President Trump Showcases Historic Successes, Future Vision in Exclusive NBC Interview

In a commanding, nearly hour-long Oval Office exclusive with NBC News anchor Tom Llamas, President Donald J. Trump delivered a clear-eyed assessment of his Administration’s remarkable record of achievement and success delivering on his America First agenda. More than one year into his second term, President Trump showcased the game-changing progress on the nation’s most critical issues while reaffirming his unbreakable resolve to renewing American strength and making the nation greater than ever before.

Here are some key moments:

• On his motivations for public service: “I only do this for one reason: Make America Great Again, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re making America great again — greater than ever before.” (Watch)
• On the Trump Administration’s highly successful immigration enforcement: “We are totally focused on criminals — really bad criminals… We have 11,888 murderers that Biden and his group let into our country. We’ve captured a lot of them… We are after those people. We’re after the drug dealers… We’re getting them out.” (Watch)
• On the unprecedented success of his first year back in office: “You know, I’ve done a great job as President. They say I’ve had the best first year of any President in history — and I think I have. If you look, I settled eight wars, biggest tax cuts ever… I think I had the greatest first year that we’ve had.” (Watch)
• On voter ID: “Why don’t the Democrats want voter ID? You know who does want voter ID? Democrat voters want it — but Democrat politicians don’t. Why don’t they want it?  Because they want to cheat on elections… If they don’t want voter ID, that means they want to cheat. We can’t allow cheating in elections.” (Watch)
• On the massive fraud scandals plaguing Minnesota and other Democrat-run states: “Minnesota and these other states, we have massive investigations going into fraud. Do you know if we captured 50% of the fraud of this country right now, we would have better than a balanced budget?… Minnesota: $19 billion in fraud that we know about.” (Watch)
• On the honor of serving as President: “All I know is this: It’s such an honor. I’m walking down and everyone’s screaming, ‘GOAT! GOAT!’ I said, ‘What are they talking about?’ I hope they’re right — not for me, but for the country. Because if I do a great job that means the country is doing well.” (Watch)
• On recent shootings in Minneapolis: “I’m not happy with the two incidents… ICE wasn’t happy, either, but I’m going to always be with our great people of law enforcement. ICE, police, we have to back them. If we don’t back them, we don’t have a country.” (Watch)
• On his confidence in Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: “She was in charge of the border. The border is closed… We have the best crime numbers that we’ve had in 125 years. I think she’s doing a very good job… She’s not getting credit for the job that she does.” (Watch)
• On Artificial Intelligence: “AI is a big deal. AI is going to be maybe the biggest thing — bigger than the Internet, bigger than anything else. We are leading China by a lot. We are leading everybody by a lot.” (Watch)
• On his health: “I feel great. I mean, physically and mentally, I feel like I did 50 years ago. It’s crazy. Now, there’ll be a time when I won’t be able to give you that answer — but that time hasn’t come yet.” (Watch)
• On top Administration officials: “JD [Vance] is fantastic and Marco [Rubio] is fantastic. They’re both doing a great job… One is slightly more diplomatic than the other. I think they’re both of very high intelligence… They’re both very capable.” (Watch)
• On corruption in Democrat-run cities: “There are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt. They have very corrupt elections. Take a look at Detroit. Take a look at Philadelphia. Take a look at Atlanta. There are some areas that are unbelievably corrupt. I could give you plenty more, too. I say that we cannot have corrupt elections.” (Watch)
• On Cuba: “We are talking to Cuba… We have tens of thousands of people that were forced out of there… Maybe they want to go back because they’re going to have that choice. For years, they’ve been talking about this happening. Now, it’s happening. We are talking to Cuba. We want to open it up to those people that want to visit.” (Watch)
• On Chinese President Xi Jinping: “We have a very good relationship — and, you know, it’s important that I have a good relationship and, for him, that he has a good relationship with me. These are the two most powerful countries in the world and we have a very good relationship… China is paying a lot of tariffs. In the past, they didn’t.” (Watch)
• On constructing a triumphal arch in Washington, D.C., to commemorate America’s 250th birthday: “We’re doing one that will be more magnificent and larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris… It’s incredible. We’re going to do one that’s going to top it.” (Watch)
• On his safety in the aftermath of two assassination attempts: “I worry about it, but you have to put it out of your mind otherwise you wouldn’t be able to do your job.” (Watch)
• On his predecessor: “Biden was a bad thing for old people. He’s the worst thing that ever happened to old people because he obviously didn’t have it — and one of the things that’s so depressing about the press is the press refused to report the obvious.” (Watch)