InsiderAdvantage Georgia CEO and Publisher Phil Kent conducted a Thursday interview with former President Donald Trump on the eve of the Georgia Republican Party Convention. This occurred hours before Trump’s indictment on federal charges relating to document handling. It is slightly edited for space.
Mr. President, why did you choose to address the Georgia GOP State Convention in Columbus on Saturday? Could you preview some main themes?
It’s something that I looked forward to doing. I always like being in Georgia. We’ve done great in Georgia. I had two great elections in Georgia. And as you know, I did well in the primaries. I won the first one easily. And the second one I thought I did even better, but a lot of strange things happened. I love the people of Georgia and believe it’s a true Republican state, I believe it’s actually a strong Republican state and it’s very important to get the election things right.
We’re going to talk about the border. We’re going to talk about tax cuts – and that I got the biggest ever. We’re going to talk about energy independence. We were independent just three years ago, and now you take a look at the disaster out there. We’re talking about Russia and Ukraine, which would have never happened if I were president. We’re going to have a lot of fun. So you know, I was asked to come and be a keynote. And I said let’s do it.
You’re probably going to hit on crime too. As you know, Atlanta has had a rising violent crime rate in recent years.
It’s so sad what’s happened to Atlanta. I’ve never seen anything like it. Per capita, it’s about the worst there is in the whole nation, and that’s not even thinkable. Atlanta was always some place that you knew you were safe and now you don’t feel safe. You know the reasons why, it’s the same old story– whether it’s Chicago, New York, Atlanta. I have a lot of friends living in Atlanta. They’re afraid to walk out of their apartments or their homes.
You are doing very well in the polls with likely GOP Georgia voters, and Joe Biden is doing very poorly. Going forward, though, what’s your plan to garner votes from the so-called “swing voters” and independents?
They just came out with a poll that I’m way ahead of Biden. Tremendous numbers. Who could be surprised by that? We are a nation in decline when you look at our borders, when you look at all these things.
I believe we just have to just keep going forward the way we’re doing.
We’re leading Biden by 10, 12, 13, 15 points and you think it would be much more than that. You would think, who would be voting for these people? They want to raise taxes, they’ve spent all this money on the Green New Deal and most of it is nonsense what they’ve done and what they’re spending. And inflation is the worst in 58 years.
So you’ll be reminding the convention attendees about all of the good things that happened in the first term and you want to get back to that?
We had a great term and had the most successful economy of the history of our country. And people want to get back to it.
What would be the main action you would take in a second term that you didn’t do in the first?
In the first we got the largest tax cuts and largest regulation cuts in history. I built hundreds of miles of border wall. I would build more because it has been very successful. We had the safest border in history. And now we have the worst border maybe ever in the history of the world. No third world country would allow this to happen, But I would continue with the border.
We would be immediately drilling for our liquid gold. You know we have more than anybody else. We’d pay back down debt and reduce taxes. Do that and we’d get our economy going in literally three to four months.
We’d also be getting involved with the crime in these Democrat-run cities. All of them are Democrat run, and we’d be very much focused on crime in the cities like Atlanta.
You have also proposed policies to hold Deep State government bureaucrats accountable. How would you implement that?
I’d implement a lot of different things through executive order, and also get things passed in Congress. We will do very well in Congress and take back a lot of seats. I think we’re going to take over the Senate and once we have all three branches we would be able to do things.
We have people who don’t want to work here. People that aren’t doing the jobs. People, frankly, that hate the country. Nobody can explain that open borders are good. We have people coming in from prisons and mental institutions. They are dumping everybody into the United States, and nobody can say that’s good politics.
If you were to receive the presidential nomination again, at some point you have to decide on choosing a vice presidential candidate. So what would be your criteria for choosing a vice presidential candidate?
Well, it’s very interesting. It wouldn’t be for helping to get votes because the VP has never helped get votes. People just always vote for the top of the ticket and they tend not to really be too much involved with the VP. With that being said, it’s very important. The one criteria is that if something happened, who’s going to do the best job? That’s really the criteria. That’s what I would say is by far the most important aspect of the vice presidency.
I would do very good vetting. I’ve got to really know the good ones, the bad ones, the RINOs and the weak ones. But there are a lot of great candidates.
And it’s early Phil, very early. We have to finish it up. We have to get the nomination and then we have to beat Biden or whoever is going to run.
By the way, as an aside, have you talked any politics lately with your former agriculture secretary, former Governor Sonny Perdue?
He did a great job, and we got for the farmers $28 billion from China (through tariffs). You know nobody thought a thing like that was possible. But I got our farmers and manufacturers a lot of money.
In my opinion Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is on a political witch hunt to hurt you and your campaign. Critics point out that she continues to waste time, money and resources going after you while thousands of criminal cases are backlogged. So what does this say about our system of justice, Mr. President?
Well, you said it better than anybody could say it. Atlanta is right now a cesspool of crime and murder. I look at the car thefts and they’re up some number that’s crazy. Look at the assaults. Atlanta is dying because of what’s happening, and she’s spending most of her time trying to get me. You know, she thinks this could help her politically, I don’t think it’s going to help her politically. Over a perfect phone call? I have every right to protest said election.
Very bad things happened in my opinion, but I have a right to find out about that election and anybody does. When you can’t ask about elections, you have a sad country.
I hear that she wants to score points. I heard she’s a racist. I hear that she is not doing her job. We’re going to find out. I think she loses tremendous credibility if she’s going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on going after me for a perfect phone call. And people are shooting and killing people in the streets and nothing happens to them. It doesn’t make sense.
So hopefully she is a person that is fair as a prosecutor. We have other Democrats are weaponizing the justice system, and that’s usually the beginning of the end of a country when that happens.
Mr. President, any other things you would like to preview for Georgians on the eve of the state GOP Convention?
I was asked to speak, and we have a great crowd, so I’m going to be doing something very simple. I’m going to be talking about the tremendous success we had, which is why I’m leading in all the polls– both Republican and Democrat. Then we’re going to be talking about what we’re going to do into the future.
The primaries are coming. They are right around the corner. So you know, when it was four years ago, that was a long time. And you know, there were a lot of disputes about that election. A lot of people feel to this day– I guess 81% of the Republican Party, a tremendous amount– that bad things happened.
I think we’re going to win in a massive landslide.
This is the first time in Georgia GOP convention history that a president or former president has ever addressed the convention. So you’re making a little history.
That’s great. Yeah, I love that, it’s my honor. Look, Georgia’s a state I love. I was very good to the farmers. They had, you know, the hurricane which ripped the hell out of parts of Georgia. Remember we took care of our farmers and all the manufacturers. We did a good job for Georgia.
