President Donald Trump called into CNBC’s Squawk Box for what quickly turned into a chaotic and contentious interview — packed with live fact-checks, laughter, and a now-familiar barrage of conspiracy-laced claims.
During the unpredictable phone-in Friday morning, Trump revived his debunked assertions that the 2020 election was stolen, claimed jobs data was manipulated to hurt his image, and boasted about supposedly record-breaking poll numbers — all while clashing with host Joe Kernen in real time.
“What they did in the 2020 election is grotesque,” Trump insisted. “That was a rigged election, a hundred percent.”
Kernen, who has previously shown a friendly tone toward the president, chuckled and pushed back. “We can’t relitigate that. We can’t relitigate that here,” he said as Trump doubled down on his claim.
Things heated up even more when Trump turned to his recent firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Dr. Erika McEntarfer. She was let go last week after releasing a disappointing jobs report showing just 73,000 new jobs in July — along with downward revisions for May and June totaling over 250,000.
Trump said he booted McEntarfer because the figures were “rigged.”
“Give me a break,” he snapped when Kernen questioned the accusation. “Those numbers were phony. They gave phony numbers to win the election.”
Kernen countered, noting that such benchmark revisions are routine and not evidence of political tampering. Trump wasn’t having it.
“It was political,” Trump shot back. “They gave out great numbers just before the election, then revised them down after. That’s not a coincidence.”
Kernen called it a “big leap” to accuse McEntarfer — who was confirmed with bipartisan support just last year — of cooking the books. Trump softened slightly, saying, “She’s a very nice woman,” before repeating that the data was “totally rigged.”
The interview didn’t end there.
Trump also claimed he’s enjoying the “best poll numbers” of his life, despite a recent wave of surveys showing slumping national support.
“I have poll numbers where I’m at 71 percent,” he declared.
“Those are among Republicans,” Kernen interjected.
Trump didn’t flinch. “People love the tariffs, the trade deals, and that I stopped foreign countries from ripping us off. Friend and foe — they all took advantage of us until I came along.”
While the interview was meant to focus on economic policy, it turned into a whirlwind of conspiracy claims, combative exchanges, and real-time corrections — all live on air.
It was classic Trump: defiant, dramatic, and willing to go off-script, even when the host starts laughing.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW:
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trump is garbage & a habitual liar
Bye bye juju we hate to see you go Not really.
The professor and news reporter are horrible speakers. Ah ah um um they are so anti Trump and this is Bullshit
LOL! The chart shown at 00:27 is what is called a “truncated chart”, most of it is missing: 0 – 62.5 isn’t shown… that makes the drop look more dramatic…
We’ll judge Trump after we see what has happened after the FOUR YEARS…
Like Jokementia was horrible during and after 4 years…
After 8 years, we all saw Liar Obummer had done the OPPOSITE of everything he had ever promised he would do… and his empty hollow Welfare/Communism based economy was
re-collapsing…