As is often the case, former president Donald Trump commented on breaking news by phoning it in to a live broadcast on FOX News.

At 11:20 PM ET last night, eight minutes after Kamala Harris concluded her convention speech and as FOX was wrapping up its coverage of the last night of the Democrat Convention in Chicago, the hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum welcomed President Trump in a live interview by phone.

The following excerpts of Trump’s interview have been edited and condensed for content and clarity from a transcript provided by FOX News Media, while preserving the context. The complete interview, which runs about ten minutes, can be watched here.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Joining us now by phone, the 45th president of the United States, former President Donald Trump.

Mr. President, thank you for joining us. What is your first reaction to it real-time tonight?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): Well, the biggest reaction is, why didn’t she do the things that she’s complaining about?

All of these things that she talked about -- we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that, we’re going to do everything -- but she didn’t do any of it. She could have done it three-and-a-half years ago.

She could do it tonight by leaving the auditorium and going to Washington, D.C. and closing the border. She doesn’t need a bill. I didn’t have a bill. I closed the border and created the safest border we’ve ever had in the history of our country.

She could have done all of these things, and she could still do them. She’s got four-and-a-half, five months left. She can go there right now. She can do all of the things, many of the things that she’s talking about and complaining about.

It was a lot of complaining. She didn’t talk about China. She didn’t talk about fracking. She didn’t talk about crime. She didn’t talk about 70 percent of our people are living in poverty. She didn’t talk about housing really. The trade deficit, she didn’t talk about.

Child trafficking that she’s allowed to happen because she was the border czar and she presided over the weakest border in the history of our country, the -- it’s an invasion.

I was there today. As you know, Bret, it’s an invasion of our country, taking place at our border, our southern border. It’s a total invasion.

And now it’s starting at our northern border also, through Canada. And she didn’t talk about any of that because she talks, but she doesn’t do. It’s no action.

But, you know, look, other than that, it was a nice-looking room.

(LAUGHTER) 

Screenshot of FOX News 11:20 PM ET August 22, 2024 as hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier interviewed Donald Trump live (Used with permission of FOX News Media)

Co-host Martha MacCallum turned the topic to Harris’s proposals to cut taxes on the middle class and what has become the infamous Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Mr. President, Martha MacCallum here. She…

TRUMP: Hi, Martha.

MACCALLUM: ... said that she -- hi there. She is promising middle-class tax cuts. And she says that if you are elected, it will cost Americans $3,900 more a year and increased taxes.

She’s tying all of that to this Project 2025. That’s where that number is coming from.

What do you say to that?

TRUMP: Well, she knows I have nothing to do with Project 25. They throw it out. A group of people who got together, they did a thing. I haven’t even seen it. I don’t want to see it. I told them, specifically, I don’t want to see it.

People know where I stand. I lowered taxes; she’s raising taxes. She’s going to give a tax increase of four to five times what people and companies are paying right now. The country will go into a depression if they do it.

She didn’t talk about interest rates. I mean, the interest rates are now getting close to record rates. People can’t do business. Nobody can borrow money.

People can’t go to the American dream and buy a house because they can’t afford the interest rates. And even if they could, the money isn’t available. She didn’t talk about any of that.

No, if she -- if she got -- look, she’s a Marxist. She always was. She always will be.

She’s going to leave the border open. I was there today and the Border Patrol, as you know, gave me total endorsements and all of that. I’ve gotten endorsed by almost every major police group in the United States.

But she is a Marxist with open borders. She’s not going to have any fracking in Pennsylvania. She’s going to close down the oil and gas industry. And our country’s going to go bust.

She didn’t talk about the $35 trillion, which I was going to start paying off with liquid gold that we have right under our feet. We were going to start paying off debt, lowering -- lowering taxes still further.

And, you know, she wants to raise the taxes on corporations. What they’re going to do is pick up and move to another country, like the pharmaceutical industry moved to Ireland and they moved to other places. Many of these industries are just very -- they’re international companies.

If she raises taxes, like she wants to do on companies, there go those jobs. I’m more interested in the jobs than the companies. But there go those jobs.

And what’s going to happen, Martha, they’re going to pick up, they’re going to move to another country. They’re going to pick up and move to another country, where they’re going to be promised taxes at half the numbers that she’s talking about and more than that.

She is a horrible, horrible person to run this country. We won’t have a country if she gets elected.

Next, MacCallum wondered what is the plan to continue to reach out to women and voters of color, many of whom, allegedly, are returning to the Democrat fold now that the person at the top is a POC.

MACCALLUM: Let me ask you this, sir. There has been a huge appeal and momentum for women voters. She’s trying to pull that, the youth vote, the Hispanic vote, the Black vote, back in her direction.

Polls show that she’s having some success in that at this point. So what are you going to do? What’s your strategy to rebuild the momentum that you had with those voters?

TRUMP: No, she’s not having success. I’m having success. I’m doing great with the Hispanic voters. I’m doing great with Black men. I’m doing great with women because women want safety. They want safety. And they don’t have safety when they have somebody allowing 20 million people into our country, many of them very dangerous people.

No, it’s only in your eyes that they have that, Martha. We are doing very well in the polls. We’re leading in most of the polls. And in -- in the swing states, we’re leading in almost every one of them.

Finally, what may be the most important question on this day: The reports that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will be ending his independent campaign for the presidency and endorsing President Trump later today in Arizona, where both men have scheduled appearances.

BAIER: As we wrap up here, Mr. President. Tomorrow [Friday], do you expect to be endorsed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?

TRUMP: Like, it just -- it just happened. And as far as RFK, I’ve had a great relationship with him over the years. I respect him. He respects me. I have no idea if he’s going to endorse me. I know he’s got a news conference. We happen to be in the same state, Arizona.

BAIER: Yes.

TRUMP: We’ll be in the same state, but in quite different parts of the state. But it’s possible we will be meeting tomorrow and we’ll be discussing it.

He said, look, he was treated very unfairly by the Democrats.

BAIER: Yes.

TRUMP: He would have beaten Joe Biden in a Democrat primary.

BAIER: Right.

TRUMP: I have no doubt about it. And they made it absolutely impossible for him. They made it that you have to get 60-70 percent of the vote to get in. And you know what? In the end, the Democrats did the same thing to Joe Biden. They threw Joe Biden out of the party. They did the same thing…

MACCALLUM: And that’s why we saw a different night tonight.

TRUMP: ... as they did to RFK.

BAIER: Mr. President, thank you so much…

MACCALLUM: Mr. President, thank you very much, sir.

BAIER: ... for the time. We appreciate that…

TRUMP: OK. Thank you very much.

Meanwhile, FOX News Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy managed to get a question to Kamala Harris as she left the convention hall at Chicago’s United Center after her speech – and elicited from the Vice President an extremely rare answer. Video can be found here.

PETER DOOCY: Madame Vice President –

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Hi Peter. How are you?

DOOCY: Congratulations.

HARRIS: Thank you. Good to see you.

DOOCY: Are you ready for your Fox interview?

HARRIS: I’m working toward it.

Peter Barry Chowka has been reporting on national elections since 1964, starting in high school. Later, he reported from several national political conventions and traveled around the country with presidential candidates. Peter is a frequent invited guest on the BBC, the largest broadcaster in the world (his July 27 appearance is here). He has been a frequent contributor to American Thinker since 2007.