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Trump says he thinks 2020 opponents agree with his approach to trade with China

President Donald Trump discusses trade negotiations with China, tensions in the Middle East on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," July 1, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: Good evening and welcome to "Tucker Carlson Tonight." We are live from Paju, South Korea. Just behind us, you can probably see it is the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone, and that's the barrier that separates this country, South Korea from the dictatorship right across the border run by Kim Jong-un.

Just a couple of days ago, we interviewed the President in Japan following the G20 Summit. We thought that was the end of our time in Asia, we'll have that interview for you in just a few moments. But after that concluded, the President invited us to come with him here to the most heavily defended border in the world. We accepted, of course, and we were privileged to quite unexpectedly become witness to history.

The President held what turned out to be a momentous meeting impromptu with Kim Jong-un. He was the first American President to set foot in North Korea. He walked with Kim alone across the border between the two countries. We stood a few feet away and then walked back and held a press conference standing in the middle of the road. We were there.

It has implications much more broad, though, than just the pictures that came back. A few months ago, the President had a Summit with Kim in Hanoi, as you know, of course that collapsed and his efforts to denuclearize North Korean peninsula looked dead.

Now in just a moment, those hopes may have been revived. In any case, it really was a remarkable scene and we have pictures that we took there. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: We are in one of the strangest places in the world. Behind me are two countries that could not be different. Here's the contrast. On the left is South Korea, you can see the flag flying white in the flagpole; to the right, less than half a mile is North Korea. You can see it there. The red and blue flag of the DPRK.

That village right behind my right shoulder is fake. There are no inhabitants there. There's no floor actually in any of the buildings. It is purely a propaganda village designed to show the rest of the world that the standard of living in North Korea is very high. Of course, no one is fooled by it.

But you really are right here looking at the greatest divide on Planet Earth. On the left, one of the richest countries in the world; on the right, the single poorest. Amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're taking this live on TV right now, is that okay? Okay.

CARLSON: Standing on the North Korean border, the President with the South Korean President, President Moon about to meet with the North Korean leader.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone needs to back up. This shot is not here right now.

CARLSON: North Korean security right behind me, the most humorless people I think I have ever seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey, hey. Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait until they move.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait until they move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, how do you feel?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I feel great. It's a great honor to be here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just looking at this, this is an expression of his willingness.

TRUMP: Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

CARLSON: That was unbelievable. There is a reporter getting manhandled. It's not clear by whom -- I'm sorry, I've got to watch this.

TRUMP: It's a great day for the world and it's an honor for me to be here.

CARLSON: That was -- that was mind-blowing. So the President walks across with Kim Jong-un. He stood right the middle of the street. Almost no one around as you can see. This is the famous blue houses.

Kim was visibly winded from the probably 20-yard walk. He looked bewildered, a lot of cameras here going off in his face. We were probably four feet away from him. He seemed out of his element.

It really felt like something amazing just happened.

CARLSON: Something just happened with North Korean security. There are a lot of them. There appear to be military leaders, party leaders and then a lot of heavies, a lot of bodyguards and some of them are really aggressive.

And a couple of them going after, I think American journalist, and got physical with them. The Secret Service -- our Secret Service dramatically and there was a scuffle in very tight quarters on the way into the conversation between Trump and Kim.

CARLSON: So Kim just walked backed into his country. These are the North Korean security guards. They don't like being filmed.

Also traveling with Kim was a pretty large contingent of photographers and cameraman. They set up ladders as Kim came out and stood right in front of the American cameraman, our Secret Service tried to push them back and this man right here, it got intense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

CARLSON: He doesn't want to be filmed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: The most sinister group I've ever seen, ever. Well, the Bible tells us that "Blessed are the peacemakers," but that rule holds no weight in the Democratic Party, apparently.

The many candidates running to replace the President in 2020 were not impressed with Trump's appearance at the DMV. Like the rest of Washington, they can talk tough knowing that their lives won't be at any risk in any war that they start.

They complain that protecting the world from nuclear devastation isn't worth shaking hands with a very bad man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Despite three years of almost bizarre foreign policy from this President, this country is no safer when it comes to North Korea.

JULIAN CASTRO (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not quite sure why this President is so bent on elevating the profile of a dictator like Kim Jong- un.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've seen a history here, especially in this case, where Donald Trump announces the Summit, and nothing really comes out of it.

It's not as easy as just going and you know, bringing a hot dish over the fence to the dictator next door.

REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have no idea why he is shaking hands with a dictator. You don't reward that kind of behavior with a visit to your country from the President of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: No war? We don't get to have a war? Well, the neo-cons went completely bonkers. Max Boot and the rest of them over at MSNBC. Watch one of their analysts, Elise Jordan -- whoever that is -- tell you that it's just immoral not to have a war. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELISE JORDAN, MSNBC ANALYST: It makes me want to puke, just my visceral reaction as an American who cares about democracy and human rights. The fact that Donald Trump is going out of his way to kiss up just to this monster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So you just heard from lawyers, journalists, and whatever category Beto O'Rourke is in these days. What does someone who has commanded troops think of the President's meeting?

Colonel Douglas MacGregor is retired from the U.S. Army. He is the author of the fantastic book, "Margin of Victory," and he joins us tonight. Colonel, thanks a lot for coming on.

COL. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR (RET), U.S. ARMY: Sure.

CARLSON: So Washington is not impressed by this. Should the rest of us be impressed?

MACGREGOR: Absolutely. This took great courage on the part of the President, but he knew that in order to restart this process of denuclearization and normalization, frankly with North Korea that he had to make a grand gesture.

So he did the thing that everyone least expected. He took the extra step and he went forward to Mr. Kim. He knows that North Korea is in ruins. North Korea really is finished. It lags behind Sub-Saharan Africa.

North Korea desperately needs help or things will fall apart over there in ways that we would rather not see. And I'm sure that the President discussed this with President Xi and President Xi supported him.

We don't want a war on the Peninsula under any circumstances, no one in Northeast Asia does. So President Trump has the courage to step forward and make it clear that we will contribute to a peaceful outcome on the Peninsula.

CARLSON: So what would be the motive behind the statements you just saw? Virtually everyone in Washington was united in saying it's immoral for the President to shake hands -- to make physical contact -- with someone as evil as Kim Jong-un. That's in fact worse than the prospect of nuclear war. Where does that attitude come from?

MACGREGOR: Well, clearly, if you want to promote human rights, if you want to improve the position of the Korean nation, remember, we have 49 million Koreans in South Korea, 25 million in North Korea, President Moon really speaks for the majority of the Korean nation. He wants the people in North Korea to enjoy a better standard of living and a better life.

And he knows that once these two are in contact with each other, that this regime as we've seen it over the last 30, 40, 50 years simply won't survive.

So I think Washington takes the view that any change that disrupts the money flow and that changes the larger national security construct that is the stationing of forces anywhere, anything that threatens that status quo is bad.

And President Trump from the very beginning has been the great disruptor. Fortunately, for the American people, he is disruptive and he is going to produce peace in Northeast Asia whether the neo-cons like it or not.

CARLSON: You'd really have to be stupid to want to preserve the status quo on the Korean peninsula. That's insane. So what is the next step toward a permanent peace -- toward reunification?

MACGREGOR: I think there are a couple of things that the President will want to do. The first of those is make an End of War Declaration. Remember, the Korean War has never ended. We have effectively a status quo, which doesn't admit to peace.

We take the position that the war is unending, so that has to stop. President Xi wants and end to it, so does Moon, so does Mr. Kim. When you do that you take off the table once and for all, the use of force to change the status quo on the Peninsula. That's very important to everyone. We don't want to do that. And certainly Mr. Kim does not want to see his country liquidated, not through military force.

The second thing is that I think President Trump needs to turn the operational control of all the forces in South Korea over to President Moon and his generals. That's something that is long overdue. We should not be commanding all of those forces. When that happens, that's a very powerful signal because it says that South Korea is sovereign. The decisions will be made by the Koreans, not us. It is after all their country. It's not ours.

CARLSON: That seems like something the President might be open to striking. You're one of the very few people in Washington who would say that, which is why we so enjoy having you on. Colonel, thank you. Great to see you.

MACGREGOR: Thank you.

CARLSON: What we noticed at the DMZ meeting -- because it was impossible not to notice -- that Kim Jong-un was breathing heavily and sweating after walking just a few yards across into South Korea with the President. He is obviously overweight. But does this suggest serious health concerns that will affect in the coming years international diplomacy? It's worth thinking about.

Dr. Marc Siegel is a Fox medical contributor, a frequent guest on the show. We're happy to have him on tonight.

So doctor, it was clear, and I don't know if it came through in the pictures, but we were just a couple of feet away right there from Kim Jong- un that he was winded, like he was breathing through a straw almost after walking probably 25 yards. Why?

MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Tucker, you described that very accurately, by the way for a non-physician. And I know you were just three feet away from him. And the first thing I think of is something called obesity hypoventilation syndrome, which is a fancy word for someone who is obese and can't get enough air into their lungs and has a thick neck where the fat in the neck suppresses breathing.

So in order to breathe, you breathe very rapidly, and you take shallow breaths, and you may have sleep apnea at night as well, which is another health condition.

On top of that, we know he is a heavy smoker. And we know that as a heavy smoker that can interfere with lungs. I don't know if he was audibly wheezing, Tucker, because you said wheezing a few times, but a wheeze sounds like a whistle.

CARLSON: Yes.

SIEGEL: So if he is audibly wheezing, that implies either asthma or emphysema, again, I don't know any of this for sure. But if he -- even in his 30s, if he is chain smoking, as long as he apparently has, he could have early emphysema and on top of the obesity problem, he could be wheezing.

Now, interestingly enough, he travels with a portable toilet. Right? That may be so foreign governments are not able to analyze what he is taking. Is he on medication for his breathing problems? Could he be on steroids? Could he be on inhalers? All of which of course can impact how long he can stay in power, and how long he stays healthy, if he is healthy.

CARLSON: Interesting, we should say that there's so much we don't know about Kim Jong-un. We don't know his age, for example. He is either 35, we think or 36, say the South Koreans. But this is really a man. We don't know the name of his wife actually, it could be a pseudonym.

So a lot of this is speculative. But quickly, doctor, looking at him, would you be concerned if you were his physician?

SIEGEL: Absolutely, Tucker. He is deconditioned. You know, the conditions I talked about all lead to fatigue and problems with sleeping and need for special machinery ion sleeping.

The smoking on top of the obesity and the thick neck all the time will lead to major health issues. So if he keeps chain smoking, he is going to have a big problem. I definitely would be concerned about his health based on what I've seen and what you have described over there as my assistant.

CARLSON: Well, I'm hardly a physician, but it was -- it was very, very, very noticeable.

SIEGEL: He has to watch out.

CARLSON: Dr. Siegel, great to see you tonight. Thank you very much.

SIEGEL: You, too.

CARLSON: We're live from the DMZ in South Korea. Remember, no matter how bad your day has been, you probably had more fun than one of Kim Jong-un's bodyguards. They are a dour bunch to put it mildly.

It's time for our interview with the President of the United States. North Korea's nuclear weapons aren't President Trump's foreign policy concerns. We have Iran, China, and Afghanistan. We asked the President about all of those places and much more. That's after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back. We're in South Korea tonight hosting just a few feet from the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone right behind us, which faces North Korea.

As the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan showed, the Korean Peninsula is far from the only concern that the American President has about the rest of the world. China's rise, of course, is always first on that list, the chief rival to the United States globally.

The U.S. came within minutes of starting war with Iran. Two weeks ago, you'll remember that, too. And then in Afghanistan, American troops are still dying 18 years after the fall of the Taliban.

We asked the President about all of those things in Part 1 of our interview with him. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: Mr. President thanks for this.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.

CARLSON: You just recently hours ago met with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping.

TRUMP: I did.

CARLSON: Are you closer, do you think after that meeting to a trade deal?

TRUMP: I think so. We had a very good meeting. He wants to make a deal. I want to make a deal. Very big deal, probably, I guess, you'd say the largest deal ever made of any kind, not only trade.

We got along very well. We understand each other. He is going to start buying a lot of farm products, which is great for our farmers while we negotiate. And I'm going to not increase tariffs, which I could do -- we have a lot we can do.

And we're going to put our teams together and continue a great negotiation.

I think we can -- I think we can do something that will be historic, but we'll see. I mean, we're going to see. I'm in no rush.

We have a situation that works very well for us, and I'm sure he is happy. What we're going to do is they're going to buy a lot of farm products. We're not going to increase tariffs at this moment. And we'll see what happens with the negotiation, but we had a very good meeting.

CARLSON: Do you think your political opponents in the U.S. are on your side in this negotiation?

TRUMP: I think they are actually. I think they like the fact that we charged tariffs. You know, look, China has been beating us badly for many years.

President Obama did nothing meaning, "O'Biden." I don't even think I have to say that anymore. He did -- they did nothing. And neither did in all fairness to President Obama, nobody did. It was crazy.

And we had a deficit last year of $506 billion -- billion with a B. You almost say, "You mean $500 million? Don't you know?" $506 billion, and this has been going on for years and years and years.

We've rebuilt China and they did a great job. I give them a lot of credit.

I don't -- I don't discredit them for what happened. I discredit our people that should have been doing what I'm doing right now. And it's not pleasant.

Our farmers have been incredible. They are great patriots and it's going to pay off big for our farmers.

CARLSON: You came very close to sending the U.S. military to strike Iran. You pulled back at the last moment. You were criticized by neo-cons in Washington for doing that. They wanted you to strike Iran. Why do you think they wanted that?

TRUMP: I was given a lot of credit by most people. A lot of people gave me of credit.

CARLSON: The public was on your side for sure.

TRUMP: A lot of people said that was a great presidential moment, which was, you know, rather shocking to hear.

So we shut down an unmanned drone.

CARLSON: Yes.

TRUMP: And they claim, it was over their territory, which it wasn't, but they would say that, so on top of it, they'll say, unmanned and over their territory, then we go in.

Before I sent them out, they had to give me everything I wanted to know by seven o'clock. They walked in, they gave me everything but they didn't tell me how many people would die. How many Iranians -- I know a lot of Iranians from New York City, and they're great people. They're all great people. Were all great, right? Iranian or not.

I said, "How many people are going to die?" And they said, "At least 150." I said, "So let's get it. They shot down an unmanned ..." not a brand new exactly thing either -- the drone -- they shot it down and we're going to now kill 150 or many more people, you never know. Once you start doing what we'd do or what they'd do, and nobody does it better than us, you don't know how many people are going to die.

So I said, "I don't like that. I don't like it." And I stopped it before. I did -- we didn't send them out, you know, there was a little incorrect reporting. It was like we sent them out and we pulled them. But we didn't do that. I didn't -- I made the final decision not to do it.

I built up a lot of great capital, and if something should happen, we're in a position to do far worse by not doing it. But hopefully, we don't have to do anything. Iran now, since we terminated that horrible deal, which was a truly horrible deal, and, you know, you and I aren't so different in terms of fighting, we want to have peace. We want to build our roads and build our schools and build all the things we want to build.

But we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And you may even agree on that because I know where you stand. The show is great. I watch it a lot.

But you can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And you can't let certain other countries have nuclear weapons. It's too devastating.

So they're having a lot of difficulty in their country right now. And hopefully, at some point, they'll come back and they'll say, "We're going to make a deal." Let's see what happens.

CARLSON: Two American servicemen killed in Afghanistan this week. How much longer do you think our troops will stay?

TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you. I've wanted to pull them out. And you know, I have pulled a lot out. We were at 16,000. We're down to about 9,000, which a lot of people don't know.

In Syria, as you know, I've pulled most of them out. We've defeated the Caliphate. Now when you say Caliphate and defeat, the Caliphate's land, it's an area we've taken back a hundred percent.

But these people -- ISIS -- they're stone cold crazy. So that doesn't mean somebody is not going to walk into a store and blow up a store, which they do.

So I never say defeated them, but they were decimated. And this went on for a long time and other people didn't do what I did. We did it. We did it very effectively. Our military, there's no military like our military in the world. I don't want to have to use it very often. But we took back the Caliphate.

With Afghanistan, it's 19 years and we should not have been there 19 years and if we were, you know, it would be nice to fight to win. But it's just 19 years. They're building hotels -- we are. I mean, we had a Holiday Inn that cost numbers that would be 10 times what it should have cost.

They built a gas station, a pretty famous deal where it costs like $80 million to build a gas station.

CARLSON: It's a Lawford gas station.

TRUMP: Maybe more. Okay. They probably did. If they report 80, that means more.

And we have the greatest fighters in the world. But when you're 19 years, you're really becoming like a police force. So we have pulled it back. We're actually negotiating with various people. But we want to get out. We want to get out of a lot of areas that we're in. We shouldn't be there. We shouldn't be there. We're the policeman for the whole world.

You know, if you look at Russia, Russia doesn't police the world. Russia has -- you know, they police Russia.

CARLSON: Yes.

TRUMP: You look at China. They don't police. They don't have troops everywhere. What they have is, they have people taking out the minerals out of the ground. They don't have troops.

We have a case in Afghanistan where we have troops on one mountain, it's a very mountainous country, rough country, beautiful country, actually in a lot of ways. But we have troops, and on the other mountain ridge, China is there with big excavating equipment, taking out minerals. They don't have people. Now, it's pretty dangerous for them, because their people tend to be shot as they're operating the machines. You know, it's not exactly the safest place.

So we've reduced the force very substantially in Afghanistan, which I don't talk about very much, and that's okay.

CARLSON: Could you see getting out entirely?

TRUMP: I'll tell you the problem is, look, I would like to just get out. The problem is, it just seems to be a lab for terrorists. It seems -- I call it the Harvard of terrorists.

When you look at the World Trade Center, they were trained. They didn't -- - by the way, they attacked the wrong country. They didn't come from Iraq, all right. They came from various other countries.

But they all formed in Afghanistan, and it's probably because it's at the base of so many countries, but they all formed and it's rough mountains and you get a lot of -- you know, you get a lot of good hiding places.

But I would leave very strong intelligence there. You have to watch because they do -- you know, okay, I'll give you a tough one. If you were in my position and a great looking central casting and we have great generals, a great central casting general walks up to your office, I say, "We're getting out." "Yes, sir. We'll get out. Yes, sir."

I'll say, "What do you think of that?" "Sir, I'd rather attack them over there than attack them in our land." In other words, them coming here. That's always a very tough decision, you know, with what happened with the World Trade Center, et cetera et cetera.

When they say that, you know, no matter how you feel, and you and I feel pretty much very similar. But when you're standing there, and you have some really talented military people saying, "I'd rather attack them over there than have them hit us over here and fight them on our land." It's something you always have to think about.

Now, I would leave and will leave -- we will be leaving. Very strong Intelligence, far more than you would normally think because it's very important, and we can do it that way, too. But we have reduced the forces very substantially in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: Just hours after our interview with the President, the Pentagon announced that yet another American soldier has died in Afghanistan. His name is Green Beret Medical Sergeant Elliott J. Robbins.

Pentagon says he died of noncombat related injuries on Sunday. We don't have more details than that, unfortunately. We do know though, he is the 11th American soldier to die in Afghanistan just this year.

We talked to the President about a lot more than foreign policy. When we come back, we'll ask the President about the homelessness epidemic in the United States. Contrasting that with Asia, which does not have that problem, and the threat that Big Tech poses to your basic freedoms as an American. That's next.

We're live tonight from Paju, South Korea. As we go out, we want to show your picture, this is one of Kim Jong-un's bodyguards. I took pictures of a bunch of them with my iPhone. I found their faces fascinating, I couldn't resist. They didn't like being photographed. But I thought it was worth preserving. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back to Paju, South Korea. We're standing just a few feet from the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone where the President met with Kim Jong-un on Sunday.

Back to the United States, the President just kicked off his reelection campaign with the slogan Keep America Great. Great or not, though America still has quite a few problems. Homelessness is a huge one. So is the opioid epidemic and Big Tech, and its strangulation of some of our most basic freedoms.

The President will have to address those problems if he wants to win reelection, and we asked him about all of them in Part 2 of our interview. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: Google, by some measures, the most powerful company in the world -- all information flows through it -- they're against you. They don't want you reelected. Can you get reelected if Google is against you?

TRUMP: So you know, I've been hearing that about Google and Facebook and Twitter.

CARLSON: Yes, that's right.

TRUMP: Okay. I won. They were totally against me. I won. Hillary --

CARLSON: They didn't think you were going to win.

TRUMP: Well, they fought me very hard. I mean, I heard that and they're fighting me hard right now, which is incredible because I think the Democrats want to shut them up and frankly, so do a lot of the Republicans want to shut them up.

If you look at Twitter, I have millions and millions of people on Twitter and it's -- you know, it's a very good arm for me. It's great social media. But they don't treat me right.

And I know for a fact, I mean, a lot of people try and follow me and it's very hard. I have so many people coming up that they say, "Sir, it's so hard. They make it hard to follow." What they're doing is wrong and possibly illegal. And a lot of things are being looked at right now.

But you're right, Google is very powerful, but I won. And a poll just came out today, I'm at 54 or 55, and they do say you can add 10 to whatever poll I have, okay? And I never get good press. I mean, I haven't had a good story. I used to get the best press in the world. You remember the old days when I was an entrepreneur, I used to get great press.

Now, I get -- because of what I stand for and represent and nobody has ever had, I think 93 percent -- it came out the other day, 93 percent, and I'm talking about stories that should be good, they make them bad or should be great, they make them like neutral. And yet I won, and I'll win again.

So when they say it's the most powerful, it may be, but they were against me. Facebook was against me. They were all against me. Twitter was against me. Twitter -- I've been very good for Twitter. I don't think Twitter would be the same without what I do on Twitter.

But they just have this crazy disposition. They have this philosophy, and yet, the Democrats are very much opposed to them in so many ways. It's sort of an amazing thing.

CARLSON: So you just said that what the tech companies are doing maybe illegal, is there a role for the Justice Department in finding out?

TRUMP: Well, they could be and I don't want to even say whether or not they're doing something, but I will tell you, there are a lot of people that want us to and there are a lot of people -- all you have to do is pick up a newspaper and read it or see it or watch Fox or watch some other network. There are a lot of people that want us to take action against Facebook and against Twitter and frankly, against Amazon.

CARLSON: Yes.

TRUMP: Amazon also. A lot of people want us to take action.

CARLSON: Are you going to?

TRUMP: I can't say that, Tucker. That I can't say.

CARLSON: You've come to where we are now Osaka or Tokyo and the cities are clean. There's no graffiti. No one going to bathroom on the street. You don't see junkies.

TRUMP: It's very nice, isn't it?

CARLSON: Very different from our cities.

TRUMP: Yes. Well, no, some of our cities --

CARLSON: Some of our cities, but New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles - they've got a major problem with --

TRUMP: It's very sad.

CARLSON: With filth. Why is that?

TRUMP: It's a phenomena that started two years ago. It's disgraceful. I'm going to may be and I'm looking at it very seriously, we're doing some other things that you probably noticed like some of the very important things that we're doing now. But we're looking at it very seriously because you can't do that.

You can't have what's happening -- where police officers are getting sick just by walking the beat. I mean, they're getting actually very sick, where people are getting sick, where the people living there living in hell, too.

Although some of them have mental problems where they don't even know they're living that way. In fact, perhaps they like living that way. They can't do that. We cannot ruin our cities. And you have people that work in those cities. They work in office buildings and to get into the building, they have to walk through a scene that nobody would have believed possible three years ago.

And this is the liberal establishment. This is what I'm fighting. They -- I don't know if they're afraid of votes. I don't know if they really believe that this should be taking place. But it's a terrible thing that's taking place. And we may be --

You know, I had a situation when I first became President, we had certain areas of Washington, D.C. where that was starting to happen, and I ended it very quickly. I said, "You can't do that."

When we have leaders of the world coming in to see the President of the United States and they're riding down a highway, they can't be looking at that. I really believe that it hurts our country.

They can't be looking at scenes like you see in Los Angeles and San Francisco. San Francisco, I own property in San Francisco, so I don't care except it was so beautiful. And now areas that you used to think as being, you know, really something very special, you take a look at what's going on with San Francisco, it's terrible.

So we're looking at it very seriously. We may intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up. It's inappropriate.

Now, we have to take the people and do something. We have to do something.

CARLSON: Right.

TRUMP: And, you know, we're really not very equipped as a government to be doing that kind of work. That's not really the kind of work that the government probably should be doing.

We've never had this in our lives before in our country. And it's not only those few cities, it's a couple of other ones.

CARLSON: No, it's a lot of cities.

TRUMP: At the same time, most of our cities are doing great. But if you look at some of these, they are usually sanctuary cities run by very liberal people and the states are run by very liberal people.

But the thing that nobody can figure out is do these governors or mayors, do they really think this is a positive? Do they really think this is okay? Because it's not. It's destroying their city. And it's destroying a whole way of life, and it's not our country. It's not what our country is all about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: We have still more of that interview with the President. We asked him later in that hour about UFOs, we will tell you what he said Friday during a special edition of the show.

But there's more going on in the news, not just here in Asia, Beto O'Rourke has also been outside the United States looking to drum up support for his campaign in Mexico. Amazingly.

As we go to break, another still photograph taken on the iPhone of one of Kim Jong-un's bodyguards. Quite a group. Their faces tell you a lot. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT. We're broadcasting live from the border between North and South Korea on the DMZ where the President met yesterday with the dictator of North Korea. He became the first American President to set foot on the soil of the DPRK.

But the President isn't the only American traveling abroad this summer though. Yesterday while the President was in Korea, his would be replacement Beto O'Rourke of Texas was campaigning for votes in Mexico. It's true. Beto went to Juarez where he met migrants and said that of course, America is to blame for all of their problems. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: We know that people are literally losing their lives. We just heard this from the gentleman losing their lives, as they're no longer able to cross at ports of entry. They're trying to cross in between ports of entry.

We as a country have decided that that's what we will do. We put them in this precarious position. We have caused suffering. We also have the opportunity to make this better and to make this right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So it's America's fault that you're breaking our lives. You know, at moments you think, is Beto O'Rourke real or is this some kind of sophisticated parody? Is he actually a right winger doing a Borat style propaganda video designed to undermine the left? That has to be the case.

Watch this. Beto went on to say that America must accept all migrants from everywhere in the world because we're responsible for global warming -- all of it. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: We've got to remember that they are fleeing the deadliest countries on the face of the planet today, compounded by drought that was caused not by God, not by Mother Nature, but by us. Manmade climate change, our emissions, our excesses are in action in the face of the facts and the science.

When it is that deadly, and when you're unable to grow your own food to feed yourself. You have no choice but to come here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Is Beto O'Rourke for real? That's the question some people are asking. Ethan Bearman, hosts Left Coast News. He joins us now, as Beto would say. Great to see you, Ethan, so it goes without saying that there's no scientific evidence to support anything that this moron just said. But I guess my question is, is it legitimate for a presidential candidate to campaign for votes in a foreign country? Let's just start there.

ETHAN BEARMAN, PODCAST HOST: Well, he is not campaigning for votes in Mexico. What he is doing is listening and learning, which is an attribute we should be celebrating to understand what is happening from the people who are actually coming here.

He was right that these are the deadliest countries in the world we're talking about, essentially failed governments in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, would that need help and manmade climate change scientists

Talking about, essentially failed governments in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, would that need help, and manmade climate change scientists have come out and said it has contributed to the food insecurity that is having two-thirds of people in those countries are suffering from food insecurity, which also causes people to flee them.

CARLSON: Let me stop you for a second. Can I ask you some questions?

BEARMAN: If a gang -- yes.

CARLSON: Since we're getting to root causes.

BEARMAN: Yes.

CARLSON: It was Spain, colonial Spain that sailed over to Latin America, enslaved the native population and started a form of government and a culture that has been corrupt for 500 years now. Why is it the fault of the United States? Why does Spain never get any of the well-deserved credit for wrecking an entire region? That's my first question to you. Do you know what the answer might be?

BEARMAN: Well, I think that's interesting. Some people do talk about Spain, but I would talk about the Monroe Doctrine is when the United States decided to get heavily involved in Latin America. And ever since then, that is our sphere of influence. It's close to our home, we have a responsibility to make sure for our own national security to help those countries out. And our failed drug war has only contributed to all the problems that we're seeing right now.

CARLSON: Okay, may I ask you a question?

BEARMAN: So there are a multitude of issues and Beto is right.

CARLSON: Is there anybody in America -- we act like, oh, it's so easy to fix Guatemala. The Guatemalans have been working on it for hundreds of years and have failed. Who in America has the secret recipe? The formula for fixing Guatemala and Honduras? Who would that be?

BEARMAN: Well, and that is a -- I don't know that there's one individual, but I guarantee if we got the right people together, and actually, I think -- hang on a second.

CARLSON: No one has any freaking idea actually, is what you're really saying

BEARMAN: I think -- oh no, no, no. I mean, it's a combination of economic issues. It's a combination of government functioning issues. I actually think that President Trump with his example of meeting with Kim Jong-un in the DMZ could be an example that we could use in Central America as well.

If American leadership decided to intervene in places that are in our own backyard, and contributing to issues that we're so worried about, which is human beings fleeing violence and food insecurity, I think that is an opportunity for him.

CARLSON: But I thought -- I thought intervening in those countries was sort of what caused their problems in the first place, but you're saying we need to intervene more? I'm completely confused.

BEARMAN: Well, it was the way we intervened. It was the way we intervened.

CARLSON: So you're saying that our intervention wrecked those countries. It wasn't mismanagement locally. It wasn't Spain, it was us. But now we need to meddle more, but you're not really sure how that's going to fix it. But we still have an obligation to do it. That seems to be the argument I am hearing.

BEARMAN: Well, let's look at -- let's look at things like economic incentives. Let's look at things like eco-tourism. Let's help them rebuild their own economies and put incentives in place to ensure good government -- governance -- along with our reformation of the failed drug war to defund the cartels and we could put in economic sanctions through --

CARLSON: It sounds like more colonialism.

BEARMAN: Oh, I mean, we could just use the banking sector like we're doing with Iran and North Korea against the cartels. We're not doing that now, Tucker. We sure could.

CARLSON: Ethan Bearman, great to see you tonight. Thank you.

BEARMAN: Thanks, Tucker.

TEXT: Tech Tyranny.

CARLSON: There are a growing number of studies that show pretty conclusively that social media are making Americans lives much worse.

Facebook and other big tech companies are getting rich from it. They seize your personal information, they spy on you. In return, you receive a product that makes you feel lonely and less happy.

The suicide rate is spiking as a result, but most Americans don't quit using social media, because they're addicted. And they're addicted because Facebook and other social media are designed to be addictive, just like cigarettes, is there a way out?

Larry Sanger thought a lot about this. He is the person who thought up Wikipedia. He is a cofounder of Wikipedia. He's now Chief Information Officer on Everipedia. He is calling on Americans to go on strike against social media this week. We're delighted by the idea. We wanted to hear more. Larry Sanger joins us tonight. Larry, thanks a lot for coming on. Tell us what you're proposing.

LARRY SANGER, CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, EVERIPEDIA: I'm proposing a global non-ideological strike could end up being the biggest strike in history, in objection to our treatments at the hands of the social media giants.

CARLSON: Amen.

SANGER: So I think this is a horrible problem. Basically, the root problem that I see is that they have collected all of our data in silos that they control, right? So Facebook has a silo, Twitter has a silo, Instagram and so forth, they can't talk with each other. Right? And they act like the data that they hold on to is theirs. That's the root problem and that generates a whole bunch of other problems that --

So for example, first of all, they, as you said, sell our data to the highest bidder.

CARLSON: Yes.

SANGER: What makes that possible is that the data is not encrypted, right? They don't want it to be encrypted because then they wouldn't actually be able to use it, right?

CARLSON: Right.

SANGER: Okay.

CARLSON: So you're watching, wait --

SANGER: I'm sorry --

CARLSON: I want you to the action part, because we don't have a ton of time. But I want our viewers to understand how they can participate.

SANGER: Sure.

CARLSON: I think a lot of people are very frustrated ...

SANGER: Yes.

CARLSON: ... with the powerlessness they feel in the face of these massive tech companies. If you're watching this show, right now, what can you do to express your displeasure?

SANGER: Okay, get ready, July 4th and July 5th, what I want you to do is to not participate in any of the big centralized social media networks except to do this thing, which is to share your displeasure to say that you are on strike, to encourage your friends to do the same and also sign the Declaration of Digital Independence, which is something that I've written that explains the problems and lays out a solution, according to which we own our own data and we contribute to a common pool. And it tears down the silos and makes it possible for different apps to talk to each other.

CARLSON: And disempower some of the worst people in America. Larry Sanger, thank you for this. I really hope this makes a difference, I really do.

SANGER: Thank you.

CARLSON: Thank you.

SANGER: Are you going to strike?

CARLSON: Of course. I'm already on strike.

SANGER: Awesome.

CARLSON: I don't use social media.

SANGER: I love it. Thank you.

CARLSON: Thank you though.

SANGER: All right.

CARLSON: Good to see, Larry. For years Antifa has literally rioted in the streets and hurt people, the left ignores them or cheers them on literally. On CNN they've cheered them on.

Now, they nearly murdered a journalist over the weekend. That journalist has just gotten out of the hospital and joins us next. We suspect Antifa would be a little less brave if instead of attacking unarmed journalists, they had to take on members of Kim Jong-un's security detail. These guys were all armed by the way. They weren't allowed to be, but we saw the weapons on them. We're live tonight from the North Korean border. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Andy Ngo is an independent journalist in the Pacific Northwest. He been on the show a number of times. He covers Antifa quite a bit. He was at an Antifa rally over the weekend minding his own business covering the news. He's a journalist when he was beaten almost to death by Antifa, he wound up in the hospital. He just got out and joins us now on this program. We're happy to see him.

Andy, I'm glad you're capable of doing this interview. Tell us what happened.

ANDY NGO, EDITOR, QUILLETTE: On Saturday, documenting this protest that was organized by Antifa and its allies. We were literally a stone's throw away from Portland's most important institutions of the rule of law -- the courthouses, the sheriff's office, the central police precinct -- while hearing people chant, "No hate, no fear," and then suddenly bashed on the back of my head from behind.

And from there, I'm a very pacifist person. I've never been in a fight. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was actually even hit in my head.

When I realized what was happening, it was too late. A mob of people all dressed in black and wearing masks started beating me with their fists and some of the nice objects to hit me.

I don't know how many people were involved, it seemed like five, ten, fifteen or twenty, it could have been that many. They beat me so much that I lost control of my GoPro camera that I was holding, which was then stolen from me.

And when I thought it was over, I was wrong. I put my arms up to try to shield my face as well as to signal to them that I was surrendering, that I wasn't there to fight, but that really signaled to them to be more aggressive.

So then they started dumping what I believe were milkshakes and eggs, throwing it out myself which blinded me. So I couldn't see and I was kicked some more and punched some more.

And all this time I kept thinking, "Where are the police?" I could still see the Multnomah County Justice Center in front of me, but no police arrived.

I eventually stumbled away, bleeding, across the park, and I lost my balance. So I sat down on the ground in front of the courthouse. And from there, a medic SWAT team informed me that in order to get an ambulance to be taken to a hospital, I would have to walk to the police precinct.

In other words, walk back in the direction of the demonstrators who just attacked me.

Later that night after arriving in the emergency room, I had a CT scan, which confirmed -- that I was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage.

CARLSON: From which you're suffering neurological damage. Just to remind our viewers, this is the group that CNN's primetime anchors have defended and promoted.

I saw that Andrew Yang who is running for President as a Democrat, bless him, attacked Antifa for this. Have you received any other support very quickly from any other Democratic office holders in Portland or nationally?

NGO: Not that I know of.

CARLSON: Not that I know of. That tells you everything. Andy Ngo, we're happy that you're at least capable of joining us tonight. That's a shocking story, an enraging story. We wish you the best on your recovery and we hope you come back. Thank you.

NGO: Thank you.

CARLSON: Shocking. We bid you farewell tonight from the North Korean border with one more look at those North Korean bodyguards. They really were remarkable. They tell you everything. That man in particular, he was not a fan.

That's about it for us tonight. We'll be back tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m., the show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity and groupthink. Good night from Korea, Sean Hannity is next. Jason Chaffetz is in for Sean, live from New York City.

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