take it with you." i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." "wall st" begins right now. ♪ ♪ >> from our nation's capital, this is a special edition of maria wart row's -- bartiromo's" wall street." maria: happy weekend, everybody. welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. i am bringing you my exclusive sit-down interview with president donald trump speaking about everything from the u.s. economy to interest rates and the federal reserve as well as his controversial comments about the late senator john mccain. i began by canning the president what his administration is doing to keep the economic boom going. >> it's happening. you look at what's going on with respect to china, our deal is coming along very well.

we'll see what happens, but we're taking in billions and billions of dollars for the first time ever against china in the form of tariffs. i think the deal will probably happen. i think they need it very badly. nobody's ever really seen anything quite like what's happening. and we did the mexico and canada deal, usmca. that's going very well. i think that it should get approved pretty quickly by congress because it's a great deal. it's a really great deal. nafta was, to me, one of the worst deals i've ever seen. i think the wto is terrible also, by the way. think that's a really bad one. but we're winning cases all of a sudden, because we never won cases. they know my attitude, if they don't treat us fairly, we get out. and there's a big difference there. we're doing a good job -- we finished up at 3.1 gdp. everybody, you know, that hasn't been done in 14 years, maybe more than that, but 14 years. and i think we have tremendous momentum right now.

and you're right, the world is slowing, but we're not slowing. and, frankly, if we didn't have somebody that would raise interest rates and do quantitative tightening, we would have been at over 4 instead of a 3.1. maria: and the fed said this week, actually, signaling we're not going to see any more rate hikes this year. do you think you influenced that system? >> i don't know. i hope i didn't, frankly. but it doesn't matter, i don't care. one thing, i was right. but we would have been over 4 if they didn't do all of the interest rate hikes. and they tightened. i mean, they did $50 billion a month. i said, what are we doing here. and so i'm not -- 3.1 may be the best in 14 years, i'm not happy with it. we should have had much higher, and hopefully now we won't do the tightening. because with the world going so, you know, off and with a lot of of things happening, you don't do tightening at this time, and we'll see what happens. but we have tremendous the potential as a country.

our companies are doing phenomenally well. the earnings are great. we have the greatest companies in the world. we're not being treated properly by other countries -- maria: but things are slowing. so can you keep this growing? >> oh, i think so. maybe others can't, but i think we can. maria: you've got officials head ogg to beijing this week, you said the tariffs are going to stay in place for a substantial period of time. is there a snag in these negotiations? >> no, not at all. if you look at technology, the first $50 billion of goods, we want to keep that. we have what's called the chicken tax, you know what that is -- maria: yes. >> the small vans and trucks. that's a great thing for us, and that has to do with the automobile industry. that's the best segment. people don't know we get a 25% tariff on that segment. that's our best segment by far. and, yeah, we will absolutely be able to keep it -- not only keep it going, i really think we have tremendous potential. the world going, the world is going in a little bit the wrong

direction. not horribly. i think a lot of people are waiting for the deal with china. i think that's going to have a very big impact, maybe bigger than people know. as to whether or not it makes it, i think it will. i think we're getting very close. that doesn't mean we get there, but i think we're getting very close. maria: i'm glad you mentioned the chicken tax, that 25% tariff on european light trucks, because right now the commerce department is looking at autos and auto parts and whether or not they pose national security risks. do they? >> well, no. what poses a national security risk is our balance sheet. we have to have a strong balance sheet, other side you don't have national -- otherwise you don't have national security. when germany is sending cars and we virtually don't tax them and yet they won't accept our cars, namely the european union -- which, frankly, treats us as badly as china. the numbers are just smaller by a lot. but, you know, we lost over the course of the last five, six,

seven years $150 billion a year with the european union. they don't take our product. they tax us tremendously, they tariff us tremendously. almost every country has taken advantage of the united states, and we're straightening it out. maria: yeah, but if you slap more tariffs, if you slap tariffs on auto and auto imports, doesn't that affect the global stream of goods? doesn't that slow down the economy -- it's expensive. >> sure, it does. you know what it does? they'll build their plants in the united states, then they have no tariffs -- >> what if the europeans come back to you and say, mr. president, let's go to no tariffs? are you willing to give up -- >> no. a chevrolet will never sell like a mercedes sells here. they've offered me that. oh, i have an idea, we'll go -- no. well, the problem is that the chevrolet will never be accepted in europe hike the mercedes is accepted here. i wouldn't do that deal. maria: so you wouldn't do zero tariffs. >> i would do it for certain

products, but i wouldn't do it for cars because they have bmw, mercedes, a lot of very good cars that come in, and they make them here. i want them to make them here. if you're going to 'em sell them to the americans, make them here. maria: you mentioned usmca, a lot of democrats say they're not going to vote for it in its current form. do you have a plan if it doesn't pass? >> maybe you go pre-nafta. one of the worst deals ever made, and i do include wto. wto gave us china in its current form. they're considered a developing nation. we put an end, you know, we've let them know we're not going to stand for that. we let the folks over at the world trade organization know we're not going to stand for that. but, so think of it. china, india, these are all considered developing nations. we're not a developing nation. they have a big advantage over us. why didn't people come out strongly against that in past administrations?

they should have. that's a tremendous advantage. we are not allowing that to happen. we've advised them that we are not going to stand for that. maria: still to come right here, more of my exclusive interview with president trump. conservatives have been censored on social media, could the president introduce regulation to fix it? his response to that coming up. don't go anywhere. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ maria: welcome back. well, conservative speech and conversation has been censored by some social media companies. now congressman deafen nine necessary' decision -- deafen -- knew necessary decision has brought attention to the bias. could the administration be tempted to regulate the social media giants? here's what the president had to say in my fox business exclusive. >> well, hate the concept of regulation on media, but it's very unfair. you talk about the word collusion, the collusion between the democrats and these people, it's ridiculous. it's hard to believe i won. if you think about it, i had facebook, google, twitter, everybody against me. i have the media's almost totally against me. and yet i won. 306-223. people can't even believe it, i won. because i'm able to get the word out through my social media because i have great social media. but i'll tell you, it's much tougher than it should be.

i deal with twitter. it's not right the way they do it. i know exactly what they're doing. they take people off my account. they make it very hard for people to join. i had a time very recently ago where i was picking up hundreds of thousands of people in a very short period of time. now when i pick up -- and i guess i have way over 100 million on the different platforms -- [laughter] maria: wow. >> way over a hundred million, but it gives me a voice, because it's a corrupt media. you know, i call it fake media, but it's fake and corrupt. the good news is you understand that -- and i'm not talking about that you, by the way. 93% negative news, and i think it's worse than that. maria: do you want to break these companies up? >> i don't with like the concept of it. i really would like everybody to be free, but they don't treat us the same way as they treat liberal democrats and others. because the democrats, actually, are becoming a far-left party. i mean, they're becoming a radical party. you look at what they want to do with the supreme court, what they want to do with the voting

age. where did that come all of a sudden, the voting age at 16? they're becoming radical. they are radicalized. you look at this green new deal. it's the most preposterous thing. now, i don't want to knock it too much right now because i really hope they keep going forward with it, you know, frankly, because i think it's going to be very easy to beat. maria: i've got to ask you about the news of the week. you spent a good portion of your time in ohio the other day trashing senator john mccain. >> it's not a good portion of my time, it's a very small portion. if you realize about three days ago it came out that his main person gave to the fbi the fake news dossier. it was a fake, it was a fraud, it was paid for by hillary clinton and the democrats. they gave it to john mccain who gave it to the fbi for very evil purposes. that's not good. and the other thing, he voted against repeal and replace. now, he's been campaigning for years for repeal and replace. i'm not a fan. after all of this time, he's --

think of this -- repeal and replace. we would have had great health care. maria: but, mr. president, he's dead. he can't punch back. >> no. i don't talk about it. people ask me the question. i didn't bring this up, you just brought it up. you -- maria: well, you talked about it this week. >> you asked me the question. when i went out yesterday to the scrum, they asked me the question. when ask me the question, i answer the question. but you people bring it up. i'm not a fan. he was horrible, what he did with repeal and replace. what he did to the republican party and to the nation and to sick people that could have had great health care, was not good. i'm not a fan of john mccain, and that's fine. maria: do you feel the responsibility as president to bring the nation together? >> i do, and i think i am in a certain way. a big portion of this nation is united like it's never been united before. you look at our economy, you look at jobs, you look at african-american, the lowest in the history of our country,

unemployment numbers, the best numbers they've ever had -- maria: but that's what i'm saying. >> hispanic, you look at asian, you look at women, the best numbers in 65 years. i think i am bringing it together. i think -- maria: not by talking about john mccain. >> i just said you brought up a question, maria. i didn't bring it up. i didn't mention john mccain until you asked me a question about john mccain. now, i could say i have no comment, but that's not me. actually, i thought you weren't supposed to bring it up, but that's okay. fake news every once in a while. maria: you just told me why you have an issue with him. it's real news. >> he handed something to the fbi on me. he knew it was a fake. he handed it to the fbi. that's an issue. maria: and now we're going to get -- >> repeal and replace of obamacare, he campaigned for years, that's an issue. maria: and now you're going to get the mueller report. >> what it's always interestingo me, a deputy that didn't get any

votes appoints a man, he's going to write a report on me. i had one of the great election races in history. would you say that's true? maria: yeah. >> and now i have a man that, because we have an attorney general who -- [laughter] nobody can even believe that he didn't tell me, but he recused himself. so i have a man who was a deputy who i don't know, who i didn't know at a all, and he appoints a man 40ed had just left my office. i didn't give him the job at the fbi -- maria: we covered every -- >> well, wait a minute. and you know it better than anybody, but think of it. i have a deputy, appoints a man to write a report on me to make a determination on my presidency? people will not stand for it. now, with all of that being said, for two years we've gone through this nonsense, because there's no collusion with russia. you know that better than anybody. and there's no obstruction.

they'll say, oh, wait, there was no collusion, that was a hoax, but he obstructed in fighting against the hoax, okay? think about that one for a second. maria: coming up, more of my exclusive one-on-one interview with president trump. he tells me who he'd like to face off against in the 2020 election. the answer might surprise you. back in a minute. ♪ ♪ want more from your entertainment experience?

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weekend. despite the deep divide in washington, the president is still confident that he can get bipartisan support in several areas. listen. >> and i think the easiest thing, frankly, of all, i could have started it with number one, but i wanted to get the tax cuts. the easiest thing is infrastructure. they want it, i want it. i spoke to nancy pelosi about it the other day. we agree on it. we even like -- i think we like the type of infrastructure we're talking about. maybe in a certain way more democrat from my standpoint than the republican concept. private/public. i like, frankly, owning our own roads, owning our bridges. i don't like selling them to -- maria: but is it even feet able? -- feasible? they don't want to have any victories. >> i think they want to do it. nancy pelosi told me they want to do infrastructure. and we have other things we can do too. i think we should do something on immigration. we have laws that are so bad, people pouring in. i tell you what, border

security, border patrol what they've done, is incredible. the job that i.c.e. is doing, what they're doing without the protection and the ability to have a wall, now, and by the way, we're building a lot of wall right now, you know that. we're building the wall, and it's going up fast, big, strong, looks good. not the horrible thing that they were building before i got here. we're building the wall now. we're going to have a lot of wall built pretty soon. but if you don't have that, you can't have border security. maria: who do you want to go up against in 2020? >> people say a lot of weird things. i hear not only the green new deal, but so many others -- maria: medicare for all, a tax on wealth -- >> so you have beto, and beto comes out and says let's take down the wall. this country would be overrun, okay? and we put up a lot of wall. like in san diego, so interesting. in san diego they're begging me to do the wall. i end up doing the wall, and

then i see the governor of california criticizes me for the wall. they're begging me to do it. and they know this better than -- it's all a political deal. it's all politics. but -- maria: you want to run against beto? >> i wouldn't mind. i'd love to have biden, bernie, beto. beto seems to be the one the press has chosen. the press seems to have the chosen beto -- maria: is this socialism versus capitalism? >> and when i watch beto, i say we could dream about that. whatever it is -- no, i think it's competence. i think it's somebody -- look, when i first ran, i was never a politician. i ran, i ran on a certain platform. i've done far more than i said i was going to do when you look at the tax cuts, when you look at the regulation cuts. more than any other president. when you look -- it's the biggest tax cut. you look at even a thing like right to try, what people can now use they're terminally ill, and they can use medicines that

we've developed by signing a simple document. they used to travel to asia, to europe, all over the world to try and get a cure. you look at so many things i've done for the veterans, choice, accountability. you never thought you'd have accountability. you couldn't fire anybody if they treated our vets badly. now you have accountability. veterans choice where if they have to wait two week on line or two days, they can see a private doctor finish. maria: let me end on the golan heights because you tweeted about this today, you said it is time for the u.s. to recognize israel's sovereignty. why now? why did you send that out now? >> i've been thinking about doing it for a long time. it's been a very hard decision for every president. no president has done this. this is very much like jerusalem, moving the embassy to jerusalem. i did that, and i fully understand why every -- clinton and bush and obama, everybody campaigned on jerusalem and the embassy going to jerusalem. i even got the embassy built, by the way, very inexpensively.

they never did it, and i understand why. because when i got elected, i also campaigned on it. when i got elected, i was inundated with calls from all other the world, mostly the leaders saying, please, don't do it. i did it, and it's been done, and it's fine. the golan height is the the same thing. for years other presidents have campaigned, they said they'll do it. this is sovereignty, this is security, this is about regional security -- maria: it's not about re-election? >> no, i wouldn't even know about that. i have no idea. i hear he's doing okay. i don't know if he's doing great right now, but i hear he's doing okay. but i would imagine the other side, whoever's against him, is also in favor of what i just did. every president has said do that. i'm the one that gets it done. maria: a big thank you to president trump for his time this weekend. don't go anywhere, more "wall street" when we come back. ♪ ♪

maria: welcome back. coming up next weekend on the program, minneapolis federal reserve bank president and ceo neel kashkari is my special guest. and i will see you this weekend on sunday morning futures over on the fox news channel. 10 a.m. eastern live, join me for more of my exclusive interview with president trump on fox news. also on sunday morning futures, my guest interviews with republican congressman john ratcliffe and democratic congressman ro khanna. a lot to discuss there. all that and a lot more, sunday morning, 10 a.m. eastern on fox news channel. plus right here on fox business, start smart from 6-9 a.m. eastern for mornings with maria. have a great weekend, everybody. that'll do it for us for now.

thank you for being with me, i'll see you again next time. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ gerry: hello and welcome to the "wall street journal" at large. well, this week was another of those topsy-turvy weeks when things we thought we knew about the world turned out to be wrong after all. take interest rates. when 2019 started, markets were in a why would panic. the main source of of the fear seemed to be the federal reserve. investors were alarmed that the u.s. central bank was going to kill off the long economic expansion. jay powell, the fed chairman and his colleagues, seemed to be hell bent on raising interest rates. many powell had indicated the