President Donald Trump spoke to Brian Kilmeade about his upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin, crime in DC, Jeffrey Epstein, latest ramifications over the Russia hoax, and how democrats are pushing back on Texas over redistricting.

BRIAN KILMEADE, HOST: So Vladimir Putin just spoke and I have the readout, if I could share it with you, is he’s just said the American administration, which is everyone knows is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are in the interest of all parties involved in this conflict in order to create long-term conditions of peace between our countries and in Europe and in the world as a whole. If we reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons at the next stage, and then it’s cut off. So he seems to be in the right mindset going in. How will you know if he’s in the mindset for a ceasefire and a long-term end to the conflict? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think you’ll know that in the first couple of minutes, but I think you already know that because he’s coming to Alaska, he’s coming to the USA. And I think you know that. I think that’s a nice statement. I just heard it. You gave me a little breaking news. I appreciate it. But I think he wants to get it done. I really feel he wanted the whole thing. I think if it weren’t me, if it was somebody else, he would be not talking to anybody. He wasn’t talking. When I was previous to being elected, unfortunately, the 2020 election, where we did so well, it was very unfortunate, the result. But what happened is when I came in, I realized, I said, this is a man that really wants the whole thing. And I think he does want the whole thing. And I think he has wanted the whole thing. But because of a certain relationship that he has with me running this country, he really, I believe now he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal. He’s going to make a deal. I think he’s going to. And we’re going to find out. I’m going to know very quickly. We’re going to go into the meeting. We’re going to see him. We’re going to, I won’t do what Bush did, look him in the eye. I’m not going to do that. I’ll look him right in the eye. But I feel a little bit differently than Bush. Didn’t work out too well for Bush. Remember this, Brian, under Bush, they lost a lot of land. Under Obama, they lost a lot of land, Crimea. Under Biden, they would have lost the whole thing if he had won the president. They would have lost the entire Ukraine had the war started and raging. It would have never started if I was president. Not even a chance. And it didn’t for four years. You know that. Nobody ever even talked about it. But under Trump, you know what? They got nothing. They got nothing. Except javelins. Except javelins hitting their tanks and lots of other things. And remember this, I was the one that stopped Nord Stream 2. You know, they always like to say, oh, Trump, when Putin, oh, Trump is working for Putin, you know, these crooked people, which they just found out now is all they should, they should be prosecuted. They’re so disgraceful. But they made up stories. As Putin knows, I’m the toughest one that he’s ever had to deal with. He’s never had to deal with any, anybody like me. And here’s the other thing, Brian, they got nothing out of Trump. They got no land. They didn’t do Bush. They didn’t do an Obama. And they didn’t do a Biden.

RealClearPolitics Videos