Fact Check: Trump's Claims on Iran, Military, Economy, and War Promises

I'd like to talk big picture now, Mr. President. One of your consistent campaign promises

was no new wars, going all the way back to 2015. Did you break that promise to the American people?

>> I had to stop a country, very powerful, very dangerous country, from having a nuclear weapon

because they'd use it. They'd blow up the world, they'd blow up the Middle East, they'd blow up Israel, they'd come

here, they'd blow up Europe. They're nuts, okay? They're crazy people. I deal with them

and very high-strung people. Little crazy.

And get along with them. I like them. But you don't want to let them have a nuclear weapon.

And I'm doing the world a service, but I'm doing our country a service. You know, it's America first. I'm doing our

country a service. Nice rain. >> It is raining hard.

>> Okay. But the answer is still >> Let's Let's just keep going.

>> Let's keep going. >> through it, right? >> Here, we paused nearly 5 minutes for the

rain to pass, and then picked up our conversation. So, you're saying you didn't break your

promise, and yet, Mr. President, in your first term, you held to that promise. And it was so fundamental to who you

were as a candidate to a first-term president. What changed because you insisted no new wars?

>> First of all, I didn't guarantee new war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world? I built

our military. I inherited a terrible military. We had no equipment, we had nothing. I built a tremendous

military. Biden gave a lot of it away, but it's still a relatively small portion compared to what I built.

>> said it over and over again, Mr. >> I build a military? No. I didn't want to use this, but I'm doing

you and everybody else a big favor. In the midst of the greatest stock market in history, in the midst of the

most successful country because as you know in the last 10 we were dead country Kristen. I know you

you're a big liberal or big progressive. >> No, I'm just a journalist. >> We were a dead country. A year ago, a

couple of years ago we were a dead country. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.

And at the all-time hottest point which is probably now, believe it or not. We just had all brand new stock market

records today. But at the hottest point in the history of our country I took Scott,

Howard, I took Pete, I took everybody into a room. I said, "I have to do this country, this world,

the Middle East, Israel, everybody a favor. You have

Iran. They're going to have a nuclear weapon." Barack Hussein Obama signed the JCPOA.

It was a horrible deal. Horrible deal. Listen to me. It was a horrible deal. It was a path

to them getting a nuclear weapon. They were very close to having a nuclear weapon. I terminated the deal. Wait.

Then I sent the B-2 bombers in about 9, 10 months ago and they obliterated, totally

obliterated the site and I saved it. We had a choice. We could let them have a nuclear weapon

or we could go along and have some beautiful days. But they would have, you know, it's a judgment. They would have

used a nuclear weapon. And you know what? When people hear that whole scenario, when they hear me

say "Iran is going to have a nuclear weapon and they're crazy."

They say, "You're doing the right thing." I don't think it's an I mean you'll do polls cuz they're all fake

polls anyway, especially yours. But you do polls. I just won a big election.

And the reason I won election is people have confidence in me, have good judgment. I

had to make a judgment. Do I want to go along and have a country that's doing really well, but somebody is going to

try and kill us or do I want to put out that that horrible threat?

And I did. I put it out. I put it out for many, many years. Now, I'm going to put it out permanently. I'm going to do

it either through negotiation, where we're very close to a deal, or I'm going to

blow the hell out of them, to be honest with you. And it's going to be very easy for me to

do. That's actually the easier path. So, when you say I promised, I didn't promise anything. I don't like these

endless wars. This is not an endless war. We've been doing this for 3 months. Much of it has been under the form of

pretty good form of ceasefire. The blockade has been amazing. Our navy is amazing. Our military is the best in the

world. Hey, we took over a very powerful country, Venezuela, very lot of soldiers, big strong military. We took

over Venezuela in a matter of minutes. We destroyed the capability of Iran in a matter of days. Nobody's ever seen

anything like it. Now, I'm going to finish it. But remember, you were in Vietnam 19 years because stupid people,

you were in so many different countries. Every war you were in for years. Look at Look at Iraq. Look what you were You

were there for years. We're there for Listen, Kristen, we're there for a few months, and the threat

is largely over. Soon it will be over. But you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, or they will blow you up. There

will be no Kristen. There will be no NBC. There will be no Meet the Press. You will end the Meet the Press string.

>> Let me ask you though, during your 2016 campaign, you called the Middle East a quagmire. What makes you so sure this

won't become a quagmire? >> going to be there. >> You're convinced this won't become a

quagmire? >> It's not a quagmire. I just wiped out the military of a very dangerous

country. And I wiped out the nukes. Let me tell you, if we left tomorrow, if we just

said, "All right, let's get out." It'll take them 15 or 20 years to rebuild that.

But, I'm not going to give them even that chance. I'm not going to give them that chance. They cannot have a nuclear

weapon. And if there was even a 1% chance that they'd have it, I wouldn't leave. We're

almost finished. We're going to either have a deal, a strong deal, a meaningful deal, not like the Obama thing. Obama

was a path to a nuclear weapon. Mine is the exact opposite. >> And

>> Mine is a wall. It's a wall, just like I built a thousand miles of wall on our southern border. And by the way,

I took the worst border in history, and I made it the best border in history in a matter of weeks.

>> And yet, Mr. President, Iran was the closest to developing weapons-grade uranium after you ripped up the nuclear

deal cuz there were no guardrails in place. >> They were developing it during the

nuclear deal. You don't know that? >> What's >> Iran, when Obama signed that stupid

deal, where he paid them billions and billions of dollars. >> All

>> He thought he could bribe them. Listen to me. They were developing a nuclear weapon.

That's how they got there. They got all of this uranium during Obama. You know that, don't you?

>> Let's >> Well, that's how they got They don't say this.

They got there. They developed it during the Obama Barack Hussein Obama, during his administration.

>> escalated their development after the deal was scrapped, though. But, >> anything.

>> Let's talk about the economy. I want to talk about the economy. >> If I didn't go in there with the B-2

bombers, they would right now have a nuclear weapon, and it could be that half of the world would be eradicated.

>> Let me Let me ask you about the economy. You got a strong jobs report today that beat expectations.

>> Not strong. Really strong. >> Beat expectations? >> By how much?

Triple. >> Yeah, 170,000 jobs created. And yet,

gas is up, diesel is up, >> coming down as soon as the war is over. >> Well, 70% of farmers say they can't

afford fertilizer. What's your message to >> very well.

>> me ask you, what is your message to farmers, many who support you, but who say they're struggling, who say they're

struggling? >> been better to farmers. Do you know I gave farmers last term $28 billion

because China took advantage and other people. And you know paid for it, China. Last term. You know, I had a great first

term. I had the greatest economy ever. And you know what? This one's blowing it away.

>> to farmers though, Mr. President, who say they are struggling, they're struggling to make ends meet?

>> Are you listening? Am I allowed to talk? You keep asking questions and you don't listen to the answers.

I love the farmers and the farmers love me and the farmers trust me. In the first term, I had something very

similar. China and others were and Canada, which was brutal. They were taking advantage of our farmers. They

don't take advantage of anymore. I gave them $28 billion. Split up. They never had a payday like that. And the

farmers love me and they came back and they voted for me in record numbers. You know that nobody's ever even come close.

Now, because of the fact that we had a choice. I had a choice to make. I could keep it going. The farmers were doing

great. Fertilizer was very cheap. Everything was cheap. Gasoline was very low. Everything was very low. I could

have kept it that way, but I said I have to take a little bit of a turn. The farmers going to understand it better

than anybody. We're going to have higher gasoline. We're going to have a little higher

fertilizer, etc., etc. But I'm going to get rid of a nuclear weapon in the hands of

very dangerous people. Excuse me. Wait. It should have been done for 47 years. No president had the guts to do it. I

did it and I've done it. It's almost complete. As soon as that's complete, gasoline prices are going to drop like a

rock. You know, I was in Iowa speaking about farms. And it was before we attacked

Iran. And I was in Iowa and the prices were $1.85 a gallon, $1.91

a gallon. What? >> This time it wasn't the rain, but an

audio issue that forced us to pause the interview again. Are gas prices going higher or have they peaked?

>> to come low, very low. They're going to go lower than they were before. >> peaked?

>> As soon Well, it depends. I mean, it depends where the war goes.

Uh it could be I'll have to give them a shot. And it could be we'll sign an agreement. If we sign an agreement,

it'll go down now. Otherwise, it'll go down after we're finished. >> You have a new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh.

His first meeting in the role is later this month. After this month's jobs report, economists now say it's possible

the Fed may have to raise rates. Do you think that's possible, and what would your reaction be, sir?

>> So, I'm of a different uh feeling. I think Kevin is So, Kevin's fantastic, and I want him to do whatever he wants.

I don't want to have a big influence on him. But, we had a great report. We're doing

great. And it's unfair that whatever you do great, they want to raise interest rates. It should be the opposite way.

You know, if you go back 15 or 20 years, when you had good reports, the market went up. Nowadays, when you have good

reports, the market goes down because they think they're going to raise interest rates. There's no reason to

raise interest rates. The country becomes great. We built the country by doing great and having rates

low. What they do is when they raise interest rates, they try and kill success. I

don't want to kill success. We should actually lower interest rates. Now, if inflation comes,

and you know, people live with inflation. But, if inflation comes, what happens is you stamp it out. But,

success can kill inflation just like higher interest rates. What they do now is like we had great job numbers. You

agree, right? >> They beat expectations. >> Not expectations, like three times.

Okay. But, you ready? What do they do? They say, "Oh, let's raise interest

rates." It's the wrong thing to do. I would like to see rates get lower because we could

build this into the greatest machine that the world has ever seen. But, you can't do that when everybody immediately

raises interest rates. So, we had great job numbers. We're doing great. You know, we're building more factories. We

have more money coming into our country right now from other countries and people than ever before. Wait a minute.

What happens? I don't want to just kill it with high interest rates.

Growth is the greatest thing you can have, and growth does not cause inflation.

>> Would you be upset if they raised rates? What is your message to them about that?

>> Living with Kevin, I have a lot of respect for him. But, my feeling is that when a country is doing well, they

shouldn't be penalized by immediately raising interest rates. They should actually

be incentivized. You know, we have debt. We have other things. We have things we want to take care of.

I want to go bigger on the military. I really do. If we do what I'm saying, if this will

be a beautiful well-oiled machine like you've never seen before.

>> We thank you for watching, and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch

live on our YouTube channel.