Donald Trump to Newsmax: Preparing For Debate 'My Entire Life'

Donald Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday night he doesn't need to lock himself in a room with advisers to prepare for Thursday night's huge debate with President Joe Biden, the first presidential debate this election cycle and the earliest in U.S. history.

"I've been preparing for it for my whole life, if you want to know the truth," Trump told "Prime News" and guest host Corey Lewandowski. "And I'm not sure you can lock yourself in a room for two weeks, or one week, or two days, and really learn what you have to know.

"I've been through it."

This will be Trump's sixth presidential debate, including the three he had with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and two with Biden in 2020, and not counting the numerous debates he had during the Republican primary season each year. CNN will host the debate in Atlanta, and it will be simulcast on Newsmax.

"I know the subject [matter]," Trump said. "Now, you know, they may get cute because it's obviously at CNN, and I've called it fake news for a long time. We'll see how they do it. They have a lot at stake to be fair. I think they have to be fair. But we'll see how we do. I think we'll do very well. We've done well in the past, and I think we'll do very well. I know the subject matter."

Biden has holed himself up in Camp David this week in preparation for the debate. There have been reports Biden, who has shown signs of cognitive decline, has been trying to stand for 90 minutes as part of his prep.

"If I have to practice standing, we have ourselves a big problem now," Trump said. "I had heard that too, he's practicing how to stand or something standing. And now, look, let's see what happens. I hope everybody does well. I hope we all come out as a nation, but our nation is in trouble; we've never been in trouble like this. We've never been so embarrassed as this. And we have to change presidents.

"He's the worst president in history. … What they've done and what they've unleashed, the Democrats, Biden, whoever's running the government for him, because I don't think he's running it, but whoever's running government, what they've done to this country will never be forgiven."

Earlier Tuesday, New York Judge Juan Merchan partially lifted a gag order against Trump after he had been convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to cover a payment made by disgraced former attorney Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels. Trump can now speak about witnesses and jurors, but others involved in the case are shielded until his sentencing July 11.

"Partial is very unfair because there are things we have to say, especially in my case," Trump said. "I'm going into a debate, and I'm going to have to talk about a gag order. What does partial mean?

"It's not fair. We've had a gag order long after the trial [ended]. The trial was ridiculous. Every legal scholar said it should have never been brought. The whole thing is ridiculous, and now they lift just a piece of the gag order, not all of it. The gag order has to be lifted in its entirety."

Trump also touched on several other subjects:

• Whether independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should be on the stage for the next scheduled debate Sept. 10: "I'd like him to. I wouldn't mind. I don't think he has the polling numbers to get there. He's a very liberal guy, and conservatives have to understand how liberal he is; he's as liberal as you get. But I don't think he's got the numbers to do it. … He's doing very poorly, actually, and seems to be fading fast."
• On his pick for a running mate, with Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum being the leading contenders: "I could take any one of these people. They're great. We have a great bench. And even beyond that we have a great bench. We'll make a decision fairly soon and I think people will be very happy with this decision."
• On how quickly he can get the immigration crisis under control should he get elected in November: "Immediately. And [Biden] could too, all he has to do is close the borders. I did it. I had no problem with that. Now the funding was hard. But I took it out of the military. I said this is an invasion. So, I got the wall built with funds from the military. I said, literally, this is an invasion of our country, which is what it is."
• On the importance of U.S. leadership and respect among other nations: "Our allies no longer respect us. Our enemies no longer fear us. It is a sharp turn of events from where we were just three short years ago. … We have the worst president in history. We're not respected anywhere in the world anymore because of this leadership. We have the worst president in history. Once we're respected, we'll be able to do anything we want."

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