Mr. President, thank you very much for the invitation. Thank you. And by the way, thank you very much for the shout out you gave at the press conference about 10 days ago. That's true. I did. You treated me... have treated me very fairly and I appreciate it. Did you take much heat from that from the other networks? No not really. I think they know it's true. You know, they know what's fair and not. But you have you treated me very fairly and I have been a friend of your show for a long time. Remember those call-ins? Maybe without those call-ins, somebody else is sitting here. Let's talk about your speech. You've talked about spending about $54 billion in additional money for our military. Senator John McCain said that is not enough. What's your reaction? Well, we are going to spend a lot more money on military. We really have to. We have no choice. A lot of people think it's a tremendous amount of money. It could be actually $30 million... $30 billion more than that. We are going to upgrade our military very substantially. Remember this, I also am going to get involved in negotiating. We have many planes and boats and ships and everything that we are spending too much money individually on. We are going to get involved in negotiating. We are going to be able to get, I think, a lot more product for our buck. And I'm going to be very, very serious about it. We saved $700 million plus on a f-35 after I got involved. And I have to tell you Lockheed was terrific. But we saved a lot of money on airplanes and that number is going to increase very substantially as we keep going. We will be having the greatest military that we ever had by the time I finish. Mr. President, you will have the biggest -- if tradition means anything and I know severing a little bit different these days. Right. You will have a biggest audience for a State of the Union-like address this year. Having said that, how do you plan on capturing that opportunity for yourself and for your administration? You know, Brian, all I can do is speak from the heart and say what I want to do. We have a really terrific, I believe, health care plan coming out. We have to understand Obamacare has been a disaster. It's way out of control. It doesn't work. We're coming out with a health care plan that I think will be terrific. It will be very inclusive. And I think it's going to do really what people are wanting it to do. But I will be talking about that. I will be talking about the military. I will be talking about the border. And remember this on the border and throughout our country, we're getting the bad ones out. The bad people, gang members, drug lords, in some cases murderers. Has that not been communicated? Do you think that has not been communicated effectively? I don't think so. No I, maybe that's my fault. When they show people being taken out, these are people that are -- we are looking at the bad ones. I said that from day one. I saidfrom the day I'm President, we are getting rid of the bad ones. And a lot of people understand it. I can tell you the communities where we are removing people that are really trouble and frightening to a lot of people who live there, those communities are very, very happy. Sure. Mr. President you are going to spend $54 billion at least on the military and the people in our audience like that. Love this and you said you were going to do that all along. You will make big spending cuts at the EPA and State Department. Right. Where does the money come from? Because it -- if you cut all the money from EPA and all the money from State, that's about $50 billion. Well, I think the money is going to come from a revved-up economy. I mean, you look at the kind of numbers we are doing, we will probably GDP of a little more than 1%. If I can get that up to 3 or maybe more, we have a whole different ballgame. It's a whole different ballgame. And that's what we're looking to do. But to get the economy going you have got to get the Affordable Care Act, replace and repeal and do something about atxes and how close are we to either of those? We are going to be doing things having to do with other countries because we are treated very, very unfairly. When we help them, even militarily, we are going to ask for a form of reimbursement which, right now, I mean, we have countries where we are taking care of their military. We are not being reimbursed and they are wealthy countries. We have a lot of things happening. But we are going to get the numbers way up, and get jobs back in our country. You see what I have done. Ford has announced, General Motors, Fiat has announced. They are all building big plants. They are all coming back into the United States. They we fleeing... They were fleeing our country. You mentioned the EPA. We have right now, I call it the veins of the country. We have right now hundreds and hundreds of massive deals that are tied up with environmental protection. When they are -- Scott Pruitt who is terrific, just got approved -- But, when he gets going, those projects are going to be freed up and sailing. And you are talking about thousands and millions, actually, of jobs. You ran on jobs. You ran on draining the swamp. You ran on repealing and replacing Obamacare. When do you start to put pressure on Congress, the swamp to get Obamacare repealed and replaced. I think Paul Ryan is terrific. I just left Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. And, y'know Paul is working very hard. Health care is a very complex subject. If you do this, it effects nine different things. If you do that it effects 15 different things. I think we have a great plan. And I think Congress is taking a lot of blame but it's not their fault. Don't forget I have only been here four weeks. Somebody said he hasn't done health care. They have been working on health care for 30 years. I have only been here for what is this, my fifth week? And we're set to propose a plan. And I will be talking about it, as you know tonight. But we're all set to do a plan. And I think it's going to be something that's going to be really respected. And you take a look at what's going on with the stock market. Trillions of dollars of value have been created since I won the election. I mean, trillions. No, I mean the stock market is very enthused. And that's jobs. But I just have to bring back two things in your cabinet. You have OMB director finally. He says you have to take an axe to entitlements. You Treasury Secretary says we are not touching it. Who is right? Well, I will tell you what who is right. If the economy sails, then I'm right because I said I'm not touching Social Security. So your OMB is wrong. I'm not saying anybody is wrong. I'm just saying this: if we and I think this is what is going to happen, Brian. I think our country is going to sail. Mr. President, you announced by twitter you are not going to the White House correspondence dinner. How come? Well, I'm not a hypocrite and I haven't been treated properly. And that's okay, which is fine. Some the left say you can't take a joke. Oh, do they say that? No. Well, I have taken it. You know, one of the great misconceptions when President Obama was up -- what is it now a long time ago, five years ago or whatever, I loved that evening. You were there. I was there. You were the target. I was the target. You were the piñata. And can I be honest? I had the greatest time. Now I can't act like I am thrilled because they're telling jokes. I mean he was telling jokes that I'm going to change the name of the White House to Trump House and other things. And he was very respectful. I thought he did a good job and he was very respectful and it was fun. And I enjoyed it and I left and I told the press did you have a good time, I said it was fantastic. The next day I read Donald Trump felt terrible about the evening. I loved the evening. I had a great time. You said before I can take hits when it it's justified. Correct. Can you give me an example of a time when someone was critical to you and you thought to yourself, I deserved that hit? I deserves that column? No, I could probably never do that. I'm not going to give you any ideas. Do you ever think to myself, wow I kinda screwed that up? I kinda deserved that hit. Yeah, sure. And you know, honestly, if I do that, if that does happen and if I take a hit, I won't give you any additional ammunition. But over the years, you make a mistake, I fully understand when they hit you. But when they make stories up, when they create sources because I believe that sometimes they don't have sources. You know, the sources don't exist. And sometimes they do exist. I'm not saying all sources. But I believe a lot of the sources are made up. A lot of the stories are made up. I believe a lot of the stories are pure fiction. They just pull it out of air. I just thought in light of the fact of fake news and all of the other things we are talking about now. I thought it would be inappropriate. Too cozy? No, not too cozy. I think that... look, I have great respect for the press. I have great respect for reporters and the whole profession. Now, with all of that being said, I just thought it would be better if I didn't do the dinner. That doesn't mean I'm not going to do it next year. But just I thought it would be better if I didn't do it. Mr. President, The Oscar Awards, Jimmy Kimmel, he was tweeting, he was saying some crude comments. He insinuated at least you were racist. What's your response? Look it, just seems, the other side, whenever they are losing badly, they always pull out the race card. And I have watched it for years. I have watched it against Ronald Reagan and watched it against so many other people. And they always like pulling out the race card. The fact is, I did pretty well, much better than past people in the Republican Party in the recent election having to do with Hispanics. Having to do with African-Americans. I did pretty well or I wouldn't be sitting here. If I didn't get numbers at least as good or better I wouldn't be sitting here. You don't take it personal? I can't. Because I consider it a very serious violation when they say it, and I have to write it off as being purely politics. Big story here in Washington, DC. That Sean Spicer asked his communications team okay, come on in, everybody, put your phone right over there. We have a leaker here. We're going to have the White House lawyer look at your phones. How intent are you on finding the leaker or leakers are in your administration? Not just your communications team, but over at the State Department, maybe the intel community, everywhere? Well, first of all, Sean Spicer is a fine human being. He is a fine person. I would have done it differently. I would have gone one on one with different people. And we don't have a major leak process here. We have major leak process in government. But Did they figure out hot leaker was? We have sort of ideas but, don't forget, we have people from other campaigns. We have people from other governments. We got a lot of people here. So you wouldn't do it that way. I would have done it differently. I would have had one-on-one sessions with different people. You'd say let me see at your phone. I might have done that things you can do a hell of a lot worse than that to be honest with you. But I would have done it differently. You know he has done a very good job and that's the way he chose to do it. Let's talk about you Tweeting, if we could. You've attacked, recently, McCain, the FBI, Democrats. Is there a method to the attacks or is it just venting? No method, really. It's just -- it's not venting either. But, you know, I felt badly when a young man dies and John McCain said that was a failed mission. According to General Mattis, it was a very successful mission. They get a lot of information, a lot of -- a lot of different things that they really wanted to get. And I thought it was inappropriate and I thought it was inappropriate that he goes to foreign soil and he criticizes our government. I just think that's just inappropriate. And, you know, people have to be careful with that. But it does allow me to go around dishonest media. I don't have to go around you folks. I don't have to go around a lot of the media. But I do have to go around some media. And it does allow me to do that, because the following is so large, between Twitter and Facebook and all of the different things. I have so many millions of people, it allows me to give a message without necessarily having to go through people where I'm giving them a message and they're putting it down differently from what I mean. I do. A lot of people like it. They say you're tough. They're glad you're going after people when they attack you. But you have people on both sides of the aisle... Yes, you do. -- that are saying you're going after your enemies on Twitter. They want you to stop it. Will you? Well, most of the people that want me to stop it are the enemies, I'll be honest with you. The enemies would like me to stop it. I -- if I felt the media were honest, all of it, or most of it, I wouldn't do it. But it is a modern-day form of communication, especially when you have, you know, tens of millions of people like I have. Mr. President, you mentioned John McCain mentioning that the young man who died, the Navy SEAL... Yes. -- who died in that mission... Yes. -- his father has said that he didn't want to talk to you. Your reaction to that? Well, this was a mission that was started before I got here. This was something that was, you know, just -- they wanted to do. And they came to see me and they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected. My generals are the most respected that we've had in many decades, I would -- I believe. And they lost Ryan. And I was at the airport when the casket came in, the body came in. In Dover. And it was a very sad, with the family. And it's a great family, incredible wife and children. I met most of the family. And I can understand people saying that. I'd feel -- you know, I'd feel what's worse? There's nothing worse. Yes. There's nothing worse. But again, this was something that they were looking at for a long time doing. And according to General Mattis, it was a very successful mission. They got tremendous amounts of information. All right, can we talk about President Obama? You said you personally get along with him. You guys were going at each other for three, four, maybe eight years. It turns out his organization seems to be doing a lot of the organizing for some of the protests that a lot of these Republicans are seeing around the country and against you. Right. Do you believe President Obama is behind it? And if he is, is that a violation of the -- the so-called unsaid president's code? No, I think he is behind it. I also think it's politics. That's the way it is. And look, I have a very thick skin. But Bush was never -- Bush wasn't going after Clinton. And Clinton wasn't going after Bush. Well, you never know what's exactly happening behind the scenes. You know, you're probably right or possibly right. But you never know. No, I think that President Obama is behind it, because his people are certainly behind it. And some of the leaks possibly come from that group, you know, some of the leaks, which are really very serious leaks, because they're very bad... Right. -- in terms of national security. But I also understand that's politics. And in terms of him being behind things, that's politics. And it will probably continue. Does he just -- does that disappoint you? This -- don't you think that that goes beyond what we usually do in this country? I don't want to use the word disappoint. I'm not really surprised because I understand the way the world works. It's politics. I mean I'm changing things that he's wanted to do. I mean we're much tougher in terms of getting the bad guys out. You know, people don't realize, he deported a lot of people, but we're focused on the bad people. But we're focused on the bad people. Right. We're focused on the drug lords and the gang members. We're focused on a very, very bad group that are in this country that we're getting out rapidly. He was much less focused on that. Can we talk about what Nancy Pelosi said yesterday? Here we are on the cusp of your first major speech and the question was, what he has done? He's -- basically, he's done nothing. He says he's put -- it said he put Wall Street first, he made America sick and he's still -- he instilled fear in immigrants. Those are your accomplishments. What's your response to her? Well, I've been watching Nancy's tape. And so I think she's incompetent, actually. You know, if you look at what's going on with the Democrats and the party, it's getting smaller and smaller. You know, in a certain way, I hate to see it, because I like a two party system and we're soon going to have a one party system. I actually think a two party system is healthy and good. But she's done a terrible job. So she's wrong? Well, I don't think she's a good spokesman. She's certainly wrong. There are those that say I've done more than anybody in 100 days. And you look just at the money I've saved. I've saved billions and billions of dollars. I brought Ford back from Mexico. Ford was going with a massive plant. I brought Fiat in. I'm bringing in all these incredible countries. You've been reading about them on a daily basis. They're all pouring back into our country. I mean there are those that are saying that I've done just about more than anybody. Now, when you add our health care that's going to be coming out soon and will be a really good health care as opposed to ObamaCare, which is a total mess, if you add the tax cuts that were going to be doing as soon as we finish health care. That will come out very soon, the big tax cuts for business and for people, for middle class, tremendous cuts, and for everybody. I think that, you know, I think I've done just about more than anybody in the first four weeks. What's the one thing about this job which you've thought about for a very long time that now that you've got it, surprised you? Like, oh, I didn't realize that? Well, it started off being a surreal experience. You know, you wake up and you're in the White House or you're walking through the front door and it's the White House and all of that. But you do get over that. I think the one thing that hits me even more than anything else is the magnitude of everything. The numbers are so big. You buy an airplane, but here you're buying 3,500 airplanes. The size of the numbers are really staggering. And every... And what about the people...who are counting on you all across the country? And around the world? Well the love is great. And I saw a poll where I was at 45 or 46 percent, but one of the things they said is that the level of enthusiasm for me is as strong as they've ever seen. In other words, that's a real group of people. Right. Right. You know, you have other people, they have a poll, but if they sneeze in the wrong direction, everybody disappears. [Laughter] But the protesters are also there. And they're -- and they have not subsided. That -- what's your reaction? Well, they are there and many of them are the ones that lost the election. Now, with all of that being said, I'm going to try and bring people together. And the way you do that is through success. When I create jobs, when I create a health care plan that works, as opposed to ObamaCare, which doesn't work, when we do the kinds of things -- when we get rid of a lot of bad players, really bad players that we're doing right now on the border... Right. -- people are loving what General Kelly is doing, I will tell you. I think that will change. But a lot of the people that are protesting are the people that lost the election. True. You have 600 open jobs, though, that you can appoint. What's going on... [Crosstalk] Well, a lot of those jobs, I don't want to appoint, because they're unnecessary to have. You know, we have so many people in government, even me, I look at some of the jobs and it's people over people over people. I say what do all these people do? You don't need all those jobs. Now, there's a... So you're cut -- you're cutting... Oh, we're cutting... Those slots are not going to be there? You know, it's funny, I -- that's what I mean about messaging. If you have (INAUDIBLE)... We had no idea... -- if you have people... -- that you didn't want to fill them. Oh, many of those jobs I don't want to fill. We didn't know that. There are hundreds and hundreds of jobs that are totally unnecessary jobs. And instead of being credited with that -- bad messaging -- they say oh, you have to fill hundreds of jobs. I say isn't that a good thing? That's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. We're running a very good, efficient government. Let's ask you what kind of -- what grade would you give yourself from an A to an F? Well, I... I think I know what you're going to say. Well, let's hear it. I think -- yes, no, I wouldn't do that. I think in terms of effort, which means something but I give myself an A plus, OK, effort. But that's, you know, results are more important. In terms of messaging, I would give myself a C or a C plus. Really? Why? In terms of achievement, I think I'd give myself an A. Because I think I've done great things, but I don't think I have -- I and my people, I don't think we've explained it well enough to the American public. I think I get an A in terms of what I've actually done, but in terms of messaging, I'd give myself a C or a C plus. All right, what are you going to... [Crosstalk] -- how are you going to change that then? Well, maybe I change it during the speech. Oh, that's good. Because, you know, frankly, I'm going to be discussing a lot of those things. After our exclusive with President Trump, we were so fortunate to get a VIP tour of actual White House. Yes, our tour guide: the President himself walking us through his brand new house. And we even ran into a very familiar face. I think you'll recognize her. Got a nice place It's a good place Do you know where you're going yet? I do. I really have it pretty well figured out. We're actually going to make a trip downstairs and we -- you may have a surprise downstairs. Oh really? You may have a surprise. Oh, wonderful. We're going to go to the picture of Hillary Clinton there... This is the First Lady's area actually. They have all the First Ladies in this area. It's very interesting. Do they actually go through with a historian and talk about what's what? They did. They gave me a long tour, and they gave me very specific tours of all of the different areas. It's really an amazing place, including the Promenade, which is pretty famous. Let's go in here. Oh good, I wonder who's in here. Let's see who's in here. We'll never figure this out. Mr. President, what room is this? So this is a room where I believe you're going to find the First Lady. hello First Lady. Oh, hi -- And her whole crew. Hello how are you? What are you up to? Just working. Doing what? Yes, the next event. We had the successful Governor's Ball last night, so... How was it? First one and many to go. It's very good. A beautiful event. And this is my team, so we're working hard. What type of planning goes into these events? Ah, from... everything. You know, you're planning, it's almost like you're planning a wedding every time. So yeah, it's a lot of work. Each event is very important, and last night they did such -- the group did such a great job with the Governors. They've never seen anything like it. So it was special, and it was very good for the Governors to see. But Melania did a really fantastic job with your group, really good. Well, that's says a lot, because you're in -- you were in the hospitality business. I really understand it very well believe me and it's not easy. How weird is this that you work, you work in the building over here but you live in a house back there, yet you gotta... you gotta walk about a block outside to get to work. But you know this is a very famous walk, as you know. Rose Garden -- And if you notice the ramps, there are many ramps. Yep. That's FDR. Sure They were put here for FDR. But this is a very, very famous walk and you'll oftentimes see the great foreign leaders walking this with the President, whoever he or she may be -- someday she. And people tell you, OK grab the German leader walk with her? Yeah, they tell you basically, but then you know what to do after a little while. Do you ever walk these steps in the Colonnade and say to yourself, these are the steps John F Kennedy, these are the steps that Ronald Reagan, these are steps Jimmy Carter... Sure. Harry Truman. They all walk this walk. They.. all of the greats. If you -- you think, 1800 was when it really first -- and then this was built somewhat later -- but 1800 is when the White House really opened, even a little bit sooner than that. Has it intrigued you to read and study this right now, knowing what you know? It is a fascinating building, and the history of the Oval Office is incredible. Right behind us is the mansion, that's where you live. This is the Colonnade. Right over there is your hotel. Yeah, that's right, isn't that beautiful? Isn't that beautiful? It's a beautiful hotel. Do you ever sit in the Oval Office at the Resolute Desk and say, you know what, if I was over there I would have a cheeseburger right about now? Well I don't really, but I will tell you I'm so focused on what I'm doing here, I don't even think about it. Right, and that's that's the thing too. He does not want to mention the hotel because that's a separate business. It is. The kids are running that. But he can see it from his desk. It was almost like he's so busy with his job at the White House, he didn't realize that you could see it. No kidding. You pointed that out to him. We went into the Oval Office. He gave us a tour of that, and we're going to show you that part of the interview coming up on Thursday. That's right. And by the way, to the President and the White House team, thank you very much. This was the honor of a lifetime, to be able to bring this exclusive interview to people watching -- watching Fox and Friends. So when we went to the White House on Monday, and we sat down with the President, which was so awesome, we took a little tour, and we... we showed you yesterday, past the Rose Garden, right up to the Oval Office. Well right now we're going to take you inside the Oval Office with the President of the United States. Open the door After you Thank you. I feel a little awkward walking in before you before you. Just don't touch anything before he comes. This is beautiful. Ut's a great and beautiful office. This is Ronald Reagan's desk? This is the Resolute. It's called the Resolute. And it's actually been the desk of many Presidents, and it's a special desk. That's Andrew Jackson ,who you know very well, a dear friend of yours. Why did you put that up? Well, they say that his campaign and his whole thing was most like mine that was -- it was interesting, that was 1828. They used to go back to Ronald Reagan, now they go back to Andrew Jackson, but that's the great. Andrew jackson, who actually was a great general, and he was a great President, but a controversial President. And this is Thomas Jefferson, very famous painting, actually, you've probably seen that. Very, very famous painting. And this is a bust of Abraham Lincoln. Now, do you get to choose what paintings are here and what busts? Yes, I do but some of them just sort of come with the office, like the picture of George Washington. Did you choose the colors. I did. Gold? I did. I chose pretty much the colors, but those chairs have been there for a long time. Those are really used for foreign leaders when the foreign leaders come in. It's a very open office, when you have a lot of people around, but it works, and it is the Oval Office. Sure I've had people coming with the most beautiful offices you have ever seen and they... one person came in and actually just broke down and started crying. You know, there's something very special about this place. Absolutely. Page 1 of the Art of the Deal, it talks about how, when you were running things in New York City, you had a rather unstructured day. You didn't want too many meetings, and your door was always open. And I have read that the door is always open to the Oval Office because you want to hear from your people. Well, and I also want people to see it. And I have union leaders, I have heads of major companies... You had the miners. I had the miners. The miners were incredible. The miners came in... they were from West Virginia and Kentucky... and they came in and I had them behind me... a lot of miners, and we took pictures. They were incredible. They even wore hard hats. They are incredible What about the Patriots? Some of the Patriots have said that they don't want to come to the White House. What's your message to them? I don't even think about it. I mean they can do whatever they want, you know as far as I'm concerned. And I'm friends with a few of them, and Bob Kraft is a terrific guy and what a great coach and what a great quarterback, it was a great game. But no, they should -- only the ones that would want to come should come You know what's interesting is, there's one picture here from somebody, it's not a bust of a person, it's not a painting, it's your dad. That's my father, yeah. And I have others coming in, but that was the first one I put up. my father, yes. What do you think he would say, right now, when he says my son is President? Well, I think he had a lot of confidence in me, and he gave me confidence by having confidence. He was a tough guy, but a good guy. He had a great heart. But I think he would say, that's amazing, you know when you think of it. Would he be proud of you or would he say I expected it? Well, he loved the country, I can tell you he loved the country and he would be very proud, yes.