Exclusive! The Trump Interview with Stephen Strang

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On August 11th of 2016, before he ran for president the first time, I had the privilege

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of interviewing Donald Trump.

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I negotiated a 10-minute face-to-face interview.

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It happened in, I'll say, the green room down at the convention center.

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I was ready with my questions.

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I got questions from people I respect, including Mike Huckabee.

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And Donald Trump was respectful.

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He gave me good answers.

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I've been able to get a lot of mileage out of it.

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And I ran it as a podcast, even though it was really for print in Charisma magazine.

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And then later I used it in some of my books.

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So I hope you enjoy my interview.

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A lot of the stuff he said in 2016 is just as valid today in 2024.

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So first question is, evangelicals and Catholics have been under attack from the Obama administration

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for their pro-life convictions and desire to be left alone from forced government acceptance

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of that which violates their biblical views on marriage.

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How can you reassure them that you will respect religious liberty for them?

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Well I think that, you know, I even mentioned in my speech, religious liberty is the foundation.

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Without the religious liberty, you don't have liberty.

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And I feel that so strongly.

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And so many other people do, except they don't express it.

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And plenty of politicians do, but they don't express it.

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So religious liberty is something that I find, that I cherish, and you will never be disappointed.

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When you met with evangelical leaders, of course I like this, for a church speech, you

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said that you would support repealing the Johnson Amendment so churches and ministries

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can maintain tax exemption without giving them free.

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How will you do it?

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Well I'll start it very early on.

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I'm not actually selling it if you order it on the truth.

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I started it already because I put it in the platform.

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You know, it's in the platform.

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A lot of people didn't even know where it was.

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And I put it in the platform.

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And now a lot of the pastors and ministers have seen it.

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And they can't even believe it.

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Because how this happened in the first place is shocking, how they were able to take it.

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So it's not something that was written from the beginning.

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This is something that was written by a very strong politician.

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That's all it is.

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But it silences great people.

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Silences people that we want to hear.

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Afraid to open things.

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They're afraid to talk about anybody.

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Because they can lose everything.

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You know, can lose everything with this.

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And we will, I will too, if I win, one of the first things I will do is lobby very strongly

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to have this terminated.

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And I will tell you something, it won't be hard.

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Because your lobby is so powerful.

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So even Democrats are outgrown.

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Because this is bigger than men, bigger than women in terms of numbers of people.

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So I'll be able to get it done.

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I have absolute confidence that I'll be able to get it done.

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Have you been lauded for the very strong bond of your adult children?

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Why does it stand the secret that you have such a close relationship with your children

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and their very obvious respect for you?

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Well I worked very hard when it came to my children.

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And one of the things that I would tell them all the time is no drugs are important.

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No cigarettes, I also tell them no cigarettes.

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But no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes.

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And I would say that to a point where they would go.

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Every time they'd go out or see them, saying no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes.

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And you know, I have friends who have very small children, but their children are hooked

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on drugs or they're hooked on alcohol.

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I had cigarettes because of the health thing because it's just easier if you're not

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smoking.

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I was lucky enough not to smoke.

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If I did smoke, I mean I have friends who can't get off and they're strong people.

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But if you've never started, it's not a problem.

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Same thing with drugs, same thing with alcohol.

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If you've never started, it's not a problem.

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And that's a big factor.

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And the fact that they're not hooked and you know, cults play a little bit.

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You never know what's the fragile world.

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So who knows what happens.

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But I would always talk about drugs, alcohol, and to a lesser extent, seen.

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As president, who will you reach out to for spiritual counsel and why do you feel that

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president need God's wisdom and guidance?

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Well I had many.

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I have so many friends, including Paula White was here.

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I have many friends within the community and some of the people who are here today.

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But one of them has been so incredible is Franklin Gray.

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Franklin Gray has been, I mean he's been amazing.

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He's been really direct.

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So we're close to Franklin.

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Pastor Jeffress has been direct.

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Paula White has been incredible.

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So many, so many.

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And I will, I really like to stay with people that have been so loyal because they were

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here at the beginning where this was a very, very little tiny flame.

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And they were here whenever we were saying, well you can't be actually 70 because actually

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the real level is 18.

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You're reaching off the record if you include Gilm Bar.

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But how do you beat 16 seasoned politicians?

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Because there were 17 total.

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But how do you beat 16 seasoned politicians?

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And in the case of Ben Carson, who's a terrific guy who endorsed us, but how do you beat these

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tremendously talented people?

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So they were there at the beginning.

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And that is something nice about people that were there at the beginning.

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You've already said that you support his will to claim to Jerusalem as capital.

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Many evangelical Christians are very strong supporters of Israel.

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How will your policies toward Israel differ from your opponent?

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Well for one thing, I support Israel.

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I don't think Obama supports Israel.

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I think he's the worst thing that's ever happened to Israel.

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The Iran deal is a disaster for Israel.

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And I'm very supportive of Israel.

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I have tremendous friendships in Israel.

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I have a son-in-law who's Jewish and married to my daughter.

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I have a daughter who's Jewish.

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So I will be very strongly in favor of Israel.

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In the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament, it says to be kind to the stranger of the

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land.

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How would that scripture guide your policy of immigration?

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Well I think that's good, but we have to be careful with the same.

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We're allowing people to come into the country.

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We don't know anything about them.

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There's no paperwork.

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There's no documentation.

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You see what's going on in Germany and France and many other places where they have an open

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door policy essentially.

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And it's going to go on here too.

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I mean we're going to allow thousands and thousands of people into our country.

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We have no idea who they are.

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At the same time, we want to build safe havens.

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We want to build safe havens.

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And we're going to get the Gulf states to fund that money because it's a tremendous

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amount of money and this country doesn't have it.

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So we want to take care of people, but we can't allow them in because we just don't

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know.

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You see what happened in St. Bernardino.

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You see what happened in Orlando right here.

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You see what happened with the World Trade Center.

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We can look at all over to look at what's going on in France, Nice, Germany.

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We just can't, we have enough problems.

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We can't do that.

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You know, you talked about the rough and tumble campaign, the 17 candidates and so forth.

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And you have won over the evangelical vote and you've changed a lot.

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How has this whole process affected you spiritually?

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Well, I can tell you I've always been spiritual, but I really appreciate evangelicals because

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they really support it.

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You know, when somebody supports you, you feel pretty good about it.

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And I'd go into a very evangelical state and people would say, oh, gee, I won't win that

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state and I ended up winning in a landslide because I had tremendous support.

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You see the polls when people are leaning, they support it over other people that in

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theory they could have supported very easily and they didn't.

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So I think the fact that I had that tremendous support from the evangelicals meant a lot

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to me and it will mean a lot to me in the future.

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Before you spoke, they had a speaker talking about Judeo-Christian values and the founding

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of the nation and so forth.

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In our secular society, a lot of people, you know, discount that.

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Do you believe that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles?

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Yeah, I think it was.

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I think to a large extent when I look at football coaches being fired because they held a prayer

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of the field like, yes, you, I think it's absolutely terrible.

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I think it's a terrible thing.

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You see so many things happening that are so different from what our country used to

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be.

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So, you know, religion is a very important part of me and it's also, I think it's a

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very important part of our country.

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Final question.

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What is the most important thing in your life?

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Well, you know, you always have to say family.

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It's family.

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It's a good thing from that standpoint.

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Religion is very important, but I assume you're not talking about religion or family, but

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you know, those two things are very important.

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Belief is very important.

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But you would always have to put family number one.

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And then give us some advice as we tell your story and persuade people like, you know,

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like you're encouraging that crowd, except instead of the church, you know, we'll be

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speaking to hundreds of thousands and several millions.

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Well, I'm going to get the job.

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I'm going to do a great job for religion and for the evangelicals.

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I'm going to do a great job.

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And that's why we got a standing ovation from pastors who don't get much of standing

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ovation, because they've heard a lot of people speak.

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So that was a great honor.

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But I will do a great job.

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I will get the job done.

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And I'll get it done properly.

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And that will be a great thing for the evangelicals.

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Well, thank you for your time.

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Thanks so much.

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Have a great day.

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Be blessed.

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God bless you.

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B naked.