Video transcript
And we begin thinking long-term, not midterm. You know, we got five weeks from an election, we know that. Control of Congress is on the line, you understand that. Every politician in Washington knows it, every pollster is talking about it. This week, President Trump made clear his vision goes beyond November because he's trying to get things done in two years, which normally take two terms. - As president of the most extraordinary nation in history, I have no interest in leaving dangers to grow for another day. I do not believe in letting problems fester. They only become harder to solve. So while others have talked, I have acted. We are solving decades of intractable challenges, and we are settling years of unfinished business, and we're doing it well. - And I know it's driving some Republicans nuts, but that's his vision. Look, it has this approach at the border, for example. He's not waiting for comprehensive immigration reform. The guy has sealed the border. He's actually almost done with the wall. He's finding those people who broke the law, came here illegally. He is rounding them up, and it's giving some people heartburn, but that's what he promised to do. Come here illegally, and you gotta get scooped up. It shouldn't be okay, because Washington failed to fix the system. That's what he ran on. That's what he talks about. And he's taking the same approach to the Capitol itself. I don't know if you've been to Washington lately, but he's building that new ballroom. Every president talked about needing an event center. He's doing it. He's fixed 48 monuments in D.C., 22 fountains, 1,000-plus graffiti sites, and the reflecting pool, I understand, is finally getting fixed the right way. His mantra is clear. For problems big and small, he's gonna identify it. He's going to fix it, and he's gonna do it fast. He's gonna do it in a way to make it last when it comes to trade. Remember Liberation Day? The rollout was rocky, no question. The markets reacted. The critics, well, they pounced. But the bigger idea was more important. Restructure a trading system that Trump believes has shortchanged America since World War II. Not one tariff, not one country, the entire system. Since then, the administration has secured 20 new trade deals, 20. Something around like Canada, I think it'll get back on track. One is about to be done. Believe it or not, it's gonna be Mexico. And the one front and center this week is China. It's obviously the most important. Has every negotiation gone smoothly? No, but the aim isn't the headline for tomorrow or a quick fix today. It's changing the terms of trade for years to come, or restructuring while bringing manufacturing back. Then there's the biggest example of all, Iran. With the war dragging on, the pressure is building. Voters are worried about the cost than they should be. The price of oil, diesel, fertilizer, it's all going up. The midterms are right around the corner. And even some Republicans are saying it's time to bring the war to an end. The war with Iran needs to end, and end quickly. War is terrible and no one likes war. The war should end yesterday. Yep, Trump knows it. But as I told you, the election is in triving this decision. They're waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence to the election when it comes to Iran. It doesn't even enter my mind. The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. His position is that whether a deal comes before November or after November, the objective does not change. No nuclear weapon, no ability to fund terror proxies and intimidate neighbors. Trump is not looking to make this better for now. And I know he's driving Republicans crazy. He knows peace in the Middle East is a pipe dream with this Iran team empowered and emboldened. He's not managing Iran. He is squeezing them. He's trying to fix not for now, but forever. And what about munitions? We got to win wars with munitions. We keep seeing the headlines warning about the capacity of America's defense industrial base. But Trump is the one building up our arsenal. The cowards and traders would love to say the United States is low on munitions, but that's not true. We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using, and we're building them at levels that we have never done before. In the very near future, massive munitions plants will be opening. There are 18 of them being built by the greatest defense companies in the world. Right now, 18 under construction. Yes, he's spreading them out. There used to be a big four, now there's 18. Not just for more missiles next month, the capacity to make more missiles for years, new systems. And that brings us to maybe the biggest long-term challenge of all, AI. The United States is racing China for this technology to transform our economy. It's also fueling our economy now. It's gonna transform our military. America, well, we're in the lead, about nine to 12 months in the lead. The question is whether we keep that lead. And at the same time, figuring out how to keep a technology this powerful from becoming a threat itself. And that can't be answered by a November poll. That's a debate that will outlive this election and this presidency. But when he hands off the Oval Office, you can be sure we will still be leading the world on artificial intelligence, or as he calls it, super intelligence. These aren't six-week problems, more like 60-year issues. And the president appears determined not to hand them to somebody else, Democrat or Republican, because this isn't just a midterm plan. It's not a reelection plan, it's an American plan. And joining us now is Fox News contributor from The Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassl. So Kim, I know you wrote a lot about this. You've been in a lot of personal briefings with the President of the United States. Do you see him thinking big picture like I just outlined? - Oh yeah, and Brian, by the way, this is why Americans voted for the guy, right? After decades of feeling as though they had politicians that said, "Oh, I'll solve this, I'll solve this," then nothing happens. They wanted someone who was gonna go in and break China. And by the way, just to add a couple of more things to the list that you laid out there, you know, just this week you had Vice President J.D. Vance come out, say they're taking more than 750,000 phantom accounts off of Obamacare. I mean, this is the fraud that's been sitting there in the United States government. For decades, nobody's done anything about. So it causes some disruption. I think it leaves some voters feeling unsettled, but stuff is getting done. - The other thing is rare earth. He's on a two-year plan to get another rare earth. He's gonna mine in this country. We never should have stopped, but environmentalists had a lot to do with that. But now he's cutting deals with Australia and the Far East and Central and South America. And I'll add something else. He's cleaning up our own hemisphere for the first time really in my lifetime. China and Russia are being pushed out. So is communism, Cuba's next. - Yeah, it's remarkable. On the rare earth, things also think they just netted that Greenland deal, which is one of the biggest sources of rare earths everywhere. And part of that deal says, "Hey, you can sell it to us, but you can't sell it to our adversaries." That was a big question mark, and that's done. - Yeah, I mean, this is one of those things that you've done this before. We're in the middle of a play-by-play and you think you understand a presidency. I think we're gonna understand his presidency a lot better two or three years out. But we're in the middle of it now. But let me just do something I just told you I wasn't gonna do. Let's drill down on November and midterms. And let's talk about Alaska. Mary Peltola, nine separate former staffers came out and says this woman's got a huge attitude problem, a rage issue, correct? - Right, and this is a problem for her. Look, I don't know how many committed Peltola voters are gonna care that much. But these are the kind of stories that come out and it says, "Complete mayhem among their staff, people quitting or being fired." It suggests a politician that has a lot of problems. And that matters a lot. You get some of these middle-of-the-road voters, they either decide they don't want that or they just decide they're not interested in going out to vote that day for her. So that's a real depressor when it comes to turn out for her. And I think is a boon for Dan S. Sullivan, the actual Dan S. Sullivan, the incumbent in the race. - I gotta read this to you. You're not gonna believe it. It's in your rival newspaper. It says, "This is what you said about Planned Parenthood. "One of her angry outbursts slurs and firings, "Tumult rocks a key Senate campaign is the headline. "Peltola also disparaged Planned Parenthood, "particularly one of its regional board members "running for reelection for the 2024 House seat. "Peltola was frustrated about the organization's scrutiny "of our deliberations over how to vote on a defense bill. "She said, quote, 'I hope Planned Parenthood knows "'that if we don't win, it's more their loss than ours.' "'F' those 'B's,' she later wrote in a text message "to her staff in January 2024 "that was viewed by the New York Times. "She also went on to say, 'Peltola, "'I hope she dies of a botched abortion.' "She also had a gay slur and made fun of people "with maybe who have mental issues." - Yeah, no, look, Mary Peltola has already had some issues up here. Remember, she briefly served as a House member representing Alaska, and that was because she won, essentially, because of Alaska's goofy rank choice system. So she essentially won by default. Now, this year, there is a nasty trick going on in Alaska, Brian, where there's this decoy Dan Sullivan candidate who has purely been put, clearly been put, on the ballot with help from Democrats to try to confuse voters and get them to draw votes away from the incumbent Dan Sullivan. But I think all of this adds up to show the desperation a bit of this campaign, and the problem she has, when she's trashing on kind of loyal Democratic outside groups, she's got a, it shows the frustration and the problems there. - Kim, I wanna get to Texas real quick, 'cause James Talarico is leading. If I look at the latest poll, he's up by six. That's a mayor's survey, real clear average, up by three over Ken Paxson. But with Talarico's doing a little bit different, he's changing all his views. He now says, I'm gonna work with Donald Trump on the border. I am for oil and gas. I wanna debate Ken Paxson on Fox News with Brett Baer as the moderator. And he's telling all his Democrats, don't come. I wanna act like a Republican. Does that, is that a strategy that could be successful in Texas when the others have failed Democrats? - Well, look, I think what's adding up here in Texas is, remember, this is a red state, by the way. And a lot of people who have moved to Texas too, because they want that kind of politics. So he's already facing an uphill thing. And I always question this, Democrats ran out and they recruited all these people. Oh, you know, here's a seminarian in Texas and we'll roll them out. Then people find out what his actual views are. So now he's trying to cloak those actual past views. Are Texans gonna buy it? I don't know. But one of the problems here too is, you know, Paxson's having trouble. There was a very messy primary down there and a lot of Republicans are still pretty bitter about that. So he's gotta motivate his base as well too. - He's getting like $200 million. They're gonna flood the system, see what happens. See what kind of debate that would be. Kim Strassle, always great to have you on. Thanks so much.
Transcribed automatically. Expect errors in names and numbers.