On April 26, President Trump telephoned the Fox News morning show “Fox and Friends” for a live interview with the program’s three hosts, Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Ainsley Earhardt. The President’s voice was broadcast for about half an hour, during which he spoke on topics ranging from the FBI to Michael Cohen to the fact that there was no collusion between himself and the Russians. By the end of the segment, even the show’s hosts–normally die-hard supporters of the President–began to look a little weary and cautious.
Clips of the show were immediately disseminated on Twitter and other social media sites, where they inspired a familiar range of reactions, from stout endorsement to open mockery. However, what most viewers and online commenters did not know, is that following what appeared to be the conclusion of the segment, and the President’s sign-off, Mr. Trump actually called back, and initiated another fifteen-minute discussion with Doocy, Kilmeade, and Earhardt while the show ran a pre-recorded segment on the topic of sheep ailments in Western Australia.
Below is the leaked transcript of that “secret” segment. It was made as part of Fox News’s standard documentary and archival practice but has, until now, been kept under seal. It has been edited for clarity, to the extent that that was even possible.
BRIAN KILMEADE (BK) (to caller): Yes? Hello?
PRESIDENT TRUMP (PT): Yeah Brian it’s me one more thing, look. This thing with Ronny Jackson, my so-called doctor, I hate to tell you, I never met the man. Never met him! Or maybe I did meet him and I just don’t remember him. Because I have a lot of doctors, believe me, you don’t want to know how many doctors I have, who tell me how healthy I am. I say, “I know I’m healthy. You don’t have to tell me—”
STEVE DOOCY (SD): Mr. President–?
PT: “—the healthiest, I mean, you do the research, you’ll find out I am healthier now, at my age, than George Washington was when he was, what, eighteen? Seventeen? Something like that.”
AINSLEY EARHARDT (AE): Mr. President, I know you must be very busy—
PT: I am, honey, believe me. You don’t mind if I call you honey, do you? A beautiful lady such as yourself. Can I just say something? Something, you see, that’s, the haters…that’s what the haters and the losers don’t understand. They don’t understand how you can call a beautiful woman honey and mean it with respect! With the utmost respect! Because I’ll tell you something, nobody’s respect for women is more utmost than mine. Everybody says so. Well not everybody, but many, many people.
BK: Mr. President, we’re not actually on the air right now—
PT: Many people. And you can say, I mean, all right, look: Many people say a lot of things. Like no collusion. I hear this every day. “There was no collusion!” The House, all the committees, all the sub-committees…they spend an hour talking about submarines and then somebody says, “But was there collusion?” and everybody says no. There was no collusion.
BK: –not actually being broadcast to the American people—
PT: And you’ve got the failing New York Times, the weakened CNN, the very very sick Popular Mechanics, the faltering New Yorker, the diseased Vanity Fair—and I mean that’s a joke, Vanity FAIR, which should be Vanity UNFAIR, for the way they’ve treated me. Very very unfairly. I mean I believe in the First Amendment—is that the one? The freedom of the press thing?—believe in it very deeply, and I have no intention of looking at it, but I don’t know, one of these days I may have to look at it. It’s the First, right?
SD: Mr. President, shouldn’t—
PT: So fine. You say, Michael Cohen. Let me tell you something. Michael Cohen has been a good friend and a loyal friend and a great lawyer, not only to me but to my whole family, and I never met the man. Never HEARD of him until last week. So you say, well, he went to Prague. Like that’s a terrible thing! I mean GIVE ME A BREAK. People go to Prague all the, (sic) but you know what it is? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s Hillary. My personal physician, Doctor Michael Cohen, is going to go to jail, and Crooked Hillary is walking around free, going to Prague and all the rest of it. Very unfair. Plus the media.
AE: Mr. President, we actually have to wrap this up—
PT: Not yet, honey. I’m not ready, okay? People…Because frankly, I’ll tell you. I don’t get enough credit. I mean I don’t care, really. I don’t want credit. I just want to do great things. Many people have told me I’m doing great, great things. Korea: great. Getting invited to England for what’s-his-name’s wedding: great. To that gal. Very attractive. I’m not saying I would have dated her, because she’s a brunette, but still. Not bad at all. No collusion: great.
BK: Mr. President—
PT: But they don’t want to talk about that. They want to talk about Lyin’ Comey. And McCabe, look, his wife, they took money, they took SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS from somebody who knew somebody who was connected to Hillary Clinton, many people, frankly, SEVEN HUNDRED and she kept some of it, spent it on cocaine and hookers—
SD: Sir, are you saying Andrew McCabe’s wife spent money on cocaine and hookers?
PT: Campaign money! Even I don’t do that! Cocaine and hookers, yeah, somebody said that. SEVEN HUNDRED and that law, Hillary, and let me tell you something: those hookers were COMPLETELY CLASSIFIED, and believe me, I should know, okay? I know hookers. People say, “Trump, he doesn’t read, he doesn’t know anything,” okay, listen. I know LIFE. I know HOOKERS. I know NO COLLUSION when I see it and I see it all the time, you can talk to people, not, like, and that’s why my doctor, all right, I hate to tell you, but he gives me pills. He’s doctor, okay? That’s what doctors do! He gives me pills and I take them, you want to know? I’m taking them right now! Literally right now! (sound of drinking) And that’s it. Ainsley?
AE: Yes, Mister President?
PT: Honey, would you like a tour of the White House? Would you like a tour of the Lincoln Bedroom?
AE: Mister President, I, um—
PT: Okay, never mind. Some girls like that kind of thing. You’re different, I know. I know. That’s what they all say. All the girls. They’re all “different.” Believe me, I’ve heard it before. But don’t kid yourself, okay? They’re all the same. Because I should know—I married three of them and believe me, they’re all the same. All these women I’ve had sex with…Do they know how lucky they are?
SD: –must be very busy today, Mister President, so—
PT: I’m a germaphobe! I shouldn’t be having sex with anybody! Okay I don’t know you tell me: What is a more, a more germy, a germ-ridden environment…What is a more germy thing to engage in than sex! With a woman! But I do it. So they’re very lucky.
BK: Mister President, I’m being told we’re having a technical glitch, the telephone sys—
(END TRANSCRIPT)
The White House
