Trump gives exclusive reaction to Biden's 'terrible' performance abroad
Former President Donald Trump joined 'Hannity' to discuss topics ranging from Biden's performance, the media and COVID origins
Former President Donald J. Trump joined "Hannity" on Thursday for an exclusive and wide-ranging interview, hours after President Biden held a closed-door summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland.
Trump told host Sean Hannity he is upset that Biden didn't score any wins during the summit, while in his view, Putin and Russia dominated the day.
The former president highlighted the fact Biden stood by his decision to assent to the NordStream II pipeline's completion while canceling a Canadian-American pipeline project.
He said Russia will receive an undue windfall from oil sales to Germany while Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to underpay her own dues to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which balance will instead continue to be subsidized by the United States.
"We gave a very big stage to Russia, and we got nothing. We gave up something that was unbelievably valuable. I stopped the pipeline, NordStream II, and the pipeline was stopped, and it was given back [to Germany and Russia] and nothing was gotten for it," Trump said.
"I think it was a good day for Russia. I don't think we got anything out of it."
Hannity went on to point out Biden's near-simultaneous canceling of the North American pipeline and approval of the North Sea connection killed as many as 10,000 U.S. jobs "with the stroke of a pen," while reports continue to swirl about Biden's 51-year-old son Hunter's purportedly lucrative business deals in Russia and vicinity. He asked Trump what would happen if his own 43-year-old son Donald Jr. was being scrutinized for Russo-Ukrainian business dealings while he as the president made policy decisions that directly benefitted Moscow.
"Well, you just have to read the news," replied Trump. "For five years, from the day I came down the escalator, we have been under investigation, and it turned out to be all full stuff. It was a terrible thing with the Russia, Russia, Russia, which actually made it difficult to deal with Russia," he said.
"It was a phony deal created by [California Rep. Adam] Schiff and [Hillary] Clinton and all of these people. It was a disgrace, an absolute disgrace that it should happen, and it really was dangerous and very bad for our country."
Trump added that Hunter Biden was reportedly paid $183,000 per month for being a member of the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
"But he admits that he knows nothing about energy. The whole thing is just terrible. The money from Russia, $3.5 million from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow," he said.
Trump went on to note that many in the mainstream media received Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting on what he called the "Russia hoax" investigation into whether he himself had Kremlin ties or allegiances.
"They did get Pulitzers, and it turned out to be, they got Pulitzers for absolutely incorrect and opposite reporting. It was horrible reporting, and there are many people that should have gotten Pulitzers where they had it right, but they were not considered, and it is a disgrace," he said.
He said the award, named for the late St. Louis Post-Dispatch publisher Joseph Pulitzer, has been "disgraced" by its recipient list as of late.
When asked about whether Biden is showing signs of frailty as of late, with host Sean Hannity pointing to public statements where the 78-year-old Delaware Democrat appears to lose his train of thought or makes incomplete sentences before cutting himself off, Trump said the current President's age should not be a problem.
"[H]is age is not the problem," said Trump, who himself turned 75 this week.
Trump said his good friend and Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus is 92 and still at "100 percent."
"Look, I hope [Biden] has no problems. I want him to do well. I want him to go out and do well. I think the election was unbelievably unfair, but I want this guy to go out and do well for our country."
However, Trump says he does not like watching Biden verbally stumble in routine press availabilities like those in Geneva.
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Pivoting to the economic downturn under Biden, Trump compared the early months of the Biden administration to the run-up to the economic collapse seen under President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s.
"By the way, now you are going to see very soon a big interest rate increase all of a sudden, which is step one," he said.
"I don't know if you remember during the Carter administration where the prime rate went up to 21%. I was there. I was there. And you couldn't get anything – the economy came to a halt."
Trump said the potential for economic collapse is being hastened by Biden's hardline policy halting most new sources of domestic energy production.
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A federal judge, however, recently halted a Biden plan to place a moratorium on certain Alaskan oil and gas speculation – a move that earned a temporary sigh of relief from the Last Frontier's Republican governor, Michael Dunleavy.
"We no longer will be energy independent – within a matter of weeks," lamented Trump. "They are closing down everything. What's happening is not to be believed."
Trump again reiterated that the biggest beneficiaries of Biden's energy policies are Russia and the Middle East.
"They will make Russia so rich because of what is happening. When I left it was $1.87 a gallon for a gallon of gas, now it is over $3. It's going to up to $5, $6, or $7, mark my words, and that is bigger than a tax increase," he said.
"We are being led very, very stupidly, and I said this during the debates and people didn't listen…"
Trump called the current state of the U.S. economy and energy sector a "Bernie Sanders Dream" – adding that the Vermont socialist senator likely "can't believe it."
"This is far worse than Bernie was ever going to be," he said of Biden. "Bernie Sanders would have never even thought to suggest some of the things that are happening right now."
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