TRANSCRIPT: Todd Starnes Interviews Donald Trump on His Radio Show, 8.21.25

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Todd Sternes : Mr. President, it is always an honor to have you on the show, and I just want you to know you've got a lot of fans in the Todd Starnes Show audience and our listeners love you and they love the great work that you've been doing for the nation.

President Trump: Well, thank you and it's good to be with you. You've been a lucky charm. We do -- we won a lot of -- we won a lot of good races together if you look at it. But -- so I appreciate it, I appreciate it very much.

Sternes: You know, Mr. -- by the way, Mr. President, I have to tell you, the golf community here in Memphis, they were hoping you were going to make it down for the FedEx Saint Jude Classic. You would have loved the new newly redesigned course. It was a great time. But you've got a lot of golf fans down here as well.

Trump: I do and I love the area; I love the area. It's a good tournament. It's really -- golf is a good thing. But I've been so busy lately, I haven't been thinking about it to be honest with you.

Sternes: OK, I don't know how you do this, Mr. President. You know, I do three hours of radio and then the Newsmax TV show and I'm worn out by the end of the day. And you're just getting started. A lot of folks are wondering how does the president do it. What is the daily routine here?

Trump: Well, I sort of have no choice, it's either do it or it doesn't get done, and I like doing things myself. But we have a good team also. We have a lot of things going. We ended seven wars -- probably more than that. They wrote an article, and they gave me three additional ones that I ended without even knowing it. But I saw things were going bad and it looked like it was going to go bad. And it could have been -- it could have been 10, but it is seven and that's a lot of wars, that's a lot of wars. That includes going in and knocking the hell out of the nuclear -- future nuclear capacity of Iran. That was a big one too.

Sternes: And of course, watching -- I mean, it was really a masterclass -- watching you with Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy. I mean, the guy actually -- we were wondering, with all that money we've been sending the Ukrainians, surely they've got a JCPenney where the guy could get a suit off the rack. And he actually dressed appropriately for the White House.

Trump: Yeah, he looked good. He looked very good. He's in there pitching. It's a hard war, I'll tell you. It's a horrible war. It's the worst thing since World War II and a lot of people dying. A lot of soldiers are dying, 5,000 to 7,000 a week.

Sternes: Do you think we're going to be able to get peace in that region, Mr. President?

Trump: Well, I'll let you know in about -- I would say within two weeks we're going to know one way or the other. After that we'll have to maybe take a different tack, but we'll see, but we'll know pretty soon.

Sternes: One of the big issues really over the past 24 hours, and you were writing about this this morning on Truth Social, and the Republicans did it in Texas, Mr. President, they came through with the redistricting. Now we understand Missouri may be looking at doing the same thing.

Trump: And Indiana and Florida, maybe. I think Ron DeSantis is going to do it, too.

Sternes: How important is the mail-in ballot, getting rid of that? What is that going to do for the nation?

Trump: The biggest thing we can do, it's bigger even than the reapportionment. It's bigger than anything we can do as a party. Our elections are extremely corrupt, the mail in ballots -- the system is so corrupt. You know, Colorado went to it. You don't even go to a state that does it because when they go mail in, the Democrats -- the only way they're going to win is mail-in ballots. That's the only way. I say we pick up 100 seats if you had real elections, meaning you go to the voters. I think I would have won California. I think I'd win California right now over that terrible governor. I mean he is such a pathetic -- one of the worst, although Pritzker is pretty bad too. I would say he's pretty pathetic. But the mail-in ballots and the mail-in voting and then you put them together with the machines, and you have to -- that's why I said make it too big to rig. You know, the last election was so overwhelming that they couldn't -- they tried, but they couldn't cheat to the extent they wanted to and they gave it up. But somebody said 9:02 in the evening, then it was just an explosion of ballots that came in. There was nothing they could do. But they cheat and, you know, with their policies they have to cheat. Who wants open borders? Who wants a party of crime? I mean, look, I've straightened out crime in four days and in DC. And all they do is they say he's a dictator; he's a dictator. The place -- people are getting mugged all over the place, then they give you phony records like it's wonderful and it's worse than it ever was, but we've got it going. People are so happy, they're going out to restaurants again. I mean, they're so happy. But it's disgraceful. But the biggest thing Republicans can do is get rid of mail-in ballots and then get rid of the machines to go to paper ballots. You know, if you have paper ballots it costs you 8 percent of what the machines cost and you get an honest count.

Sternes: It's unbelievable. And again, I'm astounded by those.

Trump: And you can't get these governors to do it, these Republican governors. And they're good -- some of them are good friends of mine. I don't know what it is. They don't do it. It's incredible. Even -- I'm talking about even states where I won it by 40, 50 points. They should do it, you know, set the example for others, I won them anyway. But you know, I have states where I won by massive amounts, but they still cheat. Everybody cheats with mail-in ballots. Anytime you have mail-in ballots, it's a -- and we're the only one in the whole world that uses them.

Sternes: You know, Mr. President, you mentioned crime and your FBI director, Kash Patel, did an interview with Fox and he said that my hometown, Memphis, Tennessee is the homicide capital of America. And the people here are -- they're just oppressed. It's a blue city, we've got Republicans in leadership in Nashville, and a lot of folks are saying is there anything President Trump can do to help out the good people of Memphis. You know, Elon's building the big, huge super AI supercomputer here. Is there anything that you can do to help cities like Memphis?

Trump: Yeah, I will be. We're doing a sort of a test right now in DC. It's working unbelievably, much faster than we thought. We've arrested hundreds of criminals, hard line criminals, people that will never be any good, I don't care what they say. You know, they say, oh, rehab. They're not going to rehab these people. These are hard line. They're born criminals. They were born to be criminals, that's all they are, and we got them out of the system. And unfortunately, we have a lot of cities like that. But I love Tennessee. You know, I won Tennessee by many, many, many points. It was a landslide -- far greater than even the Republican -- Republicans do good in Tennessee. But I mean, my number was like 35 points. And I'm glad you're telling me that; I can put that early on the list and I'm sure the people would love it.

Sternes: Oh, they would definitely love that, Mr. President. Of course, you know, we've got a big gubernatorial race here, Senator Marsha Blackburn running for governor, Congressman John Rose running. Have you thrown in with anybody yet in the race? Are you going to endorse anybody?

Trump: Well, I haven't. You know, they're both very good friends of mine. They're both great people. And she's fantastic, but a great Senator. And John is a fantastic guy. So, I haven't yet -- I'll probably be forced to do it. I wish I didn't have to do it, but I'll probably be forced to do it. I don't know. It's just, you know, I hate to have to endorse -- they're both excellent people.

Sternes: It's a good problem to have because I think you're recruiting a lot of really solid people, Mr. President, and the party's got a strong bench because of you.

Trump: We have a great bench, and they have no bench. They have Jasmine Crockett is the bench, no relation to Davey. But their bench is not too strong to put it mildly. It looks like, I don't know, Newscum is in there somewhere, I guess. I don't know how a guy can run when he destroyed California. He'll do the same thing to the nation, but Newscum and this guy Pritzker, big slob -- a big slob, terrible governor.

Sternes: Too much deep dish.

Trump: They don't have much of a bench, to put it mildly.

Sternes: Yeah, well said.

Trump: I think they should go with Jasmine Crockett. I think she's great -- low IQ person.

Sternes: It's really amazing, Mr. President, when you look at these Democrats.

Trump: It's unbelievable.

Sternes: Yeah, you look at these Democrats and they're out there, Mr. President, and they're saying -- they're actually supporting crime on the streets of Washington. I mean, this is Trump Derangement Syndrome off the charts.

Trump: That's right, because I sent in people to stop crime, they said he's a dictator. The real people though, they're calling -- even Democrats are calling me up saying it's unbelievable. You know, it's been four days, right? And they said it's unbelievable. And I'm going to be going out tonight, I'm going to keep it a secret, but I'm going to go -- you're the only one that knows -- you and your lots of listeners. You have a great show. You have a very successful show, by the way, in case you haven't heard that. But I'm going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police -- and with the military, of course. So, we're going to do a job. The National Guard is great. They've done a fantastic job.

Sternes: It's going to be fascinating. Mr. President, I've got to ask you about Gen Z voters. I don't know if you've seen the sorority houses, especially in the southern states where you've got the sorority girls and they're wearing the blue jeans. They've got the American flag apparel; you've got the frat bros out there. This generation, especially the younger version of Gen Z, they are all in on the America First movement. I'm wondering why do you think that is?

Trump: It's amazing. Because it's common sense because they're smart people and it's common sense. I mean it's no crime in your cities; it's not an open border. You know, open borders. By the way, for the last four months, we've had zero people come into our country because we're tough and we're smart and we know what we're doing. And Biden had a low IQ before he got, you know, even worse. He was low IQ 30 years ago; you just have to check it out. The guy was a terrible, terrible, stupid person, just a gladhander -- you know, you call him a gladhander, puts out his hand. He had a nice smile.

Sternes: We have a saying, Mr. President, in the South that when it comes to President Biden, the cheese had slid off his cracker as they say, so.

Trump: Well, it was never really there. I mean, if you look back, he was never a smart person.

Sternes: Fair enough.

Trump: But he's in particular bad and it's not age. I know I have friends that are in their 90s, they're literally as sharp as you can be. You know, Gary Player is 89 years old. He's going to be 90 like immediately almost. And he's like 100 percent. He still plays golf really well even, he's 90. Compare that to Biden. You have a conversation with him, it's the same as 25 years ago.

Sternes: Wow!

Trump: It's amazing. So, they like to say age, but it's not age, he's just off.

Sternes: Mr. President, I know we've -- I've got one more question for you. When, gosh, about a year or so ago, you made a statement about our good friend Lee Greenwood, who is a regular on this show. And had that incredible, incredible Bible, the God Bless the USA Bible, and you wrote something. And I think this is the reason why people came after you is not because of the Bible. I think it's because of what you said, that if we really want to make America great again, America has to pray again and America has to read their Bible again. How important was it for you to stand up for people of faith? You know, they were shutting down churches during the Democrat regime, but how important was that for you to support people of faith?

Trump: Well, I just do it because I know it's true. If you look around, I mean people of faith, there's a feeling -- they want to be good. You know, they get punished if they're not good, right. If you don't think about that, if you're not a believer and you believe you go nowhere, what's the reason to be good really? There has to be some kind of a report card up there someplace. You know, like let's go to heaven, let's get into heaven. It's sort of a beautiful thing. Look, religion was the backbone of our country. It's much less so now, but it's getting much stronger under me. It was terrible under Biden. I was so amazed, you know, I won the evangelicals like by 88 percent. But I was trying to figure out who are the other 12 percent. How could they vote for her? You know, I mean she was so pathetic -- and Biden, you know, it's the combination. One was worse than the other. Why do they do that? It's like you can't imagine them wanting to do that. And you saw what they did to you; they were closing churches. Even if the people went outside and they were 10 feet apart, they were going in and raiding them and treating them like prisoners, like horrible people and they're great people. They were the backbone of this country, and they still are, but they're -- they were dwindling. But I'm telling you they're coming back; religion is coming back. And religion brings our country together -- all religions, a lot of religions. I mean, some are -- some I could question I guess to be honest with you. You know, there's a little rough philosophy there. But religion brings our country together and it's a great thing. It's a great thing and we have to bring it back stronger, and it has made tremendous inroads.

Sternes: Mr. President, why are you doing all of this? You could be retired, living the good life down at Mar-a-Lago, but you stepped back into the political arena, and I'm just curious, why did you do that?

Trump: Well, for one reason, I knew the election was rigged and now we found that out definitively, as you can see. And you were a believer a long time ago, you didn't need all this evidence that's been piling on, but it was rigged. That means I did well, that means -- because I won by millions of votes and that's a poll. If I thought I lost, I wouldn't have done it because that would be the ultimate poll, right? But I thought I really -- and then I saw what was happening on top of everything. I saw -- one of the first things was the open borders. I built hundreds of miles of wall, we had -- in three weeks it could have been -- certain areas could have been completed. If I thought I lost, I wouldn't have done it because that would be the ultimate poll, right? But I thought I really -- and then I saw what was happening on top of everything. I saw -- one of the first things was the open borders. I built hundreds of miles of wall, we had -- in three weeks it could have been -- certain areas could have been completed. So, I saw that, I saw crime, I saw prices going up, I saw energy goes so stupid with windmills all over the place that are killing the country, and I saw all the things that were happening. I said, well, I have no choice. And I really enjoy it. And I enjoy it because I want to make America great again. We had it great. In fact, I was going to have to change the name. I wasn't going to say America Great Again, because it was great. I was going to use a different term, just Keep America Great. And when they got in, it's like -- the damage that Joe Biden and his group of idiots did to this country is unimaginable and especially at the border. When you look at that border, when you look at that and the millions of people, millions, millions, 25 million people that that stupid person allowed into our country. And think of the focus, I mean, so much of our focus is getting these criminals out of our country. I mean, it's just, you know, it's hard work. And if I didn't win this country would be finished. I'll tell you just to finish up, Todd, the -- when I was with the king of Saudi Arabia and I was with all the leaders of NATO, they all had basically one phrase. One year ago, you were a dead country. We were dead. We were going to fail. We were failing country. Now you have the hottest country in the world, it's true. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world, nobody close, and we did that in six months. It's going to get really good, get ready.

Sternes: Mr. President, we -- thank you and I just have to brag on -- you've got a great staff there and I've got to brag on Karoline and Margo, just great, great folks.

Trump: They're great. They're all great, they've done a fantastic job, and the people love them. Good representatives.

Sternes: Mr. President, thank you for taking a few minutes. I know you're a busy man and we are so honored that you're hanging out with us here on the show today.

Trump: Well, it's an honor and you've been with me from the beginning. Thank you, Todd. I'll see you soon.

Sternes: All right. Thanks, Mr. President.

Trump: And I'm going to think about Memphis, too, OK?

Sternes: All right. Thank you, sir.

Trump: OK. Thank you very much.

Transcript courtesy of CQ Factbase