TRANSCRIPT: Trey Yingst Interviews President Trump at the White House, 7.14.26
[Video]
Note: [Trey Yingst interviewed Donald Trump in the Roosevelt Room of the White House at 4:30 PM on July 14, 2026. The first 00:09:10 aired on Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News at 6:00 PM Eastern the same day. The full 00:33:42 interview was released on Fox One on July 16, 2026. The following is the complete transcript of the interview. Video courtesy and copyright Fox News.]
Trey Yingst: Mr. President, thank you for speaking with Fox News.
President Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Yingst: We have seen extensive US strikes against Iran for three consecutive nights now. This comes after the Iranians attacked vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. How would you describe what is happening at this moment? Has the war resumed?
Trump: Well, I guess you could define it any way you want, but certainly we're beating them up really badly. They have to be beat up. You know, I watched for 47 years. I've been watching for a long time, but for 47 years, we haven't done anything. And then Obama came along and made it worse when he made his Iran nuclear deal, which was a disaster.
That was a disaster for our country, for the Middle East, because he basically switched sides all of a sudden, gave them tens of billions of dollars, gave them 1.7 billion in cash, in green cash from three places, from Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. Every bank was emptied out. They took it over in a plane load of Boeing 757 and, uh, tried to bribe them into making peace.
That didn't work. In fact, that gave them money to go with the nuclear. Uh, I think we're making tremendous progress. We're hitting them very, very hard. We're hitting every single thing that they have along the shore, along the, the waterfront. You know, if you look at, uh, the Strait of Hormuz, it's now, uh, w- 0-- we're looking, we're finding it hard to find where they have anything.
Uh, we have to stop it. We have to keep it open. I was gonna charge a fee, but instead they'd rather, uh, spend a lot of money in the United States, which frankly is better because I don't like the idea of a fee. It's gotta remain free because otherwi- -- otherwise others will do the same thing. But I think we've made tremendous progress.
You know, the, I said it a million times. I hate to bore you with it, but their Navy's gone, their Air Force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone. Most of their capacity for manufacturing missiles and drones is gone. They have very few missiles left. They have some, you know, they're still dangerous, but they're very few and they have very few drones left.
It's been wiped out.
Yingst: So your objectives are to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon, to keep the Strait open and to degrade the Iranian military. Can those objectives be completed in an air campaign alone --
Trump: That's r --
Yingst: Or does this require a ground component?
Trump: Well, I think they're completed now, honestly. If we left right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild what they have. I think it's completed now. I think, uh, other nations, they band together, they'll be able to handle it very easily. Look, they were the bully of the Middle East for a long time, like 47 years, but really longer than that because the ideology preceded.
Uh, and now they're very badly, you know, they're in bad shape because they don't really have a military now. And we've been nice to the military because supposedly their military is sort of a more solid ideology. They're not into, they're not into the really bad stuff. But we've hit them very hard. Uh, they've been degraded at a level that nobody though was possible.
And it all went very fast. You know, a lot of this has been negotiation. Uh, and I think by negotiating, we're sh- -- we're showing a certain reasonableness, which is nice for the world to see. But it doesn't get you anywhere. And when I look at all the presidents that have negotiated with these people, they were wasting their time.
They got tapped along. Then they're gone. They, you know, they, they just got tapped along for years. The only way you can negotiate with these people is through strength. And the only strength is military strength. And that's what we've done. And I mean, literally two days ago, we had a deal. And then they broke it at the last moment.
They broke it. They were all set. It was a done deal. Everything, we got everything. We got the nuclear dust, which is by the way, less important than people think, but that's okay because that's birds so deep in the mountains --
Yingst: Will these strikes --
Trump: -- because our B-2 bombers did the job.
Yingst: Will these strikes continue?
Trump: Uh, they'll continue until I say, uh, "It's enough." I mean, they'll continue. They've been, uh, they're, you know, the word the military likes to use is degrade. They've been degraded to a very low level. Uh, and they have fight, you know? It's like, uh, a great boxer. You have, you think you have them beat and then all of a sudden he comes back and he gives you a, a shot.
Uh, they have some fight left, but they don't have much. And, uh, their weapon degrading has been incredible at a level. Nobody though it was possible to do it this quickly.
Yingst: You posted today on Truth Social comments that you made back in 1988 about Kharg Island. And at the time you said, "One bullet shot at one of our men or ships and I'd do a number on Kharg Island. I'd go in and take it."
Trump: Yeah.
Yingst: Do you still intend to take Kharg Island?
Trump: So I, I can't say that to you because if I did, it would be foolish, right? But it'd be nice to make a little headlines, but it would be foolish. But I'll tell you about Kharg Island. So we've already --
Yingst: Are you ruling out a ground campaign in a limited --
Trump: Well --
Yingst: -- capacity?
Trump: -- I don't, I, I don't wanna say that either, but I would say, "No," if I, if I though it was appropriate. I'd say, "Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us." But, uh, we already hit Kharg Island, as you know, twice. Uh, even three times. I said, "Hit everything but the oil.
Just leave that little area from 25 yards out. Leave that little area. Don't touch the oil." Because I don't want that in terms of the world economy. It's a, you know, it's a chunk of the world economy. So we haven't hit that. At some point we could. But I think it's unlikely. As far as taking it as concerned, if we degrade them far enough and deep enough back, uh, I would do that, but you'd have to do it because if you put a thousand people on that island, like military, 2,000, it's a very small island.
And if they start sending 15, 20, 30 missiles at one time and if one gets through, those people are in trouble. So it's a very dangerous thing to do, uh, unless they are literally, you know, very, every weapon is eliminated. So I'm not really looking to do that yet. It's something I would do in the future.
Uh, without question, I would do it, but it's not something I'd wanna do yet. I don't wanna take, it's just, it's very risky. You understand. If they're in this small, little piece of land, it's a very small piece of land, and it's not very far off the coast, uh, and you have men sleeping, staying there, doing whatever, you know?
They have their men and women. And a missile gets through, you got a lot of, a lot of people that are seriously injured or dead.
Yingst: Do you anticipate that the strikes we're seeing this week against Iran will expand? Are you considering hitting energy targets --
Trump: [Inaudible]
Yingst: -- or other locations inside of Iran?
Trump: They're going to expand. Uh, I'll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately, we'll hit energy targets, yeah.
Yingst: And do you anticipate that will take place --
Trump: Well, I think that if these people don't come and make a deal, like immediately, it's just gonna get worse. Every day is gonna get worse, and, uh, for the most part, look, I have a lotta smart people, conservative but not crazy people. They say, "You can't trust these people and you gotta finish 'em off." And we're close to finishing them off anyway, but if I had my choice, I'd rather make a deal.
But it's gotta be a deal that's worthy and a deal that holds up, not a deal that they go, like, like you agree to something, and then they go out and speak to you in the press, and they'll say, "We never even spoke about it," and they make us look foolish. Now, the good news is the press doesn't take them seriously anymore.
They've been so badly wounded, and again, you know, crazy things happen, but, uh, we're gonna hit 'em very hard tonight. We're gonna hit 'em very hard tomorrow night. We're gonna hit 'em very hard the night after. And then next week, it gets really bad for them, because next week comes the, uh, power plants.
Next week comes the bridges. We're gonna knock out all their power plants, we're gonna knock out all their bridges, unless they get to the table and negotiate. Uh, they've been trying to tap us along like they have other presidents. This shoulda been done. For 47 years, it shoulda been done by many other presidents or other countries, and nobody chose to do it.
Yingst: Do you believe the Iranians are serious about making a deal?
Trump: Y- -- I think they have no choice.
Yingst: Why haven't they yet?
Trump: I think if I didn't, uh, uh, do the way I'm doing, they would never make a deal. They would've never made a deal with Obama. That deal was the worst, uh, what they did sign was a worthless piece of paper. What they signed, what they signed with Obama was a worthless piece of paper that was a road to a nuclear weapon.
And what I have is a, a wall. There will be no nuclear weapon. I'll never sign, and when you listed the three things, by far the most important is they will not have a nuclear weapon.
Yingst: Take me back to the moment before February 28th, when you made the decision to launch Operation Epic Fury. Was there a specific piece of intelligence that made you decide to launch this operation?
Trump: Well, it was specific in the sense that it just never stops, and they're gonna go forward, and they wanted a nuclear weapon. We knew they wanted a nuclear weapon. If they have a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn't be here. Look, uh, I --
Yingst: They said they didn't want a nuclear weapon.
Trump: Well, they say that. They, everything they say is a lie. They lie. I've never seen anything like it. They also come out and they'll tell you, "We never discussed nuclear," and we're in a room for five hours. That's all we discussed, and they'll walk out and say, "Nuclear was not discussed." Everything was discussed, uh, ad nauseum.
They were going to have a nuclear weapon within two weeks. Had we not done the B-2 bombers, had we not bombed their nuclear sites, they had three nuclear sites, and there's another one we're looking at right now, as you know. We're looking at --
Yingst: Pickaxe Mountain.
Trump: Yeah, we're looking at Pickaxe because somebody said there's a little activity. You know, we have cameras, Space Force. We have cameras that are, they can read the badge. They can read your name, probably Mohammed. They can read your name and a badge from, from s- -- space. And every area of Pickaxe, but the other three are covered.
Yingst: But specifically on --
Trump: If, if they m --
Yingst: -- Pickaxe, sir --
Trump: If they make any move, if they make any move, we immediately go and do whatever we have to do. But they haven't, and you know, they, they were so decimated.
Yingst: Some weapons experts --
Trump: [Inaudible]
Yingst: -- say that the United States doesn't have the ability to strike deek, deep enough with these bunker buster bombs at Pickaxe Mountain.
Trump: They can go deep. We have good, good stuff. Uh, nobody knows about Pickaxe. By the way, nobody knows if they even are doing anything in Pickaxe. It's just something that comes up. We have cameras on it. There's very little activity there. But, uh, if there's even just a small amount, we'll hit it, and we'll hit it hard.
Yingst: Uh, I wanna ask you about the Taleghan facility. It's outside of Tehran, and it was hit in US strikes previously. These are satellite images from June and July.
Trump: Okay.
Yingst: And on June 22nd, you can see activity at this site --
Trump: Yep.
Yingst: -- and then on July 7th, there is movement. There are trucks, and cranes, and, in that image, freshly poured concrete.
Trump: Right.
Yingst: What do these images --
Trump: Well, what --
Yingst: -- say to you?
Trump: What I'm hearing is that they put, and what they've watched it, that they poured concrete to close up the entrances so we couldn't get into it. So that's what they're saying. But we can hit that one very easily. You know, it only takes a matter of minutes for us to do it, and do major damage. Major damage.
And when they know it's coming, they disappear. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm seeing here.
Yingst: And, and, sir, on Monday, you announced that the United States is reimposing the US blockade --
Trump: Yeah.
Yingst: -- of Iranian ports.
Trump: It's started now.
Yingst: Shipping data trackers indicate that just 10 vessels past through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, less than 10% of what normally goes through this critical waterway.
Trump: Mm-hmm.
Yingst: When you say the Strait is open, what do you mean?
Trump: Uh, it's open if people wanna go through it. Uh, we're not opening it for Iran, that's the only one it's closed for. It's closed for Iran, both in and out, but it's open. Now, a lot of things have happened, Trey, in the last few months. Pipelines are being built. Uh, we're coming up with great alternatives, including Texas, including Alaska.
And there are a lot of turn- -- there are a lot of alternatives. People are finding now that there are alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz. And it's pretty amazing. Did you, you saw the line of boats going up to Texas about two weeks ago when it was actually closed. It was like, it looked like the Long Island Expressway for ships.
Uh, there are alternatives that people didn't know about and that's taking place more and more. There are pipelines being built right now all over the place. Uh, it's gonna be doing less business in the future than it used to.
Yingst: I'd like to ask you about the Iranian people.
Trump: Sure.
Yingst: On the first night of Operation Epic Fury, you addressed the world and the Iranian people directly. You said to them, "When we are finished, take over your government, it will be yours to take. America is backing you with overwhelming strength." You went on to say, "Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach."
Trump: Right.
Yingst: Do you still believe the Iranian people are capable of taking over their government?
Trump: I think they're afraid. Uh, they're being shot. 52,000 people, according to everything we have, probably more than that. 52,000 protestors have been killed in the last four or five months. 52,000. Uh, these are barbaric animals that we're dealing with. Uh, if you're a protestor, I don't care who you are, you're not gonna get out there.
When they had the woman protest where they had 250,000 women or thereabouts protesting, uh, before this all began and all of a sudden they saw them fleeing. They had snipers, one shot between the eyes, another shot between the eyes. All of a sudden you have four or five women dropped to the floor dead, bleeding from the head, and everybody fled.
I think it's very hard for them to protest unless they have lots of guns. And, you know, we've had guns, uh, going in a certain direction and even the guns get stolen. It's a terrible thing what's going on.
Yingst: When you made those remarks --
Trump: Yeah.
Yingst: Did you believe regime change was possible at that time?
Trump: Yeah, I did. If they had guns, if they had weapons, um, I didn't think that, that was also before all these assassinations, all these, you know, hits took place. Think of it, 52,000 people over the course of four months. The wrestler, you know, the wrestler was a big time wrestler. Him and his two friends were hung from a crane.
They were hung from a crane. So the people are afraid. And a lot of the stuff that you see in the streets is AI generated, okay? You know, where you show the big crowds for Khomeini and they're all crying and everything else. A lot of it's AI generated. Who would know? It's one of the problems with AI, frankly, but you can do a lot of false things, a lot of, a lot of false things.
But, um, I had no idea that they would be willing to kill 52,000 or, or even any people. Most, most governments are unable to do that. You know, President Erdogan had a problem where they tried to do it and the tanks came in and they wanted, and the tanks could not move forward. In China, they could. But in Turkey, they couldn't, they couldn't move forward.
The operator of the tank said, "I'm not gonna run over my own people." And he came up, you know, he came out as a strong leader.
Yingst: You've called the new leadership in Iran a changed regime. Do you still believe that?
Trump: Well, I, I knew the first group for a little while and they were evil and they're no longer with us. I knew the second group also a little bit better and they were evil and they're no longer with us. And the third group, they have some bad ones in there, some very bad ones in there.
Yingst: Just some?
Trump: And I think they're the ones that are stopping a deal.
Yingst: So are you negotiating with the wrong people?
Trump: Well, now we, I don't wanna negotiate now. I said, "Let's not negotiate." Three days ago, we had a deal and then they broke the deal. They were unhappy with the deal. They said, "We're not gonna go with the deal." They broke it. It was a reasonable deal. We had a deal. They broke it. They always break it. And for all those presidents that did this, what I'm doing right now did a very poor job of it. This should have been done a long time ago.
Uh, unless you're gonna use military force, there is no chance you could have a deal with Iran.
Yingst: So is it fair to say at this moment, the war has resumed?
Trump: I, I mean, I don't wanna get myself into a situation where, um, because honestly, it doesn't matter. We're doing what we're doing. I don't wanna necessarily say, I can say the military operation has resumed. Because when you use the word war, that's a different, even in Congress, it means a little bit different than saying military operation.
But I will tell you, large scale military operation is happening. And it's happening right now and it's decimating them. You go along the shoreline to the Strait and what's happening now, the one-way drones and all the different things that we're doing, we are just wiping them out.
Yingst: The Iranians are still counterattacking.
Trump: They have a capacity, they Have a capacity for, for pain, but this isn't even pain. They're being, their whole facility, their whole country, everything they have offensive and also defense is being wiped out.
Yingst: The Iranians are counterattacking, launching missiles at US allies and forces --
Trump: Yeah.
Yingst: -- in the region. How many missiles do you believe the regime has left?
Trump: Well, I tell you, they have, they have some. And so there's always a danger.
Yingst: Hundreds?
Trump: But for the most part, they're being knocked down. You know, they've done --
Yingst: Hundreds, thousands?
Trump: I don't wanna say. I, I know, I think I know, nobody knows an exact number. I think I know close to an exact number. They have some. Uh, they have largely spent their best ones, you know, their most impactful ones. But, um, if you look at over the last four or five days, they, they hit with a lot of missiles and almost every one of them has been shot down.
Yingst: Have any U.S. forces been injured?
Trump: Not that I know of.
Yingst: Sir, yesterday, Senate Democrats released a letter calling on your administration to unveil the findings of the investigation into a strike that killed more than a hundred children on the first day of the war. Will you commit to releasing the findings of this investigation?
Trump: Well, I'd have to speak to the generals that are doing the, 'cause we mostly have generals. You know, I don't think anybody's gonna ever be able to say what happened there because, um, if they have a, if they don't know by now and as of a couple of weeks ago, they didn't know. And while things like that happen in war, there are missiles flying all over the place.
Trump: And I don't know how anybody could say that we shot it.
Yingst: Is it possible, because there are images from this site that show fragments that appear to be from U.S. tomahawk missiles. Is it possible that old intelligence or a mistake during a very active time in the war led to this event?
Trump: It is, but it's also possible that those images that you have are AI generated. Because a lot, what they do is AI generated. They're actually very good at it. So I don't think that anybody, you know, I know we're waiting for a conclusive report. I don't think there can be a conclusive report. Release missiles --
Yingst: Will you release the report when it is finished?
Trump: I guess so. I mean, I have to ask the military people. There might be a reason why they can't. But, but if you look, um, take a look at what's happened. Look at the falsehoods. Look at all of the horrible things that have happened. Look at the fact that they killed 52,000 people and if you listen to them, they killed nobody.
Look at the mass graves that we have that we've seen. And if you look, this is a war that should end. This is a very terrible war. And by the way, while we're on it, Ukraine and Russia should end also. They're losing 25,000 y- -- mostly young soldiers a month. And that's another war that should end.
Yingst: How do you believe the war with Iran will end?
Trump: Um, I think that they are gonna be forced to sign a deal, a real deal, not a fake deal like the Obama won. The Obama one was horrible. The Obama nuclear deal, that's a, that was a horrible, that was a horrible thing. He went just in the exact opposite direction. He went against Israel. How Jewish people can vote for Obama, you know, meaning the Democrats or the Democrats as they call them.
How, how anybody from, that's at all caring about Israel, including, by the way, the evangelicals. You know, evangelicals love Israel as much or more than anybody. But how they can vote for a Democrat is hard to believe actually.
Yingst: I do wanna switch topics to Israel.
Trump: Yeah.
Yingst: And discuss your relationship with Israeli Prime Minister --
Trump: Sure.
Yingst: -- Benjamin Netanyahu. How would you describe your relationship?
Trump: Great. Great. I think it's really great. I mean, we have little disputes, but I think it's a great relationship. Look, we've done a great thing. If it weren't for me, and he will tell you this, Israel, I don't believe would exist right now. I did two things. I ended the Obama nuclear deal from my previous administration.
They would've had a nuclear weapon within two years of that time. They would've used it on Israel and probably some of these other countries where they sent bombs out, you know, they sent missiles out.
Yingst: Yeah.
Trump: So why wouldn't they have done nuclear? And the other was, and the big one, I think probably the biggest one was the tremendously successful attack with the B-2 bombers. And we obliterated their nuclear site. They were from two to four weeks away from having a nuclear weapon. If they had a nuclear weapon, you and I may or may not be here.
We would not be talking about Israel in a positive way. Israel would've been annihilated. Israel wouldn't be with us any longer.
Yingst: Two to four weeks.
Trump: They would've had it in two to four weeks. Yeah, they were very close to having it.
Yingst: So that was the intelligence that you were looking at ahead of this operation beginning.
Trump: I was told that within two to four weeks from those three sites, uh, they were gonna have a nuclear weapon. And I said, "You can't do that." You know, we had negotiations with them there too.
Yingst: Yeah.
Trump: And they, they never came through. They would've been so wise. Think of that country.
Yingst: Yeah.
Trump: We have done such. It'll take them 25 years to recover.
Yingst: Yeah.
Trump: Right now, without doing anymore, it would take them 25 years to recover.
Yingst: On Netanyahu, there are elections coming up in October in Israel. Have you ruled out endorsing a candidate other than Netanyahu?
Trump: Well, I'd rather not be political, but I can tell you one thing. He was a great wartime prime minister. We fought well together. We bought up, I mean, we beat some very tough customers and the odds were pretty much against us. Uh, you know, I just had, uh, some, some of the survivors from the Holocaust. Uh, I don't wanna say old, but they were rather old ladies.
One was 102, one was 97, one was 101. I mean, these were people, but they were Holocaust survivors. And when you think of what I did, I got all of these survivors now. I got the living ones and I got the dead ones. And the dead ones, 28 of them, remember?
Yingst: Mm-hmm.
Trump: And remember it started that we had 14 and it looked like we could never get, and you know who found them largely with other people was Hamas. Hamas was working to find them. Now, they were working under pressure, but we got all 28 back and the people, knowing they were dead, the parents were at least as, you know, intense, really intensified to get them back.
They were desperate to get their dead son, generally dead son. They were desperate to get their son that they know is dead back. People would see me and they would say, "Please, sir. Please, get my son." "Oh, where is your son?" "My son is dead," but it was as though he were alive. The people that had a dead son and wanted him back just as much as a person.
Now, we got the light ones and it wasn't just from that one period of time. We got them back for a period of a year. They were coming back, back, back.
Yingst: You and I spoke in Jerusalem in October of 2025.
Trump: Right.
Yingst: And we talked about how you worked to bring these hostages home out of Hamas captivity.
Trump: Right. It was very important.
Yingst: The Israelis have been fighting this multi front war, not just in Gaza, but also of course, with Iran, with the Houthis in Yemen, with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Do you want to see Israeli ground forces withdraw from southern Lebanon?
Trump: Well, redeploy is another word, uh, because, you know, we're getting along very well with Lebanon. Prime Minister, President, we get along very well. He had representatives come here. Israel's dealing with them very nicely. First time in many, many years. Lebanon has just been beaten up so badly and they've got Hezbollah there.
Uh, and the answer is from southern Syria and from parts of Lebanon. Yeah, it would good to get out, I think. And I think you might see things get a little bit calmer because we have to focus our energy on the big leagues. The big leagues are Iran and I don't want to see, I don't want to see a diversion.
So I would like to see them redeploy. I don't want to say get out. Redeploy is a better term.
Yingst: You mentioned, when we spoke on the phone during the war, that Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, may be tasked with dealing with Hezbollah. Do you still --
Trump: Well, he's had a pass, certainly. He's not a big fan and he's very tough, very smart. I'm the one that put him there. I put him there and everyone said he's too tough and you don't want to do that. You know, I think he's got a tough reputation with all of his past. His past is a little bit nasty. He's done an unbelievable job.
He's unified. If you look, he's unified Syria. The job he's done in Syria is unbelievable. It's like, in one and a half years, the job he's done is unbelievable. He's a young guy. He's a smart, tough guy. They wanted me to put a Boy Scout in and I said, "You know, Boy Scouts don't work well here." And he has done a good job.
Now, he would go in and take care of Hezbollah and he'd do it in a different way. He wouldn't knock down buildings. I hated to see buildings knocked down. The world hates to see a building knocked down in order to get one terrorist that they see running into a building because there are other people in those buildings.
Yingst: Are you saying you believe he would be more precise than the Israelis?
Trump: I think he'd be more precise, yeah, I think. And I can tell you, I know he'd like to do it.
Yingst: Does he need the green light from you?
Trump: Uh, I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking. Depends on what happens with Iran, but I'm thinking about it, yeah.
Yingst: I want to shift topics to Ukraine. Do you believe that the war between Russia and Ukraine will end during your administration?
Trump: I think so. Uh, I thought it would have ended before. So I settled eight wars, including a potential really disaster would have been Pakistan and India because they're nuclear countries, very powerful nuclear countries. In fact, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said, "Donald Trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives." It could have been more than that because that's a small portion of that population.
I mean, India's 1.5 billion people and Pakistan has a lot. Uh, I saved millions of lives. Armenia, you saw what happened there. That was done, Azer Bizon. So many, the Congo. The Congo, I stopped the Congo and Rwanda. They had 14 million people dead over a 12 year period. Uh, I stopped all these wars.
Yingst: What is it about Russia and Ukraine, though, that stands out to you? What's the road block?
Trump: I thought it would be the easiest because I get along with both leaders. I thought it would have been my easiest. I thought that, frankly, let's not, a little differently. It would have never happened if the election weren't rigged, if I were president, it would have never happened. That was not a war that was going to happen.
Putin and I were talking about it. I said, "Don't ever do it." That was a war that was never going to happen. That happened because of gross incompetence at a lot of different levels. And I have to always preface it by saying, that was not, and by the way, for four years, it didn't happen. It was only when I was out after three, four months.
I looked. I said, "You know, they're building up all these soldiers at the border. They're going to have war." I watched the way the Biden administrated treated that. Everything he said was the exact opposite of what he should have said. That's a war, Ukraine and Russia should have never happened. And you have a lot of dead people.
Again, mostly soldiers. I get, you know, I get pictures of these fields, these battlefields. Too many, I get too many of them, actually. I've never seen, it looks like the Civil War. You know, you take images of the Civil War, how violent it was. It looked like the Civil War, but maybe worse. You have one and a half, maybe two million people dead from that war and they're mostly young soldiers.
And by the way, because of the aggression, more so Russia than Ukraine, but a lot of them dead from each country.
Yingst: What have you told Russian President Putin about ending this war?
Trump: I tell him the same thing all the time. I don't want to go into great detail, but I say, "Vladimir, it's time for you to stop. It's time for this war to end."
Yingst: What does he say to you?
Trump: I think he's ready to make a deal.
Yingst: When?
Trump: Soon. Takes two to tango, but I think he's ready to make a deal.
Yingst: Two other foreign policy topics quickly. I wanted to talk about Venezuela. And we saw what happened, this nighttime operation to take then President Maduro.
Trump: In one of the greatest military events in history.
Yingst: Do you envision --
Trump: And by the way, you know, that's a strong military guy. Everybody there is a soldier. [Laughs] They have a lot of soldiers. That was an amazing a- -- attack. You could call it an attack, and for good reason, because you look at the drugs pouring in and you look at what they did with the prisoners. The prisoners, where they let all their prison, everybody in prison was let into the United States because we had a stupid open border pol- -- during Biden, we had this horrible, stupid open border policy.
Uh, but that was a, really a 48-minute attack, but it was a one-day attack. And now we get along great with Venezuela. We're taking out millions of barrels of oil, and we have paid for the cost of that war many times over and it's, uh, got a lot of oil.
Yingst: Do you see a similar scenario happening in Cuba?
Trump: U, no, because they don't have oil. Cuba doesn't have oil. Cuba was paid by Venezuela to be largely the security for various parts of Venezuela because they're tough and they're good. Uh, and they got blown up, you know, they got blown up in this short skirmish we had. I do see Cuba, a lot of things are gonna happen in Cuba over the next maybe two months, but, uh, I don't see it being like Venezuela.
Venezuela is --
Yingst: Militarily?
Trump: Venezuela has massive amounts of oil. We could do that with Cuba. It would not be hard for us to do, obviously. Venezuela's much bigger than Cuba.
Yingst: Mm-hmm.
Trump: But Venezuela is the, is the gold. It's got, it actually does have gold. It's got a lot of gold, got a lot of oil. It's got among the most, it's probably got the most valuable land on earth in terms of, uh, the gold, the rubies, the, the, you know, I mean, you go through it, it's like the craziest thing you've ever seen, but they have more oil than almost anybody but us.
Yingst: Sir, just two more questions for you. I wanted to ask you, uh, first of all, to give my condolences for the late Senator --
Trump: I agree with you.
Yingst: -- Lindsay Graham.
Trump: Great guy.
Yingst: When you think of Lindsey Graham and you think of foreign policy, what do you think about?
Trump: Well, he was a, a, a hawk if I've ever seen one. Uh, there's never been a war that he didn't like. And I would disagree with him on that a little bit. But, uh, he was strong on foreign policy. He was great if you're looking for extra money for the military. He was always there on that. You know, we're looking for 1.5 trillion and I think that's good.
We can take it from other places. And frankly, we're making a lot of money. The country's making a lot of money now. With the oil, with the oil prices, with, with all of the things we have, you know, we have one point, we, we have billions and billions and hundreds of billions of dollars right now building auto plants, AI plants.
There's never been a time like this. We have more people working today in the United States than ever before.
Yingst: I'd just like to conclude by talking about Iran.
Trump: Yeah.
Yingst: The news of the day. You said the strikes will continue --
Trump: Yeah.
Yingst: -- against the regime.
Trump: They will.
Yingst: When was the last time you spoke with an Iranian official?
Trump: Well, not me, but let's say my representatives. I have spoken to them --
Yingst: Mm-hmm.
Trump: -- but my representatives over the course of, well, actually an hour ago.
Yingst: And what message was delivered?
Trump: They wanna make a deal. But every time they make a deal, they break it. They don't wanna die. You know, they say they wanna die, and they have the 38 virgins and all of this. It's not true. And I say to them, "You wanna die, right? We don't wanna die." I say, "What about 38 virgins? You gonna die and be with 38 --" I hear different numbers all the time.
I hear 78. I hear 38. I hear 40, but let's use 38. "And what about the 38 Virgins? We don't know anything about Virgin." He's, that's made up propaganda. And I believe them. They don't wanna die. People don't wanna die. Uh, yeah, about an hour ago.
Yingst: And what message was delivered?
Trump: You better make a deal. You're not gonna have any, you're not gonna have anybody left. We're being very careful with the civilian population as you know, but I said, "You better make a deal, or you're not gonna have anything left."
Yingst: And you think they will?
Trump: They should. I don't know if they will or not. They're crazy. They happen to be crazy. But, uh, they should. If they're smart, they will. They should have made it a long time ago. They should have made it before our first attack, actually. They could have, and they would have been in a much better position.
Yingst: Sir, thank you for speaking with Fox News.
Trump: Thank you. Thank you very much. Good job.
Yingst: Thank you, sir.