RUSH: Grab sound bite 19 real quick. Donald Trump has an interview. I guess it’s a special coming up on ABC News tonight, and they have released a little clip from the special tonight. “President Trump: The First Interview.” And during the interview, David Muir, the anchor for ABC News: “Are you gonna direct U.S. funds to pay for the wall? Will American taxpayers pay for the wall, Mr. Trump?”
THE PRESIDENT: Ultimately, it will come out of what’s happening with Mexico. We’re gonna be starting those negotiations relatively soon, and we will be in a form reimbursed by Mexico, which I —
MUIR: So, they’ll pay us back?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, absolutely, 100 percent. Yes —
MUIR: So, the American taxpayer will pay for the wall at first?
THE PRESIDENT: All it is, is we’ll be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we make.
MUIR: When does construction begin?
THE PRESIDENT: As soon as we can. As soon as we can physically do it, we —
MUIR: Months?
THE PRESIDENT: I would say in months, yeah. I would say in months. Certainly planning is starting immediately.
RUSH: Right. He’s gonna do it. (chuckling) I think back to all of the people during the campaign, “He’s not gonna do it! He can’t build a wall. Come on, Rush, get serious! His supporters, they know he’s not gonna build a wall. He’s just using symbolism here.” And I think I even, at one point, may have offered that thought. I think I said, “I won’t be surprised if he doesn’t,” and I heard from Trumpsters, I heard from Trumpists with great detail on why and how he’s gonna build the wall and how it is one of the tent poles of his administration, and I got the low down on how it’s gonna happen. Now, you heard Muir here.
This is classic. (snapping) “The American people are gonna pay for this, right? The American people? I mean, the wall and the original payments are gonna be American taxpayer dollars, right?” “Well, yeah, but Mexico’s gonna pay for it, we’re gonna get it all back.” (stammering) “But — but — but — but — but — but — but — but — but — but — but — but the American people are gonna be paying for the wall, right?” “Well, no. Mexico is going to pay for it. In our transaction with Mexico, we’re gonna get it back 100%.” “But the American people, the taxpayers, the original cost, that’s their money!”
ABC, you can smell this coming, they’re setting up what obviously is gonna be a narrative that Trump lied. I can see how this is gonna fall out. They’re gonna say Trump misled the American people. The wall is gonna get built — if it does — and ABC cannot wait to say that original funding was not from Mexico, it was from the American taxpayer. And they’ll stop right there, and, as far as it goes, that will be factual. And then they’ll choose or not choose at some later time to explain how the money was reimbursed by Mexico, how Trump made that happen and how it ends up being a net zero expense to the bottom line.
I doubt they’ll ever get that far. That’s… I mean, this is predictable as the sun coming up, and Muir is telegraphing what they really are hoping to be able to do here by saying (stammering), “Mexico isn’t going to pay for the wall! We’re gonna pay for the wall! If Mexico…? If — if — if — if…?” I can see it now. “If we hadn’t used American taxpayer dollars, there wouldn’t be a wall, so, so, so Trump lied!” They won’t get away with it, don’t misunderstand. They don’t have a prayer of getting away with it, but they’re gonna try.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Robert in Grafton, North Dakota. It’s great to have you. I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call, Rush. It’s an honor to speak with you, sir. I gotta say, your political knowledge is absolutely unsurpassed, as is your technical knowledge of all things technical, computers and, you know, Apple products, everything. I learn so much from you every day, it’s crazy. I wanted to run an idea by you. This thing for the wall. I think, what if Trump uses all of the confiscated money that’s been confiscated in drug busts, billions and billions of dollars? That money, you know, theoretically would have made it back down to Mexico. Why don’t we use that money and reallocate it and put it towards the wall? They want to send their products up here, we’re gonna use it to build the wall.
RUSH: You know, that’s not a bad idea. The asset forfeiture laws. You go out and seize the assets of a drug kingpin or member of a cartel. Federal law already allows such seizures, and if you want to then sell the assets to whoever and use the money to fund the wall… Look, I think they’re looking at any number of ways, ’cause Mexico… It’s hard to say how this is gonna play out. Right now Mexico’s behaving as you would expect any nation (impression), “We are not going to pay for wall!” They’re saying this, and I’m sure they mean it. It’s a source of pride.
But at the end of the day, if Trump stays on this role and if Trump continues to knock down all these obstacles and if Trump develops a success track, what’s gonna happen is — it’s human nature — everybody is gonna want to get on board. Everybody’s gonna want to be in the light shining on Trump. It’s amazing, the numbers of people are gonna be hangers on or miniature groupies. I mean, even now there are people who initially opposed Trump who would kill to be on the team. They would love to be in there, ’cause they’re looking at it, and thinking, “This is fun! This guy meant it! They’ve gotta be having the time of their lives, the Trump team.”
It’s infectious, people want to get in on it, and I think even nations like Mexico when they see this stuff starting to work — and if it does and Trump’s popularity continues to build — everybody is going to want to get in on the act. (A little showbiz lingo there.) At the end of it all, I guarantee you that Mexico is one way or another gonna pay for it. Maybe the more accurate thing to say is by the time the wall is built, the American taxpayer will not have paid for it. Somebody’s going to besides us. He’s dead serious about this, and this is where people just think he’s just saying it to hear his head rattle. “He’s just talking to talk. He loves haering himself brag and so forth.” They still haven’t come to grips that the guy means it. You mentioned Apple. Do you like Apple stuff, do you like Apple products?
CALLER: You know, I do, I used to have Android. My wife and family and I, we used to have the Android, and I just was not happy with it, and we switched to Apple products, and I’ve learned so much listening to your different analysis of things, particularly with the phones and everything. My wife broke hers, unfortunately, and (chuckles) so I… Uh, we’re gonna have to do something here.
RUSH: Well, you just happened to catch me on a day I’m in a good mood.
CALLER: Oh?
RUSH: What kind of phone did she have?
CALLER: She had the 6 Plus.
RUSH: Okay, 6 Plus. That’s an antique now. Let me send you an iPhone 7 Plus for her. What is your carrier?
CALLER: Verizon, sir.
RUSH: Well, fine and dandy. The phones I have are unlocked. They’ll work on it. In fact, you can take a SIM card from her 6S Plus and put it in and she’ll be up and running. Does she have a color preference. I may be… I think I’m pretty stocked on color. What color she like?
CALLER: Oh, Rush, I tell you this is an absolute honor. You know, I was thinking if I was able to get through to you and blessed with a gift like that, you’re such a generous person, I really appreciate it. I’m thinking either rose gold or gold in honor of the Golden EIB Microphone.
RUSH: Been thinking about this for a while, have you? (laughing)
CALLER: We’ll always be remembered and reminded that it was a generous gift from you, Rush.
RUSH: No, no, no, no! I’m just having fun. I think I’ve got one each back there. I… (sigh) (tapping) Look, it will be one of the two. It’ll be one of the two, and just hang on. We’re gonna send it out UPS. UPS goes to where you live in Grafton, North Dakota, right?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: We’ll get it out as soon as we can. Just hang on so we can get your address and — I’m gonna throw in a pair of these new wireless AirPods. These things are phenomenal. I think even the people that have these do not know what all they’re capable of doing with ’em. They’re just phenomenal.
CALLER: Oh, man!
RUSH: Hang on.
CALLER: I’m honored Rush.
RUSH: No, you’re more than welcome. Don’t hang up — and after this break, just keep the radio on and I’ll tell you what color we end up getting. I was just back there the other day looking at the closet stash and I know there’s silver and rose gold. I’m pretty sure we got a gold one left. It’s the 7 Plus, 256 gigabytes, unlocked. Put your Verizon SIM card in there and you’ll be off and running.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re standing by for that. Trump is on his way to the Department of Homeland Security. He is gonna have a press availability there, and we insiders are told that he’s gonna list off all of the executive orders and executive actions that he has authorized.
A Wall Street Journal has a news alert. Listen to this: Trump will order “a ‘large physical barrier’ on the border with Mexico,” also known as a wall, but the Wall Street Journal doesn’t call it a wall. It’s a “large physical barrier.”
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’ve had a caller up there who has since… Well, they didn’t hang on. Wasn’t able to hang on, I guess. But I’m gonna share the caller’s question. I’m gonna give you the answer to it. The caller was very, very worried about Trump using all these executive orders and executive actions. And what I can gather… You know, I just have a line here that describes what the caller’s gonna say, so I’m having to assume that the caller’s point was, “I don’t like this executive action/executive order stuff ’cause it’s not permanent. I mean, if Trump can just do this with executive actions, can’t the next president just come in and erase ’em like Trump is erasing to Obama’s?”
On the surface, it’s a good question. But in many cases — not all — you have to realize that what Trump is doing. He’s simply canceling Obama’s executive orders and executive actions. He’s just eliminating, just canceling them, which didn’t have the weight of legislation behind them in the first place because Obama could never have gotten the votes for them, so he did it anyway. Obama famously said, “If Congress won’t act, I will,” and he suspended a bunch of immigration law and refused to enforce it. Like sanctuary cities. He refused to do anything about that.
What Trump is doing in many cases is simply enforcing existing law — and I hate to tell you this, but that’s exactly what his executive action or executive order on the wall is. There’s already legislation to build the wall! It’s just we haven’t done it! Back in 2006 (I’ll give you some names), Barack Hussein Obama, senator, Illinois; Joe Biden, senator, Delaware; Hillary Clinton, senator, New York; 64 House Democrats and 23 Senate Democrats voted for legislation to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
So Trump’s executive action or executive order to build the wall to get construction going is simply moving on previously signed legislation. The legislation was passed and was signed. Nothing has been done on it. Obama got elected and immediately stopped any action on it just like they stopped enforcing a number of other social-cultural laws that the Congress had passed. Now, it’s not every instance here that Trump is simply canceling or moving forward on preexisting legislation, if you want to call it that. It’s exactly what it is. Some of it…
There’s some fake news out there too.
How many of you have heard that Trump was gonna reinstitute CIA black sites? Fake news! They’re not gonna do it. I think that fake news came from Politico. They ran a story that Trump was gonna reopen CIA black sites, a’la things like Club Gitmo, only these are the real bad places nobody knows exist where deep torture takes place in the deep state! But it’s not true. It was totally made up. Spicer made the point in the press briefing. So all this executive order on the wall is doing is simply putting an exclamation point behind the legislation to build it in the first place. And in the process, by the way, what’s also gonna be illustrated is: “Hey, you Democrats? You’re out there saying, ‘You can’t do it, don’t do it, it’s horrible’? You voted for it, you hypocrites.”