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Foreign. Hello, it's Miranda. I'm back with a new mini episode of Pod Force One. This feature is a little more topical and relevant to my job as a columnist for the New York Post. Today I take you behind the scenes of my interview with President Donald Trump at the White House this week. The day I went to the White House to interview President Trump, Democrats launched another fake rumor campaign about his health. First, bots fanned out on social media with lies that the president hadn't been seen for eight days and had suffered a stroke. Then Rep. Ted Lieu, D California, the designated hitman on the House Foreign Relations Committee, spent almost six minutes of valuable hearing time on Wednesday grilling Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the president's health and cognitive abilities. It really is chutzpah for the Biden Democrats to accuse the hardest working, most energetic president of his generation of ill health in the very week that Jill Biden told everyone she thought Joe was having a stroke in his catastrophic final debate against Trump last year. But I'm sorry to inform the ghouls that I spent an hour with the president on Wednesday for an interview for Pod Force One and he is more alert and focused than I have ever seen him. He was full of bonhomie when he burst into the Roosevelt Room a few minutes early with a guest in tow, Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, with whom he has just had a meeting in the Oval Office since it is nine days before the start of the biggest World cup in history. He introduced Infantino and we chatted about soccer with the sports loving president, prompting the urbane Swiss Italian for facts and figures, 104 games, 6 billion viewers and unmentioned tens of billions of dollars of additional economic activity for the US before the cameras rolled, Trump asked if I had seen the gigantic UFC arena currently being built on the South Lawn of the White House for the UFC Freedom250 fight card on June 14, after which he jets off to the G7 in France at midnight. He was equally proud of his beautification of the nation's capital, which is also impossible to miss. About 30 fountains and landmarks such as the Lincoln Memorial and reflecting pool have been cleaned and refurbished. Union Station is gleaming, homeless encampments cleared away. He deserves to boast because the nation's capital is sparkling just in time for America's 250th anniversary celebrations. There should be bipartisan rejoicing, but when it comes to Trump, his detractors will never concede an ounce of goodness. The president keeps all these beautification projects in his head, along with detailed plans for the new ballroom and its embedded suite of high tech national security measures most deep underground and all of it of benefit mostly to his successors while managing two wars and a $30 trillion economy, serving as commander in chief of the world's most powerful military, keeping 340 million people safe and secure, negotiating with foreign leaders, shaping energy policy, appointing judges, guiding his cabinet, writing executive orders, cajoling members of Congress to progress his agenda, planning events for America's 250, involving himself in the minutiae of Republican politics, endorsing candidates, answering his cell phone to all comers at all hours, writing his own pithy truth social posts that move markets and message world leaders critiquing the on camera performance of his team, closely observing their interpersonal relations meetings, keeping up his golf game, maintaining a vibrant family life and who knows what else, he still makes time to answer questions from reporters when the cameras rolled on our interview Tuesday afternoon, the president was brisk and efficient. Ever the TV pro, he briefly checked a screen to see if his hair and tie were neat, requested the lights be dimmed slightly, and then for 45 minutes non stop, effortlessly answered questions without notice from all over the map, making news on foreign policy, domestic policy, geopolitics, the economy, giving a history lesson on Teddy Roosevelt and Davy Crockett, and hilariously, on point pen portraits of a variety of Democratic candidates in races across the country, and even doing a Joe Biden impression. Then he was up and gone to his next meeting in the Situation Room and on and on all day and into the night. Some days he doesn't leave the Oval Office until after midnight and peppers Cabinet members with calls as late as 2am and as early as 5am There are never ground rules for our inter views, no anxious minders asking what topics I'd broach or ruling certain questions off limits. President Trump was as frank and transparent as he always has been. Even when he avoids answering questions he doesn't like, he is relatively guileless, filibustering on a different topic, such as the election was stolen until the questioner moves on, or sometimes doing the weave in which he talks about something he likes before returning briefly to the topic you asked about. It's all calculated and is a far more entertaining and informative dance than interviews with any other politician on the planet. For instance, he was happy to confirm that he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu f ing crazy during a fiery phone call the previous day because he was, quote, a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, but he said they remain friends and have worked very well together. He unveiled his new nickname for his opponents, the Dummocrats, and crisply summed up the main Senate race. Dem candidate Graham Platner is a major sleazebag. Republican incumbent Susan Collins is always down in the polls and she survives. End quote. Texas Senate candidate James Talarico is horrible with the six genders and vegan in Texas doesn't work. He's heavy vegan, end quote. He scoffed at Jill Biden's claim this week that she had never seen Biden malfunction as he did during the debate. Like everyone in the country, Trump wondered why, if she thought her husband was suffering a life threatening health event, why would she bring him to a Waffle House if he had a stroke? He said Biden simply choked from high to low. The president is nothing if not a versatile and inexhaustible source of news. A gift to reporters the day after our interview, Rubio described his boss's prodigious energy levels, which are evident to anyone who who has ever seen the 79 year old President in action. The truth of the matter is we had a cognitively impaired president in office a few years ago, rubio told Liu. I've been on foreign trips with the president and he doesn't sleep the whole flight and he's wandering the hallways looking for someone to wake up and talk to. So I don't know what you're referring to, but he has an incredible amount of energy, he said. I'm just telling you, you may not like his policies, you may not like the decisions he's made, but I assure this is not a president that sleeps or is cognitively impaired in any way, shape or form, and in fact is incredibly active, much more so than much younger people that are around him. End quote. Liu humiliated himself on Capitol Hill with his rancid lies. The party of Biden projecting again. But eventually, like the emperor with no clothes, the lies are so absurd that nobody ever believes another word they say. Thanks for listening. I'll be back with another mini episode on Monday. Hope you can tune in and enjoy the rest of your week.
In this special behind-the-scenes minisode, New York Post columnist and Pod Force One host Miranda Devine shares an insider account of her recent hour-long interview with President Donald Trump at the White House. Devine juxtaposes her firsthand observations of Trump’s energy and mental acuity with ongoing rumors and partisan attacks questioning his health. The episode delivers candid details from her day in Washington and vivid descriptions of Trump’s candid, unscripted style, both on and off camera.
This lively minisode offers a rare, unvarnished look at Trump’s pace, energy, and interview presence, as seen by Miranda Devine. The episode stands as a counter-narrative to partisan rumors and provides both dramatic anecdotes and pointed quotes, making it invaluable for anyone interested in the current political climate or the president’s day-to-day.
For a dynamic, on-the-ground series about “the people behind the headlines,” Pod Force One delivers insider access and candid reporting.