On August 11th of 2016, before he ran for president the first time, I had the privilege
of interviewing Donald Trump.
I negotiated a 10-minute face-to-face interview.
It happened in, I'll say, the green room down at the convention center.
I was ready with my questions.
I got questions from people I respect, including Mike Huckabee.
And Donald Trump was respectful.
He gave me good answers.
I've been able to get a lot of mileage out of it.
And I ran it as a podcast, even though it was really for print in Charisma magazine.
And then later I used it in some of my books.
So I hope you enjoy my interview.
A lot of the stuff he said in 2016 is just as valid today in 2024.
So first question is, evangelicals and Catholics have been under attack from the Obama administration
for their pro-life convictions and desire to be left alone from forced government acceptance
of that which violates their biblical views on marriage.
How can you reassure them that you will respect religious liberty for them?
Well I think that, you know, I even mentioned in my speech, religious liberty is the foundation.
Without the religious liberty, you don't have liberty.
And I feel that so strongly.
And so many other people do, except they don't express it.
And plenty of politicians do, but they don't express it.
So religious liberty is something that I find, that I cherish, and you will never be disappointed.
When you met with evangelical leaders, of course I like this, for a church speech, you
said that you would support repealing the Johnson Amendment so churches and ministries
can maintain tax exemption without giving them free.
How will you do it?
Well I'll start it very early on.
I'm not actually selling it if you order it on the truth.
I started it already because I put it in the platform.
You know, it's in the platform.
A lot of people didn't even know where it was.
And I put it in the platform.
And now a lot of the pastors and ministers have seen it.
And they can't even believe it.
Because how this happened in the first place is shocking, how they were able to take it.
So it's not something that was written from the beginning.
This is something that was written by a very strong politician.
That's all it is.
But it silences great people.
Silences people that we want to hear.
Afraid to open things.
They're afraid to talk about anybody.
Because they can lose everything.
You know, can lose everything with this.
And we will, I will too, if I win, one of the first things I will do is lobby very strongly
to have this terminated.
And I will tell you something, it won't be hard.
Because your lobby is so powerful.
So even Democrats are outgrown.
Because this is bigger than men, bigger than women in terms of numbers of people.
So I'll be able to get it done.
I have absolute confidence that I'll be able to get it done.
Have you been lauded for the very strong bond of your adult children?
Why does it stand the secret that you have such a close relationship with your children
and their very obvious respect for you?
Well I worked very hard when it came to my children.
And one of the things that I would tell them all the time is no drugs are important.
No cigarettes, I also tell them no cigarettes.
But no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes.
And I would say that to a point where they would go.
Every time they'd go out or see them, saying no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes.
And you know, I have friends who have very small children, but their children are hooked
on drugs or they're hooked on alcohol.
I had cigarettes because of the health thing because it's just easier if you're not
smoking.
I was lucky enough not to smoke.
If I did smoke, I mean I have friends who can't get off and they're strong people.
But if you've never started, it's not a problem.
Same thing with drugs, same thing with alcohol.
If you've never started, it's not a problem.
And that's a big factor.
And the fact that they're not hooked and you know, cults play a little bit.
You never know what's the fragile world.
So who knows what happens.
But I would always talk about drugs, alcohol, and to a lesser extent, seen.
As president, who will you reach out to for spiritual counsel and why do you feel that
president need God's wisdom and guidance?
Well I had many.
I have so many friends, including Paula White was here.
I have many friends within the community and some of the people who are here today.
But one of them has been so incredible is Franklin Gray.
Franklin Gray has been, I mean he's been amazing.
He's been really direct.
So we're close to Franklin.
Pastor Jeffress has been direct.
Paula White has been incredible.
So many, so many.
And I will, I really like to stay with people that have been so loyal because they were
here at the beginning where this was a very, very little tiny flame.
And they were here whenever we were saying, well you can't be actually 70 because actually
the real level is 18.
You're reaching off the record if you include Gilm Bar.
But how do you beat 16 seasoned politicians?
Because there were 17 total.
But how do you beat 16 seasoned politicians?
And in the case of Ben Carson, who's a terrific guy who endorsed us, but how do you beat these
tremendously talented people?
So they were there at the beginning.
And that is something nice about people that were there at the beginning.
You've already said that you support his will to claim to Jerusalem as capital.
Many evangelical Christians are very strong supporters of Israel.
How will your policies toward Israel differ from your opponent?
Well for one thing, I support Israel.
I don't think Obama supports Israel.
I think he's the worst thing that's ever happened to Israel.
The Iran deal is a disaster for Israel.
And I'm very supportive of Israel.
I have tremendous friendships in Israel.
I have a son-in-law who's Jewish and married to my daughter.
I have a daughter who's Jewish.
So I will be very strongly in favor of Israel.
In the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament, it says to be kind to the stranger of the
land.
How would that scripture guide your policy of immigration?
Well I think that's good, but we have to be careful with the same.
We're allowing people to come into the country.
We don't know anything about them.
There's no paperwork.
There's no documentation.
You see what's going on in Germany and France and many other places where they have an open
door policy essentially.
And it's going to go on here too.
I mean we're going to allow thousands and thousands of people into our country.
We have no idea who they are.
At the same time, we want to build safe havens.
We want to build safe havens.
And we're going to get the Gulf states to fund that money because it's a tremendous
amount of money and this country doesn't have it.
So we want to take care of people, but we can't allow them in because we just don't
know.
You see what happened in St. Bernardino.
You see what happened in Orlando right here.
You see what happened with the World Trade Center.
We can look at all over to look at what's going on in France, Nice, Germany.
We just can't, we have enough problems.
We can't do that.
You know, you talked about the rough and tumble campaign, the 17 candidates and so forth.
And you have won over the evangelical vote and you've changed a lot.
How has this whole process affected you spiritually?
Well, I can tell you I've always been spiritual, but I really appreciate evangelicals because
they really support it.
You know, when somebody supports you, you feel pretty good about it.
And I'd go into a very evangelical state and people would say, oh, gee, I won't win that
state and I ended up winning in a landslide because I had tremendous support.
You see the polls when people are leaning, they support it over other people that in
theory they could have supported very easily and they didn't.
So I think the fact that I had that tremendous support from the evangelicals meant a lot
to me and it will mean a lot to me in the future.
Before you spoke, they had a speaker talking about Judeo-Christian values and the founding
of the nation and so forth.
In our secular society, a lot of people, you know, discount that.
Do you believe that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles?
Yeah, I think it was.
I think to a large extent when I look at football coaches being fired because they held a prayer
of the field like, yes, you, I think it's absolutely terrible.
I think it's a terrible thing.
You see so many things happening that are so different from what our country used to
be.
So, you know, religion is a very important part of me and it's also, I think it's a
very important part of our country.
Final question.
What is the most important thing in your life?
Well, you know, you always have to say family.
It's family.
It's a good thing from that standpoint.
Religion is very important, but I assume you're not talking about religion or family, but
you know, those two things are very important.
Belief is very important.
But you would always have to put family number one.
And then give us some advice as we tell your story and persuade people like, you know,
like you're encouraging that crowd, except instead of the church, you know, we'll be
speaking to hundreds of thousands and several millions.
Well, I'm going to get the job.
I'm going to do a great job for religion and for the evangelicals.
I'm going to do a great job.
And that's why we got a standing ovation from pastors who don't get much of standing
ovation, because they've heard a lot of people speak.
So that was a great honor.
But I will do a great job.
I will get the job done.
And I'll get it done properly.
And that will be a great thing for the evangelicals.
Well, thank you for your time.
Thanks so much.
Have a great day.
Be blessed.
God bless you.
B naked.