Trump talks surviving assassin’s bullet, gives Harris ‘F’ on border, touts ‘mass deportations’

PUBLISHED | AUG. 25, 2024, 9AM CST |

Las Vegas, Nevada — Dr. Phil McGraw sat down with Donald J. Trump for another exclusive interview in only a matter of months.

The talk show host traversed two states in the same day to score separate interviews with Trump in Las Vegas and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Arizona. McGraw broke the news to Trump that Kennedy Jr. had endorsed him after announcing he had suspended his independent presidential campaign in 10 battleground states.

It was one of many topics the two men discussed.

JULY 13 ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Trump described the moments leading up to surviving at attempt on his life at his July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pa.

“Bullets were coming right over my head when I was down,” said Trump.

One man, Pennsylvania father and firefighter Corey Comperatore, was shot and killed at the Trump rally. Two other spectators were seriously injured. The gunman was killed by a Secret Service sniper positioned behind the stage where Trump was speaking.

The former president credits the positioning of what he calls his “all-time favorite graph” on immigration numbers for playing a role in saving his life.

“It's always on my left and it's always at the end of my speeches. Always. And this was the very beginning of the speech. I mean, like the very beginning. It was on my right. So, if you add it all up, it's like millions to one million the odds,” he shared. "I love that chart. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that chart.”

"So, is there a purpose? Well, is there a reason you think you were spared?” asked McGraw.

Trump replied, “The only thing I can think is that God loves our country. And he thinks we're going to bring our country back. He wants to bring it back. It's so bad right now.”

"And so you talk about the country,” replied McGraw. “You believe you have more to do. You weren't done. You were spared for a reason.”

“You have an opponent in in politics, you have an opponent, and you win or you lose, but you don't have an opponent and then you're doing well against the opponent. They take him out, they give you a new opponent, they give you a nice, fresh opponent. And so, I must win that. And if I win that, that will really serve to say that there's some incredible power up there that wanted me to be involved in saving. And maybe it's more than saving the nation. Maybe it's saving the world,” said Trump.

Since the shooting, at least five Secret Service agents were placed on administrative leave, meaning they cannot do investigative or protective work. They include the special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office and three other agents assigned to that office, which was responsible for the security planning ahead of the rally. Additionally, one of the five agents was reportedly assigned to Trump's protective detail.

“How do you feel about the Secret Service and the job they did?” asked McGraw.

Trump replied, “They were very brave because when those bullets were coming at me and you saw it, I was down because I went down quickly, fortunately. But somebody should have been on the roof. The roof was empty, and there was a lack of communication between local law enforcement and secret service.”

Multiple investigations were launched as officials probe what many experts consider a complicated law enforcement failure that allowed a man with an AR-style rifle to fire at Trump. Secret Service's then-director, Kim Cheatle has since revealed that the roof from which the shooter opened fire was identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally.

“Has this changed your appreciation for life? Has it changed anything about you? Did you hug your kids extra hard?” asked McGraw.

"Look, being president is a dangerous job. It's much more dangerous than a race car driver than anything. Probably the most dangerous profession, if you think about it," said Trump. 

THE OPPONENT

Vice President Kamala Harris took a four-point lead in national polling after independent candidate Kennedy Jr. was removed from the survey model, according to an Aug. 25 report on Newsweek aggregator Nate Silver's Silver Bulletin website.

When asked how Trump feels about his opponent, Trump said in part, "She's a Marxist. Well, I can see by action she's a person that wanted to defund the police very strongly, bailed out a lot of people in Minnesota from jails who did some really bad things. She doesn't want to drill, which will mean our country is going to shrivel, shrivel up and die. You can't you can't run the country without fossil fuel.”

McGraw also asked Trump how he would grade Harris on the border. 

"Well, I would say an F. I mean, in terms of badness, if you're going to look for how to run a border badly, it's a market study and what you shouldn't be doing. It's the worst border in history,” said Trump.

"What are you going to do day one with these 158 countries that are that have gotten into our country illegally between ports of entry. What are you going to do with those people?” asked McGraw.

"We are going to have a mass deportation of criminals immediately.”

"If these people are rounded up and deported, then this will be a this will be a massive process because we're talking about a lot of people,” responded McGraw.

"And what they'll do is they'll pick out of the 100,000 people that will have to go quickly because they're, you know, murderers, prisoners from tough places,” explained Trump.

McGraw also asked Trump why independents who are on the fence should vote for him. 

“What I say is this we need a safe country,” said Trump. “We need a wealthy country. We need a country that's going to take care of its people. We need great schooling. We need great military. We need everything. Everything is broken now. I rebuilt the military.”

Merit Street has reached out to the Harris/Walz camp for an interview and are awaiting a reply.

Watch the entire interview, Tuesday, August 27, at 8 p.m. ET on Merit Street TV, or here on the Merit+ stream.