After its Oval Office interview with Trump on July 25, 2017, the Wall Street Journal released highlights of what the newspaper considered the most newsworthy sections<\/a>. But, as always, there was a lot more that didn\u2019t make it to print\u2014at first. Then, one week later, the full transcript was leaked to Politico<\/a>. And, once again, Trump\u2019s abject, know-nothing grasp of critical issues is on full display.<\/p>\n

I have been reading the complete transcripts of these interviews since the first jaw-dropping one materialized in November 2016. <\/a>They leave me speechless\u2014unlike the president\u2014and more frightened for the future of our country than anything else I\u2019ve read about the empty person in a baggy suit who occupies the Oval Office. This is the man-boy unrehearsed, scriptless and spontaneous, responding to questions he doesn\u2019t understand with \u201canswers\u201d he hasn\u2019t thought about. If you want to know who this person is backstage, how his brain connects to his mouth, and what his \u201cidea\u201d of an \u201cidea\u201d is, these transcripts offer a primary, unfiltered source of information.<\/p>\n

You can read the full transcript at Politico.<\/a> If you choose not to, here are some excerpts that reveal a lot about how little Trump knows, how incoherently he speaks about things he doesn\u2019t understand, and how a no-brainer president really sounds. No wonder the WSJ didn\u2019t include these passages in its story and tried to suppress leaks.<\/p>\n

On taxes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I want to achieve growth. We\u2019re the highest-taxed nation in the world, essentially, you know, of the size. But we\u2019re the highest-taxed nation in the world. We have \u2013 nobody knows what the number is. I mean, it used to be, when we talked during the debate, 2 \u00bd trillion (dollars), right, when the most elegant person \u2013 right? I call him Mr. Elegant<\/strong>. I mean, that was a great debate. We did such a great job. But at that time I was talking $2 \u00bd trillion. I guess it\u2019s 5 trillion (dollars) now. Whatever it is, it\u2019s a lot more. So we have anywhere from 4 to 5 or even more trillions of dollars sitting offshore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Comparing the US economy to those of other countries:<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I deal with foreign countries, and despite what you may read, I have unbelievable relationships with all of the foreign leaders. They like me. I like them. You know, it\u2019s amazing. So I\u2019ll call, like, major \u2014 major countries, and I\u2019ll be dealing with the prime minister or the president. And I\u2019ll say, how are you doing? Oh, don\u2019t know, don\u2019t know, not well, Mr. President, not well. I said, well, what\u2019s the problem? Oh, GDP 9 percent, not well. And I\u2019m saying to myself, here we are at like 1 percent, dying, and they\u2019re at 9 percent and they\u2019re unhappy. So, you know, and these are like countries, you know, fairly large, like 300 million people. You know, a lot of people say \u2014 they say, well, but the United States is large. And then you call places like Malaysia, Indonesia, and you say, you know, how many people do you have? And it\u2019s pretty amazing how many people they have<\/strong>. So China\u2019s going to be at 7 [percent] or 8 percent, and they have a billion-five, right? So we should do really well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Trump is surprised by how many people there are in Malaysia and Indonesia. Note, too, how he does not understand why the fully developed US economy can\u2019t grow at the same rate as a country like China or Indonesia, which are developing nations with more potential for rapid growth.<\/p>\n

On NAFTA:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking for fairness\u2026 No, it means \u2013 look, our automobile industry has just left us and gone to Mexico \u2013 I mean, a big chunk of it. And it\u2019s very unfair for them to take our companies, build their cars, and then sell the car back into our country with no tax. It\u2019s very unfair.<\/strong> They fire all our people in Michigan and Ohio, and they take it, and they build a car. And now they sell the car back in with no tax. It\u2019s not fair.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On estate and corporate taxes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When George Steinbrenner died, like with the estate taxes, the estate paid nothing. And if he would have died like two weeks later, they would have paid 50 percent of the Yankees. That would have been the end of the team, right? He had very fine tax planners. But it hasn\u2019t come up\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026We think we\u2019re going to have tremendous growth. We think money\u2019s going to come pouring into the country.<\/p>\n

\u2026Look, we\u2019re losing companies. People don\u2019t even realize how bad it is, but we\u2019re losing companies every single day where they\u2019re leaving because the taxes are too high. When we do this, we\u2019ll have companies \u2013 I know companies that have left. They go to Ireland, they go to other \u2013 I own a lot of property in Ireland. They go to Ireland because of these incredible tax rates, and other places, right? We\u2019ll have companies pouring back into our nation. I mean, it\u2019s going to be \u2013 you know, it\u2019s going to be beautiful.<\/p>\n

I hope we can \u2013 I hope we can do the 15 percent, actually. By the way, 15 percent is not by any means the lowest, but at least we would go from the highest to one of the lower, lower taxes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But those are just the \u201csubstantive\u201d topics Trump tried to bullshit his way through. The interview also meanders to Jared Kushner [\u201c\u2026a really nice, smart guy\u2026he\u2019s a good\u2014he\u2019s a good boy\u201d<\/em>], the United Kingdom [\u201cI mean, you don\u2019t hear the word Britain anymore. It\u2019s very interesting. It\u2019s like, nope.\u201d<\/em>],<\/em> and the infamous Boy Scout speech [\u201c..I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them.\u201d<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Look [to steal a word from Trump\u2019s own limited repertoire of explanatory introductions], Trump can hire and fire communications directors and advisers until the lights go out, but he appears incapable of achieving command of the issues, is not interested in learning about them, and cannot talk about them without revealing his ignorance. And nowhere are those facts more evident than in the fact-free twilight zone of Trump\u2019s transcribed interviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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