A video that directly contradicts Donald Trump’s claim that he’s never spoken to indicted associates of his personal lawyer surfaced on Saturday, and with it came a whole barrage of wild statements.
The video, secretly filmed for 80 minutes in April 2018, shows a rare glimpse into a private conversation between the US president and a group of people over dinner at the Trump Hotel in Washington DC, the Associated Press reported.
US broadcaster PBS NewsHour was the first to release the full-length footage.
Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr can be seen clearly in the video. Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, was also there, according to Parnas’ attorney.
While the most notable moments in the recording show Trump appearing to speak directly to Parnas and his urging to “get rid” of then-US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, Trump also managed to cover other strange topics.
Here are the 6 of the wildest things that happened in the recording of Trump’s private dinner.
1. Trump said he could’ve beat Barack Obama in 2012.
As he’s known to do, Trump boasted about beating Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election but he added that could’ve beat Barack Obama in the 2012 race, too.
“Obama would have been easier, second term,” Trump said of Obama’s re-election campaign. “Romney should have never lost,” he added. “Obama would have been much easier.”
2. Trump claimed the European Union formed to “screw” the US.
“The European Union is a group of countries that got together to screw the United States,” Trump told the table. “It’s as simple as that.”
3. Trump floated plans for a “see-through” border wall.
Trump expressed the need for a “see-through” border wall. The president noted that drug smugglers use catapults to hurl drugs across the border, and claimed, without proof, that a 100-pound package of drugs struck a Border Patrol agent after being thrown over.
“They actually said, that these drug dealers, it’s so dangerous now with a solid wall, because they take the drugs, it weighs 100 pounds approximately,” Trump said. “A bag, a satchel, they call it a satchel, they throw it out over the wall and it goes over the wall and it will land on a guy’s head and he kills him.”
The other guests laugh as Trump continues.
“Yeah no, our border guys will be walking and they throw it,” he added. “So if you can’t see through the wall, they throw the drugs, they have a catapult, they throw it over the wall and it lands on the other side of the wall and it can hit people.”
While it’s true catapults have been used to get drugs across the border, there’s no evidence that people have been hit by it, according to fact-checking site Politifact.
4. Trump bragged about insulting Maxine Waters’ IQ.
He suggested that he was able to keep Waters quiet after he called her a “very low IQ individual” during a rally in March 2018.
“You have this one woman, Maxine Waters, I say she’s a very low IQ person,” he said. “You don’t hear from her anymore. It’s the craziest thing ― since I’ve said that, I don’t hear from her anymore.”
5. Trump asked how long Ukraine would survive in a war against Russia. He withheld funds from them a year later.
Trump appears surprised when someone suggests that Ukraine produces oil, then asked how long Ukraine could last in a war with Russia.
“Ukraine has oil,” he said. “Ukraine? How come ― they don’t have any money? Why aren’t companies going in, too risky?”
Then he complained about other European countries’ lack of aid before asking how long Ukraine would “last in a fight with Russia?”
A voice replies, “without us, not very long.”
Then someone says, “30 seconds.”
A year later, in the summer of 2019, the Trump administration withheld funds from Ukraine while Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate his opponent ― an issue that is now at the center of his ongoing impeachment trial.
6. A numerology calculation of Donald Trump’s name adds up to the same number for the Messiah, according to Lev Parnas.
Parnas and his indicted Ukrainian American business colleague Igor Fruman told the president about a Jewish numerology calculation a rabbi in Ukraine conducted for Donald Trump’s name. They informed Trump that the numbers that correspond to the letters in his name add up to 424, which they informed the president has the same values as the words “Messiah, Son of David.”
“It’s like miracle,” said Fruman. “It’s exactly the number.” Parnas noted: “Messiah is the person that comes to save the whole world. It’s like you’re the savior.” He added: “Talk to Jared; he’ll explain.”
Trump seemed confused. “What is that?” he asked. “What other numbers you got?”
Sebastian Murdock and Mary Papenfuss contributed to this report.