Donald Trump on Politics, Leadership, and the Future of the U.S.
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Introduction
In a riveting conversation with Lex Fridman, former President Donald Trump discussed various pressing topics ranging from politics and leadership to controversial issues like marijuana and immigration. The discussion revolved around Trump’s views on how to navigate the political landscape, the importance of negotiation in international relations, and the overall direction of the United States under current leadership.
The Nature of Politics
Fighting Fire with Fire
Trump remarked on the aggressive nature of politics and stated, “You have to fight fire with fire.” He criticized what he perceives as extreme tactics employed by opposing parties and suggested that this tough approach is necessary to succeed in today’s political environment.
Character and Drive
When asked about what motivates him, Trump revealed a dual drive of loving to win and hating to lose. He drew parallels between politics and sports, explaining that champions, whether they're athletes like Tiger Woods or leaders in politics, share certain psychological traits such as determination and focus. Their unwavering ambition distinguishes them, often leading to their success.
Winning in Politics
Harnessing Modern Platforms
Trump emphasized the importance of utilizing modern platforms and social media to convey messages effectively. He noted the shift towards these channels, stating traditional methods like television and radio are becoming less effective in reaching audiences. For instance, discussions on platforms like Twitter have grown exponentially, even gaining more engagement than conventional media.
Differences Between Business and Politics
In addressing the differences between the realms of business and politics, Trump articulated that skills which work well in business may not translate directly into political success. Many successful business executives fail to transition into political roles due to public speaking challenges or the nature of political pressures.
International Relations and Conflict Negotiation
Ukraine Conflict
Trump believes he can broker a peace deal in Ukraine, stating that the war should never have occurred and was exacerbated by poor leadership. His proposition hinges on the belief that strong leaders can negotiate peace:
- Utilize leverage and understanding of the other parties involved.
- Acknowledge the destruction wrought by the war and foster dialogue to end hostilities.
On China
When discussing relations with China, he stressed the need for strategic negotiation to prevent a potential conflict, recognizing the complexities involved in such dealings. He highlighted the importance of surprise in negotiations, emphasizing that underscoring strategies without revealing them could bolster negotiation power.
Domestic Policies and Challenges
Immigration Crisis
Trump provided a clear stance on immigration, suggesting that the current approach has led to chaos at the borders. He strongly advocates:
- Immediate removal of criminal elements.
- Stricter border control measures, including the potential for mass deportations of illegal immigrants who pose a threat.
Marijuana and Drug Use
Shifting to a more controversial topic, Trump remarked positively on medical marijuana's efficacy while suggesting regulation for recreational use to ensure safety. He reflected on the wide-ranging applications of psychedelics, particularly in healthcare, asserting these substances could be beneficial if managed correctly.
The Future of American Politics
Unity and Division
Reflecting on the deep divisions in America, Trump acknowledged that the current leadership fosters an environment of hostility and division. He implored that strong and capable leadership is crucial for bridging these divides, emphasizing that the upcoming election is essential for the survival of the country's values.
Critique of Current Leadership
Trump did not hold back in his criticism while comparing his administration to Biden's, arguing that under his leadership, America experienced unprecedented stability with no new wars. He believed that current leadership often lacks respect from global actors, thus diminishing America's standing in international affairs.
Conclusion
In a conversation rich with insights, Donald Trump outlined his views on the political landscape, diplomacy, and pressing issues facing the United States. His assertive outlook reflects a belief in the necessity of strong leadership and the importance of effective negotiation strategies in both domestic and international politics. As the nation prepares for the next election, the sentiments expressed by Trump could play a crucial role in shaping the political narrative in the coming years.
I don't know if you know this but some people call you a fascist yeah they do so I figure it's all right to call them
a communist yeah they call me a lot worse than I call them a lot of people listening to this myself included that
doesn't think that Kama is a communist I believe you have to fight fire with fire politics is a dirty game it is a dirty
game that's certainly true how do you win at that game they suffer from massive Trump derangement syndrome TD
yes and I don't know if they it's curable from their standpoint I think uh we would probably have a better world if
everybody in Congress took some mushrooms perhaps first of all medical marijuana has been amazing it's been I
I've had friends and I've had others and doctors telling me that it's been absolutely amazing the list of clients
that went to the island has not been made public yeah it's it's very interesting isn't
it the following is a conversation with Donald Trump on this The Lex fredman podcast they getting smaller and smaller
they getting smaller right I mean PE people do respect you more when you have a big camera for some reason no it's
cool and about 20 guys that you pay a fortune to right all right okay you said that you love
winning and you have won a lot in life in uh real estate in business in TV and Poli politics so let me start with a
mindset a psychology question what drives you more the love of winning or the hate of losing maybe equally maybe
both I don't like losing and I do like winning I've never thought of it as to which is more of a driving force you've
been close with a lot of the greats in sport uh you think about Tiger Woods Muhammad Ali you have people like uh
Michael Jordan who I think hate losing more than anybody so what do you learn from those guys well they do have
something different you know the great Champions have something very different like the sports champions and you know
you have champions in other fields but you see it more readily in sports you see it over a weekend or you see it
during a game and you see that certain people stand out and they keep uh they keep standing out but it's there for you
it doesn't take a lifetime to find out that somebody was a winner or a loser and so the sports thing is very
interesting but you know I play golf with different people and uh you have there's a different mindset among
Champions there's really a very different mindset there's a different uh there's a different thought process you
know talent-wise sometimes you can't tell the difference in talent but at the end of a weekend they seem to win and
it's very interesting uh like as an example tiger or Jack Nicholas he was a phenomenal winner and
he does have a different way about him and tiger has a different way about him and Michael Jordan and there's never one
you would think that there'd be one way Arnold Palmer was the nicest guy you'd ever meet and then you have some
Champions that aren't really nice they're just focused on doing their job uh so you have you know there's not one
they're very driven they're driven like Beyond they don't seem to give up easily they don't give up they don't give up
but they do seem to be uh you know they have a passion that's maybe more than people that don't do as well you've said
that politics is a dirty game in the past it is a dirty game that's certainly true uh so if it is a game how do you
win at that game well you win at that game by getting the word out and by you using sense you have to have a feeling
where it's going you also have to have a feeling of what's right you can't necessarily just go what's popular you
have to do what's good for a country if you're talking about countries or but you you have to get the word out and you
have to just continuously like for instance you have a great show you have a great podcast it's very well watched
and I'm sitting here and I do this a lot of people see it and I do other things and a lot of people see that and I go
traditional also you know you have traditional television which is getting a little bit older and maybe less
significant could be less significant I don't know but it's changing a lot the the uh the whole plane of of platform is
changing a lot it's changed a lot in the last 2 three years but from a political standpoint you have to find out what
people are doing what they're watching and you have to get it you have to get on I just see that these platforms are
starting to dominate they're getting very big numbers I did spaces with Elon and they got numbers like nobody's ever
heard before so you know this is you wouldn't do that on like radio you wouldn't do that those numbers no
matter how good a show you wouldn't do those numbers on radio you wouldn't do them on
television you've been successful in business bus you've been successful in politics what do you think is the
difference between uh gaining success between the two the two different disperate worlds yeah and they're
different very different um I have a lot of people that are in business that are successful and they'd like to go over to
politics and then you realize they can't speak they choke you know it's hard to make a
speech in front of that let's say you're talking about a big audience but I get very big audiences and you know for many
and have nobody leave you know it's not an easy thing to do and it's an ability but I have many people that are very
very successful in business would love to do what I did and yet they can't pull the trigger
and in many cases I I don't think it would work almost almost for everybody not going to work it's a very it's a
very tough thing to do it's a big transition and now if you talked about people in the business in politics going
into business likewise that wouldn't generally work out so well either it's different talents it's different skills
I have somebody who wants to go into politics so bad but he's got a little problem he's got stage fright now he's a
total killer but if he gets up into a stage in front of people he doesn't do well to put it in mildly actually I mean
he does badly so you have to be able to make hard decisions like you do in business but also be able to Captivate
an audience look if you're a politician you have to be able to speak in front of large crowds there a lot of people can't
do that I've seen it they can't even think about doing it and they don't there are many people
in business right now I could name them but I don't want to embarrass anybody they've been talking about running for
actually and but it takes guts to run like for president I can tell you it takes guts to run it's also a very
dangerous profession if you want to know the truth but uh dangerous in a different sense too but it takes a lot
of courage to run for president it's not easy but you have and you know the same people as I do there are a lot of people
but they don't have the guts to do it and they have to give up a lot one of the great things about people from the
business world is there are often great deal makers and you're a great dealmaker and you've talked about the war in
Ukraine and that you would be able to find a deal that both Putin and zalinsky would accept what do you think that deal
looks like I think the deal and I wouldn't talk about it too much because I think I can make a deal if if I win as
president-elect I'll have a deal made guaranteed that's a war that shouldn't have happened it's terrible look Biden
is the worst president in the history of our country and she's probably worse than him that's a that's something that
should have never happened but it did happen and now it's a much tougher deal to make than it would have been before
it started millions of people I think the number is going to be a lot higher when you see this all at some Point iron
out I think the numbers are going to be the death numbers are going to be a lot higher than people think when you take a
look at the destruction and the buildings coming down all over the place in Ukraine I think those numbers are
going to be a lot higher they they lie about the numbers they try and keep them low they knock down a building that's
two blocks long these are big buildings and they say uh one person was mildly injured no no a lot of people were
killed and there are people in those buildings and they have no chance once they start coming down there's no chance
so so um that's a war that absolutely has to get done and then you have Israel and then you have a lot of other places
that are talking War the world is is a rough place right now and a lot of it's because of the fact that America has no
leadership and I believe that she'll be probably worse than Biden I watched the interview the other
interviews challenged more I don't know I I I can't believe the whole thing is happening we had a man in there that
should have never been in there they kept them in a basement they used Co they cheated but they used Co to cheat
and they cheated without Co too but uh you had somebody in there and now we have a woman that is not I mean she
couldn't do an interview this was a really soft interview this is an interview where they given a multiple
choice uh questions multiple guests I call it multiple guests and uh I don't think she did well
I think she did very poorly how do you think you'll doing the debate coming up it's in a few days so I've done a lot of
debating only as a politician I never debated my first debate was the Rosie O'Donnell debate right the famous Rosie
O'Donnell debate the answer uh but I've done well with debates I mean I became president then the second time I got
millions more votes than I got the first time I was told if I got 63 million which is what I got the first time you
you you would win you can't not win and I got millions of more votes on that and uh lost by a whisker but and look what
happened to the world with all of the wars and all of the problems and look what happened with inflation because
inflation's just eating up our country eating it up so it's too bad but um there are a lot of things things that
could happen we have to get those Wars settled we have to get I'll tell you you have to get Ukraine done you that could
end up in a third world war so could the Middle East so could the Middle East so maybe let's talk about what it takes to
negotiate with somebody like Putin or or zalinski do you think Putin would be willing to give up any of the regions
they already captured I don't know uh I can tell you that this all of this would have never happened and it would have
been very easy because you don't have like that question wouldn't be B asked you know that's a tougher question once
that starts happening cuz he has taken over a lot of territory now I guess they're insurgents now too right so you
know it's a little bit interesting uh that that's happening and that it can happen and it's interesting
that Putin has uh allowed that to happen look that's one that should have should have never started we have to get it
stopped Ukraine is being demolished there they're destroying a great culture that's largely destroyed what do you
think works better in those kinds of negotiations leverage of let's say friendship the carrot or the stick
friendship or sort of the threat of using the economic and military power so it depends on who the person is it's you
know it's everyone's different negotiation is interesting because it depends on who the person is and then
you have to guess or know through certain knowledge which is you know more important the carrot or the
stick and with some people it's the stick and with some people it's the carrot I think the the stick probably is
generally more successful and that you know we're talking about war but um the kind of Destruction that we're
witnessing now nobody's ever seen I mean it's it's a terrible thing and and we're witnessing it all over we're witnessing
it in um in all parts of the the world and a lot of things are going to get started look what's going on with China
look at Japan they're starting to rearm now they're starting to rearm because China's getting you know taking over
certain islands and um there's a lot of danger in the war right now in the world there's a lot of and there's a great
possibility of World War III and we better get this thing done fast because five months with people like
her and him he's checked out he just got goes to the beach and thinks he looks good in a bathing suit which he doesn't
he sort of checked out hey look you know you can't blame him that was a coup they took it over they took over the
presidential deal the whole presidential thing was taken over in a coup he had 14 million votes he had no votes not
one and nobody thought it was going to be her nobody wanted it to be her she was a joke until 6 weeks ago when they
said we're going to have to politically they felt they had to pick her and if they didn't pick her they
thought they'd be a problem I don't know if that's right or not I actually don't think it's right but you know they they
China on negotiation how do we have avoid war with China in the 21st century well there are ways now here's the
problem if I tell you how and I'd love to do it but if I if I give you a plan like I have a very exacting plan how to
stop Ukraine and Russia and I have a certain idea maybe not a plan but an idea for China because
we do you know we're going we're in a lot of trouble they'll be in a lot of trouble too but we're in a lot of
trouble uh but I can't give you those plans because if I give you those plans I'm not going to be able to use them
they'll be very unsuccessful you know part of it surprise right right but they won't be able to help us much
so you have a plan of what to say to Putin yeah I know take office no I had a very good relationship with him and I
had a good relationship with zalinski too but I had a very good relationship with Putin tough topic but important you
said lost by a whisker I'm an independent I have a lot of friends who are independent many of
you can end Wars but they are troubled by what happened in the 2020 election and um statements about widespread fraud
and this kind of stuff fake elector scheme what can you say to those uh independent voters to help them decide
who to vote right I think the fraud was on the other side I think the election was a fraud and many people felt it was
that and they wanted answers and when you can't challenge an election you have to be able to
challenge it otherwise it's going to get worse not better and there are lots of ways to solve this problem go to paper
ballots do it the easy way I mean the paper ballots and you uh have voter ID and you have same day voting and you
have proof of citizenship which is very important because we have people voting that are not citizens they just came in
and they're loading up the payrolls they're loading up everything they're putting students in schools they don't
speak a word of English and they're taking the seats of people that are citizens of our country
so uh look we have the worst Border in the history of the world we have coming into our country right now millions and
millions of people at levels that nobody's ever seen I don't believe any country's ever seen it and they would
use Sticks and Stones not to make it happen not to let it happen we don't we don't do anything and we have a person
who was the bordar who now said she wasn't really the bordar but she was she was the bordar but she was in charge of
the border and we have her and she's saying very strongly oh I did such a good job she was horrible horrible the
the harm she's done but we have people coming in from other countries all over the world not just South America and
they're coming in from prisons and jails they're coming in from mental institutions and insane
asylums and they Street criminals right off the street they take them and they're being given to our country drug
dealers human traffickers with destroying our country this is a sin what's been allowed to
take place over the last four years we're destroying our country and we'll see how that all works out but it's not
buildings they have their big rifles but they're taking over buildings we're not going to let this happen we're
not going to let them destroy our country and you know in those countries crime is way down they're taking them
out of their prisons which is good because good for them I do the same thing by the way if I ran one of those
countries any country in the world I would make sure that America has every one of our prisoners every one of our
criminals would be here I can't believe they're going so slowly but some aren't and but they all are doing it and we
can't let that happen they're emptying out their prisons and their mental institutions into the United States of
America we can't let let that happen so a lot of people believe that there was some shady stuff that went on with the
election whether it's uh media bias or big Tech but still the the claim of widespread fraud is the thing that
bothers people well I don't focus on the past I focus on the future I mean I talk about how bad the economy is how bad
inflation is how bad things like um which is important Afghanistan was in my opinion the most embarrassing thing
that's ever happened to our country and because of that I think Putin went in when he said how stupid we were Putin
went in but it it was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country I really believe that but
you know we left we left 13 dead soldiers think of it 13 dead soldiers many soldiers horrifically hurt with
arms and legs and everything else gone um we left hostages behind behind we left Americans behind we left military
equipment the likes of which nobody's ever left behind before billions and billions of dollars of equipment they're
now selling the equipment they're one of the largest arm stealers in the world and um very sad very sad and and you
know we were there for a long time I was going to get out we were getting ready to get out then we got interrupted by
the election but we would have been out with dignity and strength U we were having very little
problem with the Taliban when I was there because they knew it it was going to be tough I dealt with Abdul Abdul was
shooting they were killing a lot of our people before I came down and when I got there I said I spoke to them I said
can't do it don't do it anymore we went 18 months before this happened this hor day happened we went 18 months and
nobody was shot at or killed what do you think that was the carrot or the stick in that case in Afghanistan the stick
definitely theti a threat of military force that was the stick yeah it doesn't have to be but that was the stick well
let me just Linger on the election a little a little bit more for this election it might be a close one what
can we do to avoid the insanity in division of the previous election whether you win or lose well I hope but
it's not a close one I mean you know I don't know how people can vote for somebody that has destroyed our country
the inflation the bad economy but but to me in a way the worst is what they've allowed to happen at our border where
they've allowed millions of people to come in here from places that you don't want to know about and I can't believe
that that's going to be a close election you know we're leading in the polls but and it looks close but I think in the
solve the immigration crisis is mass deportation one of the solutions you would think about well you've got to get
the the criminals out of here fast right you know the people from mental institutions you got to get them back
into their mental institution no country can afford this you know it's just too much money you look at what's happening
in New York and Chicago and la and lots of places and you take a look at what's happening there's no country can afford
this we can't afford it and and we've got to get the bad ones out immediately and the rest have to be worked on you
know it's happened before Dwight Eisenhower was sort of a moderate president moderate type person but he
hated when he saw people pouring into the country and they were nothing like now you know I probably got elected in
2016 because of the border and I told people what was happening and they understood it and I
won the election and I won the election I think because of the Border our border is 25 times worse right now than it was
up was exactly that you know the chart when I looked to the right I said there's the chart being uh that was not
a pleasant experience but the chart that I put up said and that was done by border patrol that was the lowest number
that we've ever had come into our country in recorded his and we have to get it back to that again
we will let me ask you about project 2025 so you've publicly said that you don't have any direct connection to
nothing I know nothing about it and they know that too Democrats know that and I purposely haven't read it because I want
to say to you I don't I have no idea what it's all about it's easier than saying I read it and you know all of the
things no I purposely haven't read it and I've heard about it I've heard about things that are in there that I don't
like and there are some things in there that everybody would like but there are things that uh I don't like at all and I
think it's uh unfortunate that they put it out but it doesn't mean anything because it has nothing to do with me
marijuana and uh that you you're okay with it being legalized but it has to be done safely can you explain your policy
there well I just put out a paper and first of all medical marijuana has been amazing it's been I I've had friends and
I've had others and doctors telling me that it's been absolutely amazing the medical
marijuana and we put out a statement that we can live with the marijuana it's got to be a certain age got to be a
certain age to buy it h it's got to be done in a very concerted lawful way and the way they're doing in Florida
I think is going to be actually good it's going to be very good but it's got to be done in a good way it's got to be
done in a clean way you go into some of these places like in New York it's all it smells all marijuana you can't the
way you've got to have a system with his control and I think the way they've done it in Florida is very good do you know
anything about psychedelics so I'm I'm not a drug guy but I recently did iasa yeah U and uh there's a lot of
people that speak to sort of the health benefits and the spiritual benefits of these different
psychedelics I think uh we would probably have a better world if everybody in Congress took some
mushrooms perhaps um now I know you don't you stay away from all of that stuff um I I also
veterans use it for dealing with PTSD and all that kind of stuff so it's it's great and it's interesting that you're
thinking about being more accepting of some of these drugs which don't just have a recreational purpose but a a
medical purpose treatment purpose so we put out a statement today we're going to put out another one probably next week
be more specific although I think it's pretty specific and we'll uh we'll see how that all goes that's a referendum
coming up in some states but it's coming up and we'll see how it does I will say it's been very hard to beat
it you take a look at the numbers it's been very hard to be it so I think it'll generally pass but you want to do it in
the safe way speaking of marijuana let me ask you about my good friend Joe Rogan so you had a bit of tension with
him so when he said nice things about RFK Jr I think you've uh you've said some not so nice things about Joe and I
think that was a bit fair and as a fan of Joe I would love to see you do his podcast because he is legit the greatest
conversationalist in the world so what's what's the story behind that tension well I don't think there was any tension
walk into the arena with Dana and I shake his hand I see him there and I I think he's good at what he does
but I don't know about doing his podcast I mean I guess I do it but I haven't been asked and I'm not asking them you
know I'm not asking anybody it sounds like a challenging negotiation situation no it's it's not it's not really a
negotiation and he's sort of a liberal guy I guess you know from what I understand but he likes Kennedy this was
before I found this out before Kennedy came in with us he's going to be great he's doing bobb's going to be great but
I like like that he likes Kennedy I do too you know he's a different kind of a guy but he's got some great things going
and uh I think he's going to be Beyond politics I think he could be quite influential in taking care of some
situations that you probably would agree should be taken care of the Joe Rogan post as an example I would love to get
mind and are there times where you regret some of the truths you've posted yeah I do I mean but not that often
honestly you know I do a lot of reposting the ones you get in trouble with are the reposts because you find
down deep they're into some group that uh you're not supposed to be reposting you don't even know if those groups are
good bad or indifferent but the reposts are the ones that really get you in trouble when you do
your own words it's sort of easier but the reposts go very quickly and if you're going to check every single
little symbol and uh I don't know it's worked out pretty well for me I tell you it's
uh truth is very powerful truth and it's my platform and it's been very powerful very very powerful goes everywhere I
call it my typewriter you know that's actually my typewriter what are you doing usually when you're composing a
truth like are you chilling back on a couch couches beds okay a lot of different things I mean like late at
night and just I'd like to do some later you know I'm not a huge sleeper but whenever I do them you know past like
3:00 they criticize you the next day Trump was up truth thing okay Trump was truth thing at 3:00 in the morning and
there should be no problem with that and then when you think about time zones how do they know that you you're like you
know in a time zone like an Eastern zone so but but every time I do it after like 2 or 3:00 it's like why is he doing that
platform and I like doing it and it goes everywhere as soon as I do it it goes everywhere the country seems more
divided than ever yeah what can you do to help alleviate some of that division well you can get rid of these two people
they're terrible they're terrible you don't want to have them running this country they're not Equip to run a Joe
being worse than him we'll see I think A lot's now you know the convention's over with and I I see I'm leading in just
about all the polls now they had their little honeymoon period as they call it and we'll see how that all goes who
knows for my personal opinion I think you you are your best when you're talking about a positive vision of the
future versus criticizing the other side yeah I think you have to criticize though I think I think they're
nasty they came up with a story that I look down and I call soldiers that died in World War I
suckers and losers okay now number one who would say that number two who would say to military people nobody it was a
madeup story it was just a madeup story and they like to repeat it over again they know it was made up I have 26 W
witnesses that nothing was said they don't want to hear about that like she lied on McDonald's she
said that uh that she worked at McDonald's it's not a big lie but it's a big lie it's so you know I mean they
just went and they checked and unless she can show something they don't talk about the presses are going to follow up
with it but I I'll keep hammering it but she never worked at McDonald's it was just a you know sort of a cool thing to
say hey I worked at McDonald's you know um but one of the worst was two days ago I went to Arlington at the request of
people that lost their children there'll always be children to those people you understand that that's not politically
soldier and Lost the Child because of Biden and because of Cala as just as though they had the gun in their hand
because it was so badly handled it should have been done at bogram which is the Big Air Base it shouldn't have been
done at a small little airport right in the middle of town where people stormed it uh it was a true
disaster and and they asked me if I'd come and celebrate with them 3 years three years they've died three years
ago and I said I'm going to try I got to know them because I brought them here actually one night they they almost all
they were here I came said so him and we stayed for like four hours listening to music up on a deck right upstairs
beautiful and they were great people so they called me over the last couple of weeks and they said we're going to have
a reunion our threeyear reunion would you be able to come it was very hard for me to do it logistically but I said I'll
get it done and I got there and we had a beautiful time I didn't run away I didn't you know I didn't just walk in
shake hands and walk out like people do and I wasn't looking at my watch like Joe Biden
does and it was amazing so I did it for them I didn't do for me I don't need the publicity I mean I get more publicity
probably than anybody you would know that better than me but I think maybe more than anybody maybe more than
anybody that's ever lived I don't know but I don't think anyone could have anymore every time you turn on
television there's like nine different stories all on different topics and the world about as an example you interview
a lot of people good people successful people let's see how you do with this interview versus them okay I mean I can
tell you right now you're going to get the highest numbers you've ever had by sometimes a factor of 10 but but
time with them and then they said sir we did a ceremony and then we went down to the graves which was quite a distance
away they said sir would you come to the grave and then they said when we were there it's very sad
actually because these people shouldn't have died they shouldn't have died they died because of Biden and because of
Kamala they died because just like if they pulled the trigger okay now I don't know if that's controversial to say but
I don't think it is Afghanistan was the most incompetently run operation I think I've ever seen military or otherwise
go then the family said could we have a picture at the tombstone of my son and we did son or daughter there was a
daughter too and I took numerous pictures with the families I don't know of anybody else that was in the pictures
but there were mostly families I guess that was it and then I left I spent a lot of time with them then I left and I
get home that night and I get a call that the Biden Administration with Cala is accusing me of using Arlington for
publicity I was in us just the opposite just the opposite and and actually did you see it just came out the families
actually put out a very strong statement defending me they said we asked him to be there well politicians and the media
can play those games and you're right your name gets a lot of views you're probably legit the most famous person in
Democrat setting the politicians aside what do you respect most about people who lean left who are Democrats
themselves or of that persuasion progressives liberals and so on well I look I respect the fact that
everybody's in there and you know to a certain extent life is what you do while you're waiting
to die so you might as well do a good job I think in terms of what's Happening Now I think you know we we have a chance
to save the country this country is going down and I called it with Venezuela I called it with a lot of
different countries and this country is going down if we don't win this election the election coming up on November 5th
is the most important election this country has ever had because if we don't win it I don't know that there'll be
CL there's a lot of people listening to this myself included that doesn't think that Kama is a
communist uh well she's a Marxist her her father's a Marxist and she's advoca a little unusual you know she's
advocating for some policies that are towards the direction of um Democratic socialism let's say but there's a lot of
people that kind of know the way government works and they say well none of those policies are going to actually
come to reality it's just being used during the campaign to you know uh groceries are too expensive we need them
cheaper so let's let's talk about price controls and that's never going to come to reality it could come to reality look
I mean she came out with price control it's been tried like 121 different times at different places over the years and
it's never worked once it it leads to Communism it leads to socialism it leads to having no food on the shelves and it
leads to it's a tremendous inflation it's just it's a bad idea whenever we use terms like communism for
her and I don't know if you know this but some people call you a fascist yeah they do so I figure it's all right to
call them a communist yeah they call me a lot worse than I call them they do indeed uh It's just sometimes it's
interesting though they'll call me something that's terrible and then I'll hit them back and they'll say isn't it
terrible what Trump said I said well wait a minute they just called me so I believe you have to fight fire with fire
I believe they're very evil people these are evil people you know we have an enemy from the outside and we have an
enemy from within and in my opinion the enemy from within are radical left lunatics and I think you have to fight
back whenever there's a lot of fighting fire with fire it's too easy to forget that there's a middle of America
side more than the other in terms of policies like I said there's a lot of people that like your policies that like
your skill in being able to negotiate and end Wars and they don't see the the impending destruction of America you
know we had no Wars when I was President that's a big thing not since 78 years has that happened but we had no Wars
when I was President we defeated Isis but they were that was a war that was started that we weren't anywh when near
defeating but think of it I had no Wars and Victor Orban the prime minister of Hungary said the world has to have Trump
back because everybody was afraid of trump now that's what he said so I'm not using that term but I think they
respected me but he said China was afraid Russia was afraid everybody was afraid and I I don't care what word they
use probably that's even a better word if you want to know the truth but let's use the word respect they had respect
for me they had respect for the country I mean I ended the nordstream 2 pipeline the Russian Pipeline nobody
else could have done that I ended it who was done then Biden comes in and he gave it he approved it so we're defending
Germany and these other countries for peanuts compared to what it's worth and they're paying the person we're
defending them against billions and billions of dollars for energy I said how does that work and
we had it out with them and it worked out good and they paid bill they paid hundreds of billions of dollars or you
wouldn't even have a NATO right now you wouldn't have NATO if it wasn't for me as the leader of the United States you
were the most powerful man in the world as you mentioned not only the most famous but the most powerful and if you
become leader again you will have unprecedented power just on your own personal psychology what does that power
do to you does it is there any threat of it corrupting how you see the world no I don't think said look i' I've been there
for four years uh I could have done a big number on Hillary Clinton I thought it looked terrible to take the
president's wife and put her in prison she's so lucky I didn't do anything she's so lucky Hillary is a
something but I had I I could have done something very bad I thought it looked so bad think of it you have the
president of the United States and you also had secretary of state right she was but you're going to put the
president's wife in prison and yet when I got out they're you know they have all these hoaxes they're all hoaxes but they
have all these dishonest hoaxes just like they did in the past with Russia Russia Russia that was a HX uh the 51
different uh you know agencies or agents that was a hoax the whole thing was a hoax the whole there was so many hoaxes
to people you know they say lock her up lock her up it doesn't we won I said we don't want to put her in
jail we want to bring the country together I want to bring the country together you don't bring the country
together by putting her in jail but then when I got out you know they went to work on me it's it's amazing and uh they
curable from their standpoint a lot of people are very interested in footage of UFOs the the Pentagon has released a
few uh videos and there's been anecdotal reports from fighter pilots so a lot of people want to know will you help push
the Pentagon to release more footage which a lot of people claim is available oh yeah sure I'll do that I would do
that I'd love to do that I have to do that but they also pushing me on Kennedy and I did release a lot but I had people
come to me and beg me not to do it but I'll be doing that very early on uh yeah no but I would do that
there's a moment where you had some hesitation about Epstein releasing some of the documents on Epstein why the
fortunately but a lot of people did why do you think so many smart powerful people allowed him to get so
guy he had some nice assets that he'd throw around like Islands but a lot of big people went to that Island
but fortunately I was not one of them it's just very strange for a lot of people that uh the list of clients that
went to the island has not been made public yeah it's it's very interesting isn't it probably will be by the way
probably so if you able to you'll be yeah certainly take a look at it now Kennedy's interesting because it's so
people etc etc so Kennedy uh is very different from the Epstein thing but yeah I'd be inclined
to do the Epstein I'd have no problem with it that's great to hear what gives you strength when you're getting
attacked you're one of the most attacked people in the world I think you you can't you can't care that much I know
people that care so much about everything like what people are saying you can't care too much because you end
you think about your death are you afraid of it I have a friend who's very very successful and he's in his 80s mid
said well what about you he said I think about it every minute of every day and then a week later he called me to tell
me something and he starts off the conversation by going take ticktock ticktock this is a dark this is a dark
person you know in a sense but uh it is what it is I mean you know if you're religious you have I think a better
feeling toward it you know you're supposed to go to heaven ideally not hell but you're supposed to go to heaven
if you're good I think our country is missing a lot of religion I think it really was a much better place with
religion it it was some it was almost a guide you know to a certain said who was a guide you want to be good to people
without religion there's no real there are no guard rails I'd love to see us get back to religion more religion in
this country well Mr President thank you for putting yourself out there and thank you for talking today look I I love the
country I want to see the country be great and we have a real chance of doing it but it's our last chance and I
appreciate it very much thank you thank you thanks for listening to this conversation with Donald Trump to
support this podcast please check out our sponsors in the description and now as I've started doing here at the end of
some episodes let me make a few comments and answer a few questions if you would like to submit questions including in
other reason at Lex freeman.com contact I usually do this in a t-shirt but I figured uh for this episode I'll
uh keep my suit and tie on so first this might be a good moment to uh look back a bit I've been doing this podcast for
over six years and I first and foremost have to say thank you I'm truly grateful for the
support and the love I've gotten along the way it's been I would say the most unlikely journey and on most days I
barely feel like I know what I'm doing but I wanted to uh talk a bit about how I approach these conversations now each
conversation is its own unique puzzle so I can't speak generally to how I approach these but here it may be useful
to describe how I approach conversations with world leaders of which I hope to have many more and do a better job every
time I read a lot of history and I admire the historian perspective as an example I admire William Shire the
author of many books on Hitler including the rise and fall of the Third Reich he was there and lived through it and
covered it OB L to the degree that one could academic historians by the way criticize him for being a poor historian
because he editorialized a little too much I think those same folks criticized Dan Carlin and his Hardcore History
Podcast I respect their criticism but I fundamentally disagree so in these conversations with world leaders I try
to put on my historian hat I think in the realm of Truth and public discourse there's a spectrum between the ephemeral
and the Eternal the outrage mob and clickbait journalists are often focused on the ephemeral the current thing the
uh current viral Stormer of mockery and derision but when the battle of the day is done most of it will be
forgotten a few true ideas will remain and those the historian hopes to capture now this is uh much easier said than
them it's not even just about having the actual skill of talking which uh I still think I suck at
but let's say it's a work in progress you also have to make the scheduling work and set up the entirety of the
environment in a way that is conducive to such a conversation this is hard really hard with political and Business
Leaders they are usually super busy and in some cases is super nervous because well they've been screwed over so many
times with clickbait gotcha journalism so to convince them and their team to talk for 2 three four 5 hours is hard
and I do think a good conversation requires that kind of duration and I've been thinking a lot about why I don't
think it's just about needing the actual time of 3 hours to cover all the content I think the longer form with a
hypothetical skilled conversationalist relaxes things and allows people to go on tangents and to Banter about the
details because I think it's in the details that the beautiful complexity of the person is brought to
light anyway I look forward to talking to more world leaders and doing a better job every time as I said I would love to
do interviews with KLA Harris and some other political figures on the left and right including Tim Walls ALC Bernie
Barack Obama Bill and Hillary and on the right JD van VC George W and so on and on the topic of politics let
me say as an immigrant I love this country the United States of America I do believe it is the greatest nation on
Earth and I'm grateful for the people on the left and the right who step into the arena of politics to fight for this
country that I do believe they all love as well I have reached out to KLA Harris but not many of the others are probably
should do a better job with that but I've been doing most of this myself all the Reach Out scheduling research preps
recording and so on and on top of that I very much have been suffering from impostor syndrome with a voice in my
head constantly pointing out when I'm doing a shitty job plus a few folks graciously remind me on
the internet the uh the very same sentiment of this aforementioned voice all of this while I have the option of
just hiding away at MIT programming robots and doing some cool AI research with a few grass students or maybe
joining an AI company or maybe starting my own all these options make me truly happy but like I said on most days I
barely know what I'm doing so who knows what the future holds most importantly I'm forever grateful for all of you for
your patience and your support throughout this roller coaster of the life I've been on I love you
all okay now let me go on to some of the questions that people had I was asked by a few people to comment on Pavo durov
arrest and on X being banned in Brazil let me first briefly comment on the uh durov arrest so basic facts Pavo durov
is CEO of telegram which is a messenger app that has end end encryption mode it's not on by default and uh most
people don't use the entend encryption but some do Pavo was arrested in France on a long list of charges related to
quot quote criminal activity carried out on the telegram platform and for quote unquote providing unlicensed cryptology
Services I think telegram is indeed used for criminal activity by a small minority of its users for example by
terrorist groups to communicate and I think we all agree that terrorism is bad but here's the problem as the old saying
goes one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter and there are many cases in which the World unilaterally
agrees who the terrorists are but there are other cases when uh governments especially authoritarian inclin
governments tend to propagandize and just call whoever is in the opposition whoever opposes them terrorists there is
some room for nuance here but to me at this time it seems to obviously be a power grab by government wanting to have
backdoor access into every platform so they can have censorship power against the opposition I think generally
government should stay out of censoring or even pressuring social media platforms and I think arresting a CEO of
a tech company for the things said on the platform he built is just nuts it has a chilling effect on him on
people working at Telegram and on people working at every social media company and also people thinking of launching a
new social media company same is the case of X being banned in Brazil it's I think a power grab by Alexandre demaras
a Supreme Court Justice in Brazil he ordered X to block certain accounts that are spreading quote unquote
misinformation Elon and X denied the request then demaras threatened to arrest ex representatives in Brazil and
in response to that ex pulled the representatives out of Brazil obviously to protect them and now X having no
representatives in Brazil apparently violates the law based on this demaras banned and X in Brazil once again it's
an authoritarian figure seeking censorship power over the channels of communication I understand that this is
complicated because there are evil people in the world and part of the role of government is to protect us from
those evil people but as Benjamin Franklin said those who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither Liberty nor safety so it's a trade-off but I think in many places in the world
many governments have leaned too far away at this time from Liberty okay next up I got a question on AI which I
have a deep fear of slipping into irrelevance because I am worried that AI will soon exceed my programming
skills let me first say that I relate to your fear it's scary to have a thing that gives you a career and gives you
meaning to be taken away for me programming is a passion and if not for this podcast it would probably at least
in part be my profession so I get an uncomfortable feeling every time Claude the llm I use for coding at this time
just writes a lot of excellent approximately correct code I think you can make a good case that it
already exceeds the skill of many programmers at least in the same way that uh the collective intelligence of
stack Overflow exceeds the skill of many programmers many individual programmers but in many ways it still does
not uh but I think eventually more and more the task the profession of programming will be one of writing
natural language prompts I think the right thing to do and uh what I'm at least doing is to ride the w of the ever
improving code generating llms and keep transforming myself into to a big picture designer versus low-l
tinkerer what I'm doing and uh what I recommend you do is continually switch to whatever state-ofthe-art tool is for
generating code so for me currently I recently switched from vs code to cursor and before that it was emac to vs code
switch so cursor is this editor that's based on vs code that uh leans heavily on llms and integrates the code
generation really nicely into the editing process so it makes it super easy to uh continually use the llms so
what I would advise and what I'm trying to do myself is to learn how to use it and to master its code generation
capabilities I personally try to now allocate a significant amount of time to designing with natural language first
the code that's generated by the llm versus sort of writing it from scratch and then using the llm to generate small
parts of the code I see it as a skill that I should develop in parallel to my programming skill I think this applies
to many other careers too don't compete with AI for your job learn to use the AI to do that job better but yes it is
scary on some deep sort of human level the threat of being replaced uh but at least I think we'll be okay all right
next up I got a very nice audio message and question from a gentleman who is 27 and feeling a lot of anxiety about the