, Robert Jeffress--

who is such a great guy--

Pastor Jeffress.

He used to go on television.

I didn't know who he was.

I'd see him, and he was always speaking so well of me.

And you have so many people that I want to hear from.

Now they're going to be able to speak.

And that's going to be a great thing for Christianity,

believe me.

A great, great thing.

And it's a great thing for religion.

One last thing.

It looks like you may have another Supreme Court nominee.

Very possible, one or more will retire.

And have you already got the list ready for the next one?

Well, we have a great one with Justice Gorsuch.

Unbelievable.

He's going to be great.

And I just have to wait to see what happens.

PAT ROBERTSON: OK.

I have a lot of respect for Justice Kennedy.

I like him a lot.

But we have to see what happens.

PAT ROBERTSON: OK.

And we'll be learning.

Whatever it is, it is.

But if there is ever a vacancy, we

will put somebody on who is going

to be terrific for our country.

Last question.

There seems to be a visceral hatred of you

in the part of the left.

And they won't quit.

Does it bother you?

Well, there seems to be hatred, and it's too bad.

We're creating jobs, we're creating value,

we're making our country proud again.

We're building up our military, we're

taking care of our police.

Our police have been horribly treated.

And the veterans, by the way, is being reformed dramatically.

Right.

The veterans.

We have something where it's accountability--

Veterans Accountability Act.

We have where you could be the worst employee in history,

you could treat the veterans horribly,

you could do whatever you want, they couldn't fire you.

They've been trying to get rid of it for 40 years.

They've been trying to get in a position

where they can do things.

I had it passed last week.

I just signed it last week.

Nobody even talks about it.

But, you know what?

The people know that we're doing these things.

The people see the stock market, the people see the jobs report.

But it is really unfair, because it's like a witch hunt.

It's like a witch hunt.

But we take it.

We take it-- as long as my people understand--

that's why I do interviews with you.

You have a tremendous audience, you have people that I love--

the evangelicals.

And sometimes you say the evangelical Christians.

But I do a lot of interviews with people

because I can get the word out, because I'm treated

very unfairly by the press.

And it is what it is.

You don't mind if we ask you to take on heavy weights,

and not fight with lightweights anymore?

No, we want to fight--

The big guys.

We want to fight.

We have to change-- we have to bring our country back.

Our country was going in the wrong direction.

PAT ROBERTSON: That's right.

You couldn't build, you couldn't do anything.

Our country was going in the wrong direction.

And by the way, what they were doing to religious liberty--

It's terrible.

DONALD TRUMP: They were destroying religious liberty.

That's right.

You will be saying Merry Christmas again, very soon.

We'll count on it.

Thank you.

Mr. President, thank you so much for being with us.

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.

It's always a joy to see you.

Such a great honor, thank you.

We're so proud of what you're doing.

Thank you very much, appreciate it.

God bless you.

Appreciate it.