Trump flames Biden's economy, attacks on 'MAGA': He 'wouldn't know' what it means

Former President Donald Trump joined "Kudlow" on FOX Business for a wide-ranging interview where he slammed President Biden's handling of the economy as well as attacks on his trademark theme, "Make America Great Again."

On "Kudlow," host Larry Kudlow presented Trump with several recent and comparative economic statistics, contrasting 2.1 million jobs created in the first 30 months of Biden's term versus 4.9 million during the same length of his tenure.

Kudlow also asked Trump about the difference between the 2.65% mortgage rate at the end of his tenure versus the current 7.51% figure at present day – as well as the 20% spike in grocery prices versus an average 1.9% inflation rate four years ago.

Trump said the 1.9% figure was a "perfect number" because economists have stressed to him 2% is the target inflation rate.

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He called Biden's economy and the president's condemnations of the Trump economy "a disgrace," – suggesting the Democrat has routinely exaggerated his economic prowess with claims of 13 million new jobs or nearly one million manufacturing jobs having been created since 2021.

"No one can find them," he said. "[M]aybe [they're counting the] recovery from COVID," Trump said, later adding that the key to curbing inflation is bringing down energy prices, which he said affect both corporate and personal economies.

Kudlow played a montage of Biden slamming "MAGA Republicans" and the "MAGA" political platform, including instances when the president claimed the mantra "double[s] down on the same failed policies of the past," and claimed MAGA is an iteration of "a top-down, trickle-down economics [that] never ever worked."

Trump riffed that in each of the examples, he was afraid Biden would not be able to finish his teleprompter-displayed remarks.

"It's amazing because you watch him, you don't even think he's going to get through the sentence – the stopping and the halting," he said.

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"But this guy is advising us he is the one negotiating with other countries. And, you know, we're going to end up in a world war. So beyond taxes, I'm talking about [how] we have a man that's grossly incompetent."

Trump said Biden "doesn't understand what MAGA means" and that he wouldn't have an off-the-cuff definition for the slogan or platform if prompted.

"He would not be able to say ‘Make America Great Again’ -- He's always saying ‘MAGA -- those MAGA people’. But if you would say ‘what does MAGA stand for’, he wouldn't know," he said.

In one case, Biden spoke on Independence Mall in Philadelphia in a speech wherein he suggested adherents to the MAGA philosophy represent a threat to democracy.

"Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic," Biden warned in the September 2022 speech.

Trump said he will be sticking with the "Make America Great Again" slogan because the nation needs to reclaim the heights he brought following former President Barack Obama's term.

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"You have to use it because we don't have a great country. We have a country that's a laughingstock all over the world. We have a president who can't properly represent us. He goes to meetings in foreign countries and he makes a fool out of himself. He's a fool," he said.

Trump added he can easily picture world leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping laughing at the state of America under Biden.

He later suggested Biden is not willing to take the same tough tact toward either leader, recounting a time when France was threatening what Reuters described at the time as a digital services tax on American tech firms.

Trump told Kudlow that during the 2019 situation, he was told Macron planned to go forward with the levy, so he personally called Paris to object – and warn Macron that doing so would result in a 100% tariff on French wine imports.

On Twitter – now known as "X" – at the time, Trump wrote he would announce a "substantial reciprocal action on Macron's foolishness shortly" before quipping that "American wine is better than French wine."

Trump told Kudlow he is the only president that has or could pull off such tough diplomacy, saying instead, Biden implements tougher restrictions on his own people – in the form of regulations, especially in respect to green energy.

He said Biden essentially undid his administration's home appliance deregulation in the name of climate change, and effectively has left Americans with insufficiently low-water dishwashers and clothes-washers and showerheads that lack proper pressure.

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"[If] you have beautiful hair like this," he quipped of his famed coif, "I want to get out of this – I want to take a shower, wash my hair, and you have these things where the water just drips out it can hardly come at you – it's brutal."