President Trump talks trade with China, immigration policy and the US economy
Watch part 3 of Laura Ingraham's exclusive interview with President Trump on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," January 10, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Watch the whole thing. Laura Ingraham interviewing the President starts right now. See you, Monday.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham, and this is the Ingraham Angle tonight from Washington. And do we have a show for you tonight? My exclusive interview with President Trump at the White House. It's been a wild week all around in Washington. Of course, the rest of the world. The President passed a monumental leadership test this week with flying colors. First, we had an Iranian missile attack in retaliation for the killing of terrorist mastermind Soleimani. Democrats of course predicted World War III would ensue. And as usual, the President proved them wrong. So, now hostilities aren't a deescalated state and Iran may and I underline may even come to the negotiating table. No one thought that was going to happen. Second, the President and the GOP held firm on impeachment. And boy, did that strategy pay off. After weeks of delay, Nancy Pelosi is finally caving, and she will transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. Her plot to control the Senate trial has been completely foiled. Oops. Well, I had the great privilege of sitting down with the President for a wide-ranging interview today. He made news on all of these important topics and a lot more and he shared his plans for the New Year. Here's part one of my exclusive interview with President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Mr. President, thanks so much for being with us tonight.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you, Laura.
INGRAHAM: Today, Mike Pompeo gave a very forceful press conference on the fallout from the Iranian jetliner going down. His concern is that people aren't understanding the imminent nature of the threat of Soleimani, and he was pressed on that today. He said, there were large scale attacks planned on U.S. facilities, but he didn't go more specific. Don't the American people have a right to know what specifically was targeted without revealing methods and sources?
TRUMP: Well, I don't think so, but we will tell you that probably it was going to be the embassy in Baghdad. You saw that happening. You saw with all of the men, very few women circling it and circling it very strongly and very viciously, knocking out windows and trying to get in and they were close to getting in and I called out the military. They said, we'll have it there tomorrow. I said, no, you'll have it there today. We're not going to have another Benghazi on our hands. And we did a really amazing job, get no credit for it, but we never get credit for anything and that's OK. In the meantime, we have the greatest economy we've ever had, a lot of other things. But I think you would have had another Benghazi had we not acted quickly. That could have been stopped. And this was stopped. And we had our Apaches going there, the great helicopters and they were dropping flares all over the place and a lot of things were happening. They had action real fast and everybody disappeared.
INGRAHAM: City of large-scale attacks planned for other embassies and if those were planned, why can't we reveal that to the American people? Wouldn't that help your case?
TRUMP: I can reveal that I believe it would have been for embassies. And I think that probably Baghdad already started. They were really amazed that we came in with that kind of a force. We came in with very powerful force and drove them out. You know that ended almost immediately. But Baghdad certainly would have been the lead. But I think it would have been for embassy, could have been military bases, could have been a lot of other things too. But it was imminent and then all of a sudden, he was gone.
INGRAHAM: Why is Nancy Pelosi describing her briefing as dismissive and disdainful? Mike Lee said it was insulting the Intel briefing. What wasn't said to mollify the concerns of some of your strongest supporters like Mike Lee?
TRUMP: Yes, he is a great supporter. He is a friend of mine. He called me just a little while ago and he said, you know, I just wanted to get some more information and he was - look, I have also had calls from some of the senators, some of the congressmen said it was the single best briefing. One person said they've been there for 10 years. It's the single best briefing they've ever had. One said 20 years, the single best military briefing they've ever had. I understand what Mike had, Mike wanted certain things said and we just couldn't say, and we could probably say maybe individually to him and he's certainly a trustworthy person.
INGRAHAM: Are you worried that the Democrats can't be trusted with classified information because that's kind of what it sounded like when Pence gave that interview and talked about sources and methods the other day.
TRUMP: I am worried about it. Certainly, I am worried about it. Can you imagine, here we are split second timing executed like nobody has seen in many, many years on Soleimani. Can you imagine, they want us to call up and speak to crooked corrupt politician, Adam Schiff. Oh! Adam, we have somebody that we've been trying to get for a long time. We have a shot at him right now. Could we meet so that we can get your approval Adam Schiff. And he'd say well, let's do it in a couple of days. Oh! OK. Let's meet in a couple - it doesn't work that way. Number one. Number two, they leak. Anything we give will be leaked immediately. You'll see breaking news. We're about to attack in 25 minutes or do something. And by the way, I'm not somebody that wants to attack. I probably could have attacked five times, 10 times having to do with Iran. I've been very guarded because I don't want to do that. But we may have to do something. We have to be in a position where we can do it even from the negotiating standpoint. But hopefully it won't be necessary. We have tremendous sanctions. They're doing very poorly. They have riots all over their country and they could straighten out easy. But it's up to them. Whatever they want to be.
INGRAHAM: Speaking of sanctions, Ilhan Omar, I think said today that this is akin to economic warfare against Iran, even though she supports sanctions against Israel.
TRUMP: Yes. She hates Israel. She hates Jewish people. You just have to take a look at her rhetoric. It's incredible what's happened to the Democrats in Congress. They used to be supportive of Israel. Today, they're supportive of her and Tlaib. That's another real winner. Tlaib and AOC who knows nothing. AOC knows nothing. Poor student, poor everything and then she comes, and she talks about the Green New Deal and all these poor fools say, isn't it wonderful, isn't it wonderful. But you know as I said last night in Ohio, I don't like talking about the Green New Deal, it's too early. I want to save it for about two weeks before because they may change their mind.
INGRAHAM: Bernie Sanders was out. You're not surprised to hear this, discussing Iran. What happened. And he basically said this.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just as we were led into Vietnam and Iraq by lies, the Trump administration is misleading us on Iran. They just did the assassination of Qasem Soleimani by claiming that he was planning imminent attacks and yet they produce no evidence that would justify this claim, not even in a classified setting.
TRUMP: I don't see it happening. We are there for a very, very strong reason. They cannot have nuclear weapons. The Iran nuclear deal signed by President Obama gave 150 billion and that's when the real terrorist started. They took that money and they used it all over the place. You look at Yemen, you look at all of the things that were happening including Syria. They were using, Pallister (ph) gave 1.8 billion in cash, 1.7, 1.8 billion in cash. Green cash, beautiful green cash. You almost - how do they have the power to do this plane load of cash and instead of Iran saying, thank you very much. It's really nice. Let's go and get along. Let's do well. Let's do deals together. Let's build buildings in Iran. They said, Death to America and they said it when they were signing. When Kerry signed, and by the way, Kerry violated the Logan Act.
INGRAHAM: He's out there. He's out there just slamming you.
TRUMP: He totally violated. This man totally violated the Logan Act with his conversations. OK. But when Kerry was out there and making the deal and they had people screaming, Death to America, Death to America, who signs a deal while they're screaming Death to America.
INGRAHAM: They're saying you destabilized the Middle East after campaigning as a man of restraint, not interventionism. Elizabeth Warren is saying this, Kerry saying this, all the old Obama folks are out there, Susan Rice, they're all kind of waiting in the wings, like see he's the guy that we told you he was.
TRUMP: If you look at the Middle East right now, it's much tamer than it was when I got in. When I got in, it was just all over the place. Number one, we got rid of the caliphate, the ISIS caliphate. We have tens of thousands of ISIS prisoners. We've killed most of their fighters. We've gotten rid of ISIS. Now they come back and we take care of it. Other people should take care of it. Other countries should take care of it. Europe should take them back.
INGRAHAM: Is NATO going to actually step up? I know they're committed to doing more in the Middle East. But what specifically is NATO going to contribute that's going to take some of the burden off the American taxpayers.
TRUMP: So, when I came in as you know NATO was virtually a dead organization. It had no money. Nobody was paying except us. Practically nobody was paying. If you look at a chart of money and funds received, it looked like a rollercoaster down. Now, and Secretary Stoltenberg, I think he's terrific. In my first year, I raised $130 billion from them, not from us. And now he just announced $530 billion, all because of me. He's my biggest salesman. My greatest salesman Secretary Stoltenberg. But I said to him, look, you're there for Russia and Europe. OK. By the way, NATO is much more for Europe than it is for us and yet we--
INGRAHAM: What are we protecting them from now, all the money we're spending in NATO. Who are we protecting them from?
TRUMP: Well, they build an office building for $3 billion. They do lots of things that they shouldn't be doing before I got here. But I raised a lot of money. We can use NATO in other locations. We can use NATO as an example in the Middle East. And that's what we should do. I think frankly it's more palatable to countries in the Middle East, if an international force comes in rather than just the United States. And from our standpoint, let somebody else pay for it. Why are we always paying? We pay for everything. One thing, I moved our troops out of Syria - on the border between Turkey and Syria. That turned out to be such a successful move, Laura. Look what happened. Now they protect it. They've been fighting over that border for a thousand years. Why should we do it? And then they say, he left troops in Syria. You know what I did, I left troops to take the oil. I took the oil. The only troops I have are taking the oil. They're protecting the oil. I took over the oil.
INGRAHAM: We're taking, we're not taking--
TRUMP: Maybe we will, maybe we won't.
INGRAHAM: They're protecting their facility.
TRUMP: I don't know maybe we should take it. But we have the oil. Right now, the United States has the oil. So, they say, he left troops in Syria. No, I got rid of all of them other than we're protecting the oil. We have the oil.
INGRAHAM: The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that after this strike, Mr. Trump told associates he was under pressure to deal with General Soleimani, take him out. From GOP senators, he views as important supporters in the coming impeachment trial in the Senate. Associates said sounds like you've got a leaker here in the White House or someone. What is it, it's just fake?
TRUMP: They just made it up. It's fake news.
INGRAHAM: OK. Wall Street Journal.
TRUMP: They use the term, leakers. They just make it up. They're all very dishonest. Most of them are really - I mean 80 percent are dishonest and I mean really dishonest. They made that story up.
INGRAHAM: So, no concern about Lindsey Graham or--
TRUMP: No, not at all. By the way, absolutely not at all. We have tremendous support. Look in the House we own 196 to nothing and we got three Democrats. So therefore, it was bipartisan, I guess you could say. We got nothing. They had nothing. We didn't lose one Republican vote. As you know, that's very unusual. In the Senate I think I have the same if not more support, I don't have to do that. I would never compromise what we're doing with Iran and potential war and all of the things that we're doing so well--
INGRAHAM: So, we're not doing Bush 2.0 here? This is not Bush 2.0. This is not WMD.
TRUMP: You know what I want in the Middle East, I don't want people having nuclear weapons because they'll use them. I don't want people having nuclear weapons. That's my biggest thing.
INGRAHAM: Well, John Kerry was out there yesterday saying, well, you guys got out of the Iran deal and that's what's caused all this tension.
TRUMP: By the way, you know how bad the Iran deal was? The Iran deal, I did a great thing getting out of the Iran deal. They gave 150 billion, they gave 1.8 and forget that. You couldn't do inspections of the most important locations. And you know another big thing, they have the right to do ballistic missiles. We couldn't go into areas and look; we'd have to give massive notice. So, if they were doing something that they could clean them up, it was ridiculous. But most importantly, it expires. This is a short-term agreement. And now once it expired, they have an absolute clear, unstopped path of nuclear weapons. Unstopped. In a very short period of time, the deal that President Obama made with John Kerry, who may be the worst negotiator I've ever seen that deal expires and you know what? Once it expires, you can't do what I did. I mean because they have a deal that says once it expires, they can do what they want to do. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's what I'm doing.
INGRAHAM: Pete Buttigieg and other Democrats, I predicted this when I talked to Mike Pompeo yesterday are actually blaming your moves against Iran for the downing of that commercial jetliner in Iran, in Tehran, the night of the strikes by Iran to our Iraqi facilities. Your reaction to that charge?
TRUMP: Well, a couple of people started that, and they got hit real fast by a lot of different people, not me. I think it's just low life. Look, he's not going anywhere. He was a lousy mayor of a place that is not doing well, and Indiana is doing unbelievably. Indiana, the state had the best year they've ever had. Thank you very much. But that city was badly run. You look at what's going on.
INGRAHAM: Jackie Speier saying on this too.
TRUMP: He's going nowhere. And she's another beauty. I mean take a look at her past. Check out her past please.
INGRAHAM: The Iraqi Prime Minister has notified Mike Pompeo about potential plans, drawing up plans for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. You ran on pulling out of the Middle East, why not use this opportunity to say, we're done.
TRUMP: I'm OK with it. By the way--
INGRAHAM: You're OK with removing our troops from Iraq?
TRUMP: That's what they say publicly. They don't say that privately because if we leave that means they're not going to be--
INGRAHAM: Why not leave?
TRUMP: I'm not so bad with it. When I heard that I said I have it down to 5000 troops. We had many, many troops there in Iraq and we're there only in a training. We trained them. But if they'd want us to leave, but they speak different publicly than they do privately.
INGRAHAM: But are we sending more troops to the region as we speak?
TRUMP: We're sending more to Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia is paying us for it. We're doing something that nobody has ever done. I said to Saudi Arabia, we have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia, I said listen, you're a very rich country. You want more troops. I'm going to send them to you. But you've got to pay us. They're paying us. They've already deposited $1 billion in the bank. We are going to help them, but these rich countries have to pay for it. South Korea gave us $500 million. They never gave us - they gave us $500 million. I said you're going to help us along. We have 32,000 soldiers in South Korea protecting you from North Korea. You've got to pay. And they gave us $500 million. I mean you should have breaking news because nobody wants to report that stuff. I'm not sure anybody knows it. I might be sort of saying it, you have some - I mean its good stuff. But they are a wealthy country. They build all your television sets. They took that away from us. They build the ships. They build a lot of things. I said look, we're protecting you. You've got to pay. They paid us $500 million. They're going to pay us a lot more.
INGRAHAM: Do you think that Iraq should repay the American taxpayer for these bases?
TRUMP: Sure.
INGRAHAM: For what we've done there.
TRUMP: You heard that from me. OK.
INGRAHAM: Yes. Why don't we (ph).
TRUMP: I said we built one of the world's most expensive airport facilities anywhere in the world. I mean I wish we had it in New York. I wish we had it in Washington. We build runways that are 15,000 feet long at LaGuardia, they're 7000 feet long. In fact, I think they're 20,000 feet long over there and deep thick concrete and steel. Nobody ever built runways like this. OK, it's way overbuilt, but that's OK. But we have billions of dollars into that. I said if we leave, you've got to pay us. If we leave, you have to pay us for embassies, you have to pay us for the money we put in.
INGRAHAM: How you're going to collect.
TRUMP: Well, we have a lot of their money right now. We have a lot of their money. We have $35 billion of their money right now sitting in an account. And I think they'll agree to pay. I think they'll agree to pay. Otherwise, we'll stay there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Up ahead, my exclusive interview with President Trump continues. His thoughts on Nancy Pelosi's failed political gambit. The big news that the speaker is sending the articles to the Senate. And later, Raymond Arroyo reacts to the President's thoughts on the rogue royals and a lot more. Breaking news all ahead. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Mr. President, we just learned that Nancy Pelosi is now, she's sending articles of impeachment next week to the Senate. What's your reaction?
TRUMP: Well, I think it's ridiculous. She should have sent them a long time ago. It just - it belittles the process. What they've done to impeachment. It's like I was interviewed by a very, very good writer, reporter somebody that you know very well. I can say Bob Woodward. He said, he's doing something and this time, I said maybe I'll sit down, because nobody has done more than me. I mean nobody - if you look at three years with the economy, with regulations, with the tax cuts, with everything, and all the things, we've rebuilt our military. Our military was totally depleted. Our military was old and depleted. And he said you know you don't look like somebody who's under impeachment, as you know he's slightly covered Nixon and he covered Clinton. But Bob Woodward, he said, you actually look like you've won everything, you look happy. I said, I am happy. So maybe I'm wired a little bit different.
INGRAHAM: Impeachment managers anyone that you would prefer to see, she has a name--
TRUMP: Well, we have a team.
INGRAHAM: Her impeachment managers. They have a name--
TRUMP: Well, I would love to ask a couple of their people some questions like Schiff, why did he lie? Why did he make up my statement? Totally made it up. But again, the whole thing unraveled when I put in the transcript because it's all about the transcript and it's all about the President of Ukraine saying, he did nothing.
INGRAHAM: How long do you think this will last?
TRUMP: Well, it depends. If they have a trial, probably takes a few days or a week and unless we want to have a bigger trial, where we bring in the whistleblower which I'd love to do, and I'd love to bring in the informer who disappeared. I'd love to bring in the second whistleblower who disappeared. I'd love to bring in the Inspector General. Why did he bring it up there? He should have never done it. He didn't want to see the call. He didn't want to see the call. He took this whistleblower, who's a fraud. He took the whistleblowers' report and he put it in. They said to him, no, if that's the case, if you have to do that, what we'll do is we'll show you the actual call. No, no, I don't want to see it. What's that all about? Why did he do that? Inspector General, so I'd like to interview the Inspector General. Why did he do that and put everybody through--
INGRAHAM: You're worried about future presidents, what this is going to do to the presidency in the future?
TRUMP: I think it cheapened the word impeachment. I think impeachment is a very ugly word, but I think this cheapen the word impeachment. I think Nancy Pelosi and Schiff, because he's corrupt. I mean he's the guy stands up at the United States Congress and repeats a conversation except it was a fraud. He made up a conversation. He was saying my conversation and it was totally wrong and he knew it. He said, don't call me, I'll call you. That's from the Godfather. That's a mafia statement. I never said that. He said eight times quid pro quo. It was no times. He made up a conversation and repeated it in front of Congress and because he has immunity, we can't do anything about it. I'd like to say, why did you do that? Now, these people are frauds and it's very bad. No, they've cheapened the word impeachment. It's a bad word to start off with. I really say, it's an ugly word. To me, it's a very ugly word, but maybe it played to our benefit.
INGRAHAM: When we talk about impeachment now, it looks like McConnell is agreeing with Josh Holly's (ph)--
TRUMP: Good.
INGRAHAM: Proposition to dismiss these articles of impeachment, if Pelosi doesn't send them over. My question to you is, why not have it dismissed today? Why would McConnell just say, we're done with these games or do you want a trial, you want one?
TRUMP: In many ways, I'd like a trial. And I'd love to have Sleepy Joe Biden. I'd love to have his son. I call him Where's Hunter, I've changed his first name to Where, Where's Hunter. I'd love to have the whistleblower who wrote a fake report. The whistleblower is a person that is you know who the whistleblower is. By the way, everybody knows who the whistleblower is.
INGRAHAM: Whistleblower is still working in the White House?
TRUMP: Everybody - I don't want to say. But everybody knows about the whistleblower and they know about the whistleblower's lawyer. But then, do you remember, there was a second whistleblower. I want to know what happened to the second whistleblower. What happened to the informer? Remember that an informer. They all disappeared when I gave the transcript because I gave a transcript and that blew everything apart, because we have an accurate. And if the only thing covered by the hearings was that now people agree. Everybody. Even our great Lieutenant Colonel, please call him Lieutenant Colonel or great Lieutenant Colonel agrees that the transcript was accurate. I think he had one word different. We'll change the one word, it meant absolutely nothing. The transcript was professionally done by the best people there. Just one second. So, we have a transcript. They never thought I'd release it. They probably never thought I had it. I can only say thank goodness they had it because otherwise I would have been falsely accused and it would have been sadly my word against them. But we had other people on that call. Think of this. I was going to do something wrong on a call where I know there are many people listening.
INGRAHAM: Always.
TRUMP: The President of Ukraine said, I did absolutely nothing wrong. He said, I had no pressure whatsoever. He didn't even know what we were talking about. And we called them before I released the transcript, because it's a terrible thing to have to release a conversation with a leader from another country, it's a terrible thing. I mean what are other countries other than Ukraine, what are they saying. So, anyway, they have no case.
INGRAHAM: Why not call Bolton, why not allow him to testify. This thing is bogus.
TRUMP: I would have no problem other than one thing. You can't be in the White House as President's future. I'm talking about future, many future presidents and have a security adviser. Anybody having to do with security and legal and other things.
INGRAHAM: You're going to invoke Executive Privilege?
TRUMP: Well, I think you have to for the sake of the office. I would love everybody to testify. I like Mick to testify. I like Mike Pompeo to testify. I like Rick Perry to testify. I want everybody, but there are things you can't do from the standpoint of Executive Privilege. You have to maintain that. So, we'll see where it all goes. But especially, a National Security Adviser, you can't have him explaining all of your statements about national security concerning Russia, China, North Korea, everything. We just can't do that. I think for the good of the office. Look, Nancy Pelosi will go down as probably the least successful Speaker of the House in the history of our nation. She has done nothing. The only thing she's done is she finally get done one of the best trade deals our country has ever made, the USMCA. That's with Mexico and Canada. But I did that. She doesn't even know what it says. She has no idea what it says. She was forced to do that. You know why? She wouldn't have done it, but she did nothing. So, now she can say, I signed something. She is obsessed with impeachment. She has done nothing. She's going to go down as one of the worst Speakers in the history of our country. Now, in all fairness, she's hurting our country. She's very bad for our country and she's become a crazed lunatic. But she will go down as I think maybe the worst Speaker in the history of our country.
INGRAHAM: How do you get--
TRUMP: And she'll be overthrown pretty soon, because she's doing very little. And the people are tired of it. And she's controlled by the radical Left. She's controlled by AOC. She's controlled by this Tlaib, it's another great one and she's controlled by Omar.
INGRAHAM: We just heard that, they are thinking about adding another article on impeachment. They're floating this to include the events of the last few weeks. Here's what Chuck Schumer just said.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Over the past few weeks, there have been several crucial disclosures of evidence that appear to further incriminate the President. Each disclosure bolstering the argument we Democrats have made for a trial that features the relevant witnesses and documents.
INGRAHAM: Your reaction to their potentially adding to articles of impeachment. They still haven't delivered to the Senate floor.
TRUMP: So, they can't win an election that's going to take place in 10 months. They know that and the only thing they can do, it's like quit there (ph). Congressman Green, when he said we can't beat him, we have to impeach him. And they all know that. They're making things up. This is the craziest thing anyone has ever seen. And the two articles that they put in, as you know, they're not crimes. They're not even allowed to be put in. It's a disgrace.
INGRAHAM: Does it not show the weakness of their case, but they're still trying to rebrand this as something else?
TRUMP: I think it's incredible.
INGRAHAM: I've never seen anything like this. This is--
TRUMP: I think it's incredible. I think it's really hurting them. Look, my numbers are the highest, my poll numbers. You have this guy that goes on television all the time. He gives phony numbers. My poll, as you know, my poll numbers right now today are the highest they've ever been. And, by the way, people love that we took this horrible terrorist. They love it, Soleimani. The love that we took him out. They think it's so fantastic. He should have been taken out over the last 20 years by somebody. He should have been taken out a long time ago. But my numbers are the highest they've ever been, and a lot of it is because of the impeachment hoax. It's a hoax. How would you like to be two, two-and-a-half years, I'm under investigation, federal investigation before I even ran, in my opinion, before I came down the escalator. But from the time I came down the escalator, I have been under investigation. They found nothing. They found nothing. Who else do you think in Washington --
INGRAHAM: Few could have withstood it.
TRUMP: No, no. Think of it, not only withstood it mentally. And I think --
INGRAHAM: But accomplished.
TRUMP: -- it actually energizes you, yes, because it makes me angry. But think, who else could have withstood that? You take some of these Democrat senators, they couldn't withstand it. You know what would happen? Number, one, they would fold up like an umbrella. And number two, they'd be guilty of a lot of stuff.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: More of my exclusive interview with President Trump in just moments. His thoughts on immigration, bringing in all those foreign workers, the economy, and whether he really trusts Google in the election year. Plus, a little later on, his thoughts on the latest royal scandal. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Live from America's News Headquarters, I'm Aishah Hasnie. Bernie Sanders leading in Iowa with the first nominating contest just weeks away. Twenty percent of likely Democratic caucus goers support the Vermont senators, that's according to the latest "Des Moines Register"/CNN poll. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is in second place with 17 percent, and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is third with 16 percent, and former V.P. Joe Biden has 15 percent. The Iowa caucuses are on February 3rd. Meantime, Texas is cracking down on new refugees. Governor Greg Abbott says his state is already overwhelmed and is now rejecting resettlements. It is the first state in the nation to do so under a Trump administration order granting local governments that authority. Abbott's decision is being denounced by refugee advocates and others. I'm Aishah Hasnie. Now back to "The Ingraham Angle."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: You slapped the sanctions back on China, the tariffs, the extra tariffs, if they don't fulfill what they said they would do --
TRUMP: Yes, well, I have the right to do that. But people don't realize, I still have the tariffs, 25 percent tariffs on China on $250 billion worth of goods. I still have those. And by the way, remember, they used to say we pay for it. No, no. China devalued their currency and they pay for it. And we have a great relationship with China right now. So I don't want to speak badly of anyone, but they are having the worst year that they've had. The last year was the worst year they've had in 67, it was 57, now it's 67 years. And they wanted to make a deal, and we made a deal. And it's a great deal. Now we have a phase two deal which will start at some point, but phase one was very important for banking. You know what we did, we opened it up to banking, but for banking, for our farmers, for manufacturers, it's a great, it's a great --
INGRAHAM: If China, though, is --
TRUMP: We have a lot of these deals that I've made, South Korea, Japan. Japan --
INGRAHAM: Undocumented all of this. No one else has touched it.
TRUMP: Remember this, they are all kicking in now. We didn't have anything. We had horrible deals or no deal. The Japan deal, we had no deal. We are getting $40 billion. What this is going to do for our economy is going to be amazing. And it was just signed a month ago, it's just now kicking in.
INGRAHAM: On the human rights issue in China, you don't talk a lot about it, but it concerns a lot of your strongest supporters, evangelical Christians, Catholics, other people who are really concerned about human rights. You've got 1 million people in reeducation camps, internment camps, Catholics getting missiles in their pews at Christmas that had tributes to Xi instead of "Silent Night," crazy stuff happening. Reagan saw the power of the moral argument for freedom and married it to the economic and military argument for peace through strength. Can you do more on that front without damaging your ability to make future trade agreements, more on the human rights front?
TRUMP: Well, we're riding a fine line, because we are making not good trade deals. We're making great trade deals.
INGRAHAM: But human rights count.
TRUMP: They do count. And when you say Reagan, look, I was a big fan of Reagan, but he wasn't heavy into it. He wanted to do certain things, he wasn't really heavy into it. But he wasn't also making trade deals. He let Japan come in and take our automobile market. As much as I like Reagan, he was not good on trade.
INGRAHAM: He didn't trade with the Soviet Union at all. We didn't have a big bunch of students from the Soviet Union coming into the United States.
TRUMP: I think we should be able to trade with Russia. I think we should be able -- I think getting along -- by the way, getting along with Russia, now that the witch hunt has ended having to do with Russia, now that they spend $45 million, found nothing.
INGRAHAM: Mr. President when you look at the trajectory of your administration, huge progress on trade, incredible progress on dealing with our political foes, ISIS, incredible deregulation, judges, you've done a lot. On the economy today, we found out that still added 146,000 jobs, unemployment historically low at 3.5 percent. But we do have a little bit of a stall out on wage growth, which you ran on, and we've seen some, 2.9 percent last year, 0.1 percent over the last month.
TRUMP: I know.
INGRAHAM: But we don't have a tight labor market. If we had a tight labor market, we'd be seeing real increases in wages. I hear that your team is planning on advocating more foreign workers coming in for some of these high-tech companies. I'm very concerned about that, as are a lot of your supporters.
TRUMP: And so is Mark Levin a little bit.
INGRAHAM: Yes, we are concerned, because Americans --
TRUMP: So is the great Lou Dobbs. Lou Dobbs is concerned, too. But I'll say, Lou, here is the problem. I am demanding that Japan and all these countries that have these massive, we have trade deficits like nobody has ever seen before. I said you have to open up. I call Prime Minister Abe, he's a friend of mine. I say Shinzo, you have got to open up more plants in the United States. And they tell me, we want to do it, we want to do it. They start opening. They can't get labor. We need help. Otherwise, we could just say don't open up --
INGRAHAM: If they couldn't get labor, wages would be going up. But wages aren't going up.
TRUMP: Wage are going up.
INGRAHAM: Not in the high-tech industry. We are seeing a plateauing of wages.
TRUMP: It went up three percent and it went up 2.9 percent. In the last two year, wages have gone up more than they have 25 years.
INGRAHAM: But for Google, why reward Google? Google is working against you in the campaign.
TRUMP: I don't want to reward Google. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of Google.
INGRAHAM: All they want is low skilled workers, low paid workers.
TRUMP: I'm not a fan of Google. I'm a fan of great companies, OK.
INGRAHAM: You did not run on bringing more foreign workers into the United States.
TRUMP: It's not foreign workers. We have to allow smart people to stay in our country. Your graduate number one in your class at Harvard. You graduate from the Wharton Schools of --
INGRAHAM: That's a small percentage of what they want.
TRUMP: No, it's not. It's a lot.
INGRAHAM: But you ran on people training their foreign replacements -- you ran against that. The Americans, it's humiliating for an American worked for a company for 30 years, now is told you have to train your foreign replacement, he's going to live in Korea, and you're going to pay him 20 percent.
TRUMP: No, no, that's different. I would never do that. But we do need workers in our country. And I do want immigration policy. Nobody's been better on immigration then me. By the way we won the funding for the wall, and the wall has been built anyway because I was taking it out of the military and everything else. And now it's easier. We need people come. I got Foxconn to go into Wisconsin. They have to get people. They spent a fortune, they built the most incredible plant I've ever seen in Wisconsin, Foxconn --
INGRAHAM: They why should we have American graduates of colleges and universities taking those jobs?
TRUMP: We do. No, we do, we do, but we don't have enough of them. We don't have enough of them. And we have to be competitive with the rest of the world, too. The companies want to hire these people.
INGRAHAM: They want to hear people they can hire for the cheapest amount because that's what they want.
TRUMP: I'm not talking about cheap. I'm talking about brainpower. They want to hire smart people. And those people are thrown out of the country. We can't do that.
INGRAHAM: You ran on America first.
TRUMP: No, this is America first.
INGRAHAM: All right, I'm going to keep going.
TRUMP: Excuse, I just have to finish this. If we tell smart people to get the hell out --
INGRAHAM: That's not what we are saying.
TRUMP: That's a bad thing.
INGRAHAM: There is a never-ending appetite on the part of corporate America to bring in as much cheap labor as possible to drive down wages. That's going to happen.
TRUMP: Laura, I have so many people coming into this country, you're not going to have to worry about it. It's always going to be a shortage. If somebody smart sitting in this position, we have so many companies coming in from Japan. Japan is doing many car companies. China now is going to start building a lot of things. They haven't been doing it too much. We have so many companies wanting to come in, and they don't have the labor. But they're coming in.
INGRAHAM: All right.
TRUMP: We're doing great. Our country is doing great, our economy is doing great.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: Coming up, the president on the Queen's Harry situation, and the news that the Olympics proposing to ban athletes' protests, politics particularly. Does he think that should happen here? Then our own Raymond Arroyo, will join me with reaction. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: Mr. President, I know you were close to the Queen, and she has a lot of affection for you. You have great visits over there.
TRUMP: We have a great relationship.
INGRAHAM: Would you be able to give her any advice for some of the rogue royals? What's happening there? It seems like there's a lot of tumult. And you've been so good at keeping your kids together in a close-knit family.
TRUMP: I think it's sad. I do. I think it's sad. She is a great woman. I sat with her. I was supposed to be with her 15 minutes, I stayed an hour- and-a-half. By the way, I got killed by the press. She wanted me to stay. The press had no, no, he was supposed to be there, it's very rude. We had a great time. Then we had dinner. We were honored. Our country was honored. I sat with her for a long time, and she was smiling and laughing the whole time.
INGRAHAM: Protocol is important for her. She has the tradition of the monarchy and the responsibilities.
TRUMP: But we have a very great relationship. I think this was a blindside, she was blindsided by this whole situation, and I think it is too bad. But she has been, the Queen, it has to be an all-time record appeared. From the time she was 25, and now she's 94, she has never made a mistake, if you look. She's had like a flawless time.
INGRAHAM: Do you think Harry should go back, come back and fix this?
TRUMP: I think -- I don't want to get into the whole thing. But I find it, I just have such respect for the Queen, I don't think this should be happening to her.
INGRAHAM: IOC announced today, and this is our final question, Mr. President, just announced that no politics at the upcoming Olympics, new policy, by any of the athletes. Would you like to see that extended to the United States where politics stay out of sports? I know you are going to the big LSU-Clemson game.
TRUMP: I am, and I was responsible for getting the Olympics. The Olympics is coming to Los Angeles. And I was called by the mayor, and he said, could you do us a favor when I was president-elect. And he said, could you do us, and I worked very hard, and we got the Olympics. And we have the World Cup coming into the United States. And I don't know, I guess you can say no politics, but people are going to talk politics. I think politics -- I do believe I have made politics somewhat more exciting. "The New York Times" would be dead right now. It would be out of business.
INGRAHAM: What are they going to do without you?
TRUMP: "The Washington Post" would be out of business. I hate to say it, but cable television would be obsolete. Cable television would be out of business. So we'll go hopefully another five years, and we'll keep everybody happy. Thank you very much.
INGRAHAM: Thank you so much. Fantastic.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
INGRAHAM: President Trump offering his thoughts on the latest royal scandal across the pond, and banning political speech at the Olympics. FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo is at the White House with me for this exclusive interview today. He joins us now. Raymond, I think Trump looked like he was in fighting form today. Look, no one sleeps, he doesn't sleep, I don't sleep, nobody sleeps, but he is unbelievably resilient.
RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: He was on it, he was on it today. He was feisty, he had great humor. Laura, look, I always say his ability to greet opposition with a laugh and kind of diffuse people with that humor, that is a great quality to have in an office like this, particularly as you go into a campaign. He also went out of his way to take pictures with the entire team that was with us today. Unbelievable, really went out of his way. You made a lot of news in that interview lady. We learned that four embassies were targeted by Soleimani. For the first time he said the Iraqi government privately wants the U.S. to stay in their country. And he sounded off on Pelosi and the whole impeachment imbroglio. And for the first time, the president said he would invoke executive privilege to keep Bolton from testifying. Oh, and you and the president apparently our great sparring partner when it comes to Chinese and foreign workers coming into the country.
INGRAHAM: Foreign workers. The thing that he also said which didn't get a lot of play, but people should take note of, when I pressed him about whether, why not our troops out of Iraq? That is what he ran on. I said, would you be OK with that? He said that I'd be OK with that, but that's not --
ARROYO: Privately that's not what he saying.
INGRAHAM: Yes, he basically said I would be OK with that, but he's pulled in between.
ARROYO: Speaking of buts, I want to turn back to what the president said about Harry and Meghan Markle's royal temper tantrum.
INGRAHAM: Megxit.
ARROYO: Or Megxit as they are calling it in the U.K. press. Madame Tussauds has separated Harry and Meghan, their wax works at least, from the rest of the royals at their --
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: They cordoned them off. They went away, bye-bye. That is what you call a big step back. The royal family is holed up in emergency meetings with Harry while Meghan is already in Canada. Meanwhile, the president is sticking up for the Queen, and CNN, Laura, had the most incredible coverage of the day. In their telling him it was racism that forced Megharry away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's talk about whether race has played a role in this royal feud.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prince Harry, he has complained about how his wife has been treated, and he has specifically said part of it is because of racism.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think she should come to North America. We are much more welcoming. We will embrace you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARROYO: You know, it was not raised that through these two away. It was rude that ticked the royal family off. This is the duke and duchess sucking up to the celebrities. That's all they've ever done. Oprah has come out to support them. But look, if you want to trade on your title, you have to live up to the office. And the royals are not just liberties. There are public functions and responsibilities. But my take on this is the Queen, as the president rightly said, 65 years on the throne, she has taken them to World War II, the Falklands, Diana, Brexit. Meghan Markle is hardly a challenge for this lady. She will survive and so will the royals.
INGRAHAM: I think she is looking at this thing going oh, the petty squabbles of the youth.
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: But Laura, if they were racist, why would she let Harry marry her in the first place? They would have called the marriage off.
INGRAHAM: Why would Khizr (ph) Khan be the mayor of London? I mean, this is just ridiculous. It has nothing to do with that, but this is all the left has. They were talking about the Situation Room photo from the night that the Iranians were lobbing those roman candles toward out military installations, and they said, look at the Situation Room photo. Not diverse enough. Only one woman, Stephanie Grisham, all white men in the room. So this is their focus, not whether America is better off or not.
ARROYO: Or that the best people are around the table who are experts in the field. We have got to go to the Olympic message of the president. You asked about the International Olympics Committee saying we don't want any political displays during these medal ceremonies. The president kind of dodged your answer dodged your question a little bit. But I like this idea. It allows us to come together, lets sports be a means of bringing people together. Don't divide people with your political messages. I would like to see in the United States, not only in the Olympics.
INGRAHAM: I'd say shut up and compete. That is not as good as showed up and sing, shut up and compete.
(LAUGHTER)
ARROYO: Great job, congratulations on that.
INGRAHAM: It was a lot of fun. It could have been a more -- every night there is something. Next week the trial is going to start the couple of days after Martin Luther King holiday. So that is going to start in earnest then.
ARROYO: And then the State of the Union. It's going to be a big year.
INGRAHAM: And the Super Bowl, anything else. Raymond, thanks so much. Have a great weekend.
ARROYO: Thank you.
INGRAHAM: My final thoughts on this amazing week when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: What a week of shows. We had the breaking news on the missile strike on Tuesday. Then we had the secretary of state with us last night. And the president joining us for another exclusive tonight. And I'm telling you, the news shows no signs of slowing down next week because we expect the articles of impeachment to hit the Senate Tuesday or maybe Wednesday. And as always, we hope you join us right here for all of the breaking news, and the best analysis, and a little humor, you need that, too. So that's it from us tonight in Washington.
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