TRANSCRIPT: President Trump is Interviewed by Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma on Fox Sports, 11.9.25
[Video]
Albert: Welcome in, the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump: Thank you.
Albert: Mr. President, thanks so much for joining us. Kenny Albert, Vilma. Veterans Day Weekend.
Trump: Right.
Albert: The NFL Salute to Service. How meaningful is it for you to be here today? You just took part in the halftime ceremony honoring the military.
Trump: Well, we just swore in a tremendous group of young people, and that was an honor, and they are just fantastic and they love -- You know, our recruitment's been record-setting since -- A year ago, it was a disaster for the country and now it's record-setting. So this was an honor to be here.
Albert: Gain of five on first down. Now I know, you go way back with the sport of football. You played at New York Military Academy.
Trump: I did.
Albert: How old were you when you started playing football and what were some of the life lessons you took out of it?
Trump: Well, I, I did. I played tight end. But I, I mean, it was not quite football like this. It was a little bit easier. [Laughter] It wasn't so tough. And we had a quarterback who didn't have a very strong arm. I would say 10 yards was a long pass.
Albert: So you were never tackled by a guy like Jonathan Vilma?
Trump: If I was tackled by him, I would never forget it. [Laughter] We didn't get to play you too often. I can tell you that. But we had a good time and I loved it. I actually loved playing football. We had a good time with it.
Jonathan Vilma: So we were trying to look up your stats and we wanted to know --
Trump: ,Oh, no.
Vilma: -- how many touchdowns did you have back then? Six?
Trump: Oh, is that right?
Vilma: Seven?
Trump: I'm not sure I had any. [Laughter] I'm not sure. It's a long time ago.
Vilma: There you are. Uniform number --
Albert: Well, there you go.
Vilma: Uniform number 85.
Trump: At least you realize that I never tell a lie, right? [Laughter]
Albert: There you go.
Trump: [Laughs] That's very good. I haven't seen that picture in a long time. [Laughter]
Albert: First of 10, 46-yard line with the commanders trailing 32 to 10.
Vilma: So we'll take you back to the 60s. You got the Jets.
Trump: Right.
Vilma: You got Joe Namath, you got the [Inaudible]
Trump: Tight. We had a lot of things, a lot of, lot of interesting things.
Vilma: So who was your team?
Trump: So I love the Jets and I love the Giants. I had a lot of friends, uh, Bob Tisch, and some people that owned the Giants at the time as we're going along and progressing. And, you know, look, we had a couple of Super Bowls with the Giants. The Jets had been having a little bit of a hard time. Woody's a great guy. He's a great friend of mine. Uh, and they'll get it together,-
Vilma: Yeah.
Trump: -- just take a little time.
Vilma: Were you a Joe Namath fan?
Trump: Well, I love Joe Namath.
Vilma: Yeah.
Trump: And he was a great talent. He had that arm. His legs weren't so good, but his arm made up for it, right?
Vilma: [Laughs] That's all you need at quarterback.
Trump: When you talk about a quick release, he had it, right?
Vilma: Yes, he did.
Albert: By the way, Mr. President, Jonathan, first round draft picked by the Jets.
Trump: Wow, good.
Albert: Back in 2014.
Vilma: That's right. Yep.
Trump: Yeah?
Vilma: Then I got traded and, uh, the rest is history.
Trump: And the rest is --
Vilma: I got that beautiful baby right there.
Trump: That's pretty nice.
Vilma: Getting traded to the New Orleans Saints.
Trump: I know all about it. That's right. That's great.
Vilma: So it's good time.
Albert: I know he spent a --
Trump: Good job.
Albert: He spent a lot of time in South Florida. He was a national champion with the University of Miami.
Trump: That's right.
Albert: 2001
Trump: That's right.
Albert: And then he won a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints.
Trump: That's, that's a good feeling, isn't it, huh?
Vilma: A great feeling.
Trump: And you really had a good quarterback didn't you, huh?
Vilma: Yeah, he was okay. Drew Brees, he was okay. He had future Hall of Fame.
Trump: He was, he was accurate and he knew how to win.
Vilma: Yeah. I mean, that --
Trump: It was like, it was like throwing darts. Right?
Vilma: President Trump, the best teammate I had.
Trump: Yeah.
Vilma: It was literally like throwing darts, watching him play.
Trump: And you know the thing about, somebody like Drew Bees, he threw a ball that you could catch.
Vilma: Yeah.
Trump: It wasn't going 200 miles an hour that hits you in the face.
Vilma: But see, that's how you could have played tight end, right?
Trump: I could have been -- I would have liked him as a quarterback.
Vilma: You definitely would have had, like six, seven touchdowns there?
Trump: Yeah. He, he puts it in your hands, right? [Laughter] Now you see some of the guys with the, you know, the powerful arms and they throw it so hard. Uh, Tom Brady told me once, he said that, "You know, you got to put it in their hands. You got to help them out a little bit."
Vilma: Yeah.
Trump: You can't just rip it in there.
Vilma: Tom Brady, he was pretty good.
Trump: He was pretty good too. He was good. He was a -- And he's a great guy, actually.
Albert: Colleague of ours here at Fox Sports. First and 10 for the Washington Commanders, out the Lions 11-yard line. Lions have scored on all of their possessions today. Now the Commanders look to get back into the end zone. This is Croskey-Merritt. So Ronald Reagan, well before becoming president, he was a sportscaster.
Trump: That's right.
Albert: He called Big Ten Football. He called Iowa football games. Would you like to call a play?
Trump: Well, I, I would like to do that if you'd like me to, but I, I will say that your second string, your backup quarterback is a good quarterback. And he's had some very good games for you and your first-string quarterback has the potential, I think, to be a great quarterback. He's got to stop the injuries somehow. And let's see, we have a very important -- I think there's a very important couple of plays.
Vilma: Here we go. All right.
Albert: Second and seven.
Trump: Right. Second and seven. Let's see what happens. Whoa.
Albert: That's --
Trump: All right.
Albert: Croskey-Merritt.
Trump: Not bad.
Albert: Takes it down to the five-yard line.
Trump: That's right. That's right. Good, good runner.
Albert: There we go.
Trump: This is a very big play, don't you think?
Vilma: Uh, I think --
Trump: They have to get a touchdown. Let's put it differently. They just have to get a touchdown.
Vilma: There we go. Now you're doing my job. Because that's what I was gonna say. They have to get a touchdown.
Trump: Just forget about the play. They have to get a touchdown. [Laughter]
Albert: So you've done my job, now you've done his job.
Vilma: Yeah, right. [Laughs]
Albert: You're a regular here in the broadcast room.
Trump: Well, let's see how they do. I think they have a good team. And I think Detroit's been amazing. That trade was such a great trade --
Albert: For both teams.
Trump: For LA, for LA and Detroit.
Vilma: Yeah, I, I agree. People always look at it and try to say --
Albert: Here's Deebo Samuel. And he is knocked out of bounds at the three-yard line. Now, you were the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl?
Trump: Yep.
Albert: Nine months ago, today, as a matter of fact.
Trump: Yeah.
Albert: You're the first sitting president to attend a regular season game. Ready for this? President Carter, October 2nd, 1978.
Trump: It's a long time.
Albert: I know you're a Yankees fan. [Laughter] That same day, Bucky Dent hit a pretty big home run.
Trump: Whoa.
Albert: Remember that?
Trump: That's a big, that was a big one.
Albert: So that was the last time a sitting president attended a regular season game. I know you love sports. You attend baseball games.
Trump: I do. I do.
Albert: NASCAR races. What is it about sports that you enjoy the most?
Trump: I just love it. It's a microcosm of life. It's sort of like life, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly, right?
Vilma: You're right about that.
Trump: Well, let's see what happens here. This is a big --
Vilma: Big down. All right. They're, they're calling it time out here, President Trump. They're trying to regroup. It's a fourth and goal -- Or no, excuse me, fourth and short.
Trump: But you can equate sports with life. You know, you have the triumph and you have the, the problems and, uh, you gotta get through the problems to hit the triumphs and you can never quit, you can never give up. You never quit, did you, huh?
Vilma: Never quit.
Trump: That's why you won a Super Bowl. [Laughs]
Vilma: That's right.
Trump: Right?
Vilma: That's right. And I think about how football is similar in some respects --
Trump: Yeah.
Vilma: -- to combat, war, et cetera.
Trump: Yeah.
Vilma: And you kinda take some of the same strategies. We'd love to hear your thoughts about where we are as a nation, how, how we're doing.
Trump: Well, we're doing great, and recruitment is doing phenomenally. Uh, people have spirit, our stock market hit an all time high. Prices are coming down. We inherited a mess. Prices are coming way down. And I'll tell you, our country has over 17 trillion dollars being invested in it, which is a record. So we're doing great. Just like they have to do great right now.
Vilma: Fourth and short.
Trump: Let's see what happens.
Vilma: On fourth down, Mariota throws through the end zone, touchdown. Deebo Samuel.
Trump: See, that was very important. [Laughs] Got a little ways to go yet, but still. That was very important. Now your ratings have gone up because there's hope.
Albert: I know you love ratings.
Trump: I love the ratings. You gotta have ratings. Well, you guys have the ratings, yeah.
Albert: So all the Commanders --
Trump: They're gonna build, by the way, they're gonna build a beautiful stadium in Wa- -- that's what I'm involved in where -- Getting all the approvals and everything else. And you have a wonderful owner, Josh and his group. And, uh, you're gonna see some very good things.
Albert: On the side of the former home of the Commanders, RFK Stadium --
Trump: Yeah.
Albert: -- hey had great success there, won five NFC Championship Games in that stadium. They played in five and they won all five between 61 and 96.
Trump: And you had a great coach, George Allen.
Albert: Yeah.
Trump: If you know, George Allen was fantastic, actually.
Albert: Yeah. President Trump, they're going for two --
Trump: Uh-oh.
Vilma: Did not get it. Did not get it.
Albert: Through the back of the end zone.
Vilma: Yes.
Trump: You remember -- Now you're too young, but George Allen was a good coach.
Albert: Oh, absolutely.
Trump: He was a very good coach. And you had a couple of good coaches.
Albert: Joe Gibbs, of course, as well.
Trump: Joe Gibbs, I mean, how good was Joe Gibbs? He was good no matter what he did, right?
Albert: Certainly he was. Mr. President, we thank you so much --
Trump: Thank you very much. This is an honor.
Albert: Enjoy the rest of the game.
Trump: Fantastic.
Albert: Thanks for the visit.
Trump: I'd love to have your job someday. [Laughs] Thank you, man.
Vilma: Thank you, President Trump.
Albert: You did an excellent job calling that play.
Trump: Thank you.