RUSH: Now we go to the Upper West Side of Manhattan where Joshua whispers quietly to us on his cell phone in a crevice in an alley. How are you doing, sir?
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call, Rush. Last time I tried to get through, I got disconnected so I’m really happy I got through. My point is, what’s clear is that the Republican establishment will not give Trump a legislative victory even if that means them going in the wilderness, like Lindsey Graham said, for 25 years.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I think the only solution, Rush, is that maybe you gotta go back to TV, ’cause I think Trump likes TV, and maybe if he starts tuning in to you, he’ll realize that not only is the Democrat Party establishment against him, but even more so, the Republican establishment will not give him any victory. They are severely impeding his efforts, and I really wish he would start realizing that.
RUSH: You wish — well, let me ask you a question about this. Do you think that Trump is — don’t misunderstand my tone here; it’s a serious question. There’s no contentiousness here. Do you think Trump is unaware of the Republicans’ efforts to block him and stop him? Do you think he needs to be told by somebody on TV what’s going on?
CALLER: Yes and no. I think he really does because he looks at politics like a sports game where you defeat the other person, you give a handshake. He doesn’t realize that this is politics, and when the left wins they crush the enemy, and he doesn’t have that instinct to realize exactly what’s up against him, whether it’s the Democrats or even the Republican establishment. Like you’ve always said, someone’s trying to throw him out of their country club and they’re not gonna let anyone do it. So I think he realizes it, but he doesn’t see the killer instincts of politics. And even if he finally realized it now, it’s really late in the game.
RUSH: You know what I think you’re really saying? Because I think he understands all that stuff. I think what you’re really saying is that he doesn’t use his political power, or may not know how political power is different from business power, in several ways. Look, I appreciate your compliment. You’re thinking Trump doesn’t listen to the radio, watches TV, and he really needs to hear what I’m saying, ’cause you think he may not know it on his own.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: I just find that incredibly hard to believe that Trump may not, after this many months of the Republicans obstructing everything he wants to do, you think he’s really falling for their ruse that they’re trying to but they just can’t seem to unify?
CALLER: Rush, you mentioned your meeting with him in Mar-a-Lago where he didn’t realize that. A lot of people realized it before that meeting, and he just doesn’t see things that way. Now, maybe he’s realizing it —
RUSH: But he’s got people who do, for crying out loud. He’s got people around him who know as well as I do what’s going on out there.
CALLER: Well, like you said in your first segment, Kelly’s not gonna be letting too many people in there. So, you know what? I think it’s just fine. Kelly doesn’t let anyone in, you go back to your TV show and he’ll listen and he’ll see everything that he needs to see.
RUSH: A good example I think of what you’re talking about is Trump let the Clintons off the hook rather than go in there and pound the final nail into the casket that puts Cruella de Vil and the family in the ground forever. He let ’em off because why? He was trying to show magnanimity in victory. He didn’t want to pile on ’cause everybody thought Hillary was gonna win, and she was obviously devastated, and so forth. That stuff doesn’t buy you anything in Washington. It may buy you goodwill in business, it may buy you good vibes. That doesn’t buy you a thing in Washington. It just tags you as either weak or a sap or a fool or what have you.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: Because, as you say, it’s play for keeps there when you’re talking about the kind of power that we are talking about. Look, his comment about Mar-a-Lago, if you didn’t hear it, it was back in February, and I asked Trump what was the thing that most surprised you, that the country hadn’t unified yet. He thought it’d take a while but they’d get over it, the election, and the strife and eventually everybody come around. And he was surprised it hadn’t happened yet. I was unable to hide my shock and surprise at that.
But I’m flattered by your comment that he needs to hear this program. Other people call me — well, nobody calls me. You know, that’s a euphemism. Trump says that somebody called him. I say somebody called me, nobody ever calls me ’cause I can’t hear ’em on the phone. So if somebody emails me, it’s a call. It’s parlance to convey, to help in communication. But to be precise, I have people tell me all the time, “You know, I know Trump listens to you. My gosh, every time I listen to Trump it sounds like something you’ve said.” I said, “No, he doesn’t listen to radio. He’s a total –” “No, no, no. He has to be.” “No, no. I’m telling you, he doesn’t.”
Now, he did call before he was inaugurated. I was playing golf out at Bel Air Country Club, I’m on the 13th hole and the phone rings, it says unknown. I said, “Screw this. Phone never rings. It’s always a wrong number.” I put it in my pocket, and it rang again. And I didn’t answer it, and it rang again. A guy said, “You know, you’re not supposed to have that out there.” I said, “Okay, I’ll put it on ‘Do not disturb.'” It rang again, I said, “What is this?” It was Trump’s office in Trump Tower. He wanted to talk to me. He just wanted to say thanks.
The point is I’m running out of time here, he said, “I listen to you more than you know, and you’re a genius.” I don’t know how he has time to do that. He’s a television animal, totally.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So get this. Somebody said, “Rush, you don’t really need to get a TV show if you want Trump to hear what you say. Just go on Fox & Friends and sit close to Ainsley Earhardt. He can’t miss you.”
I said, “You know, that’s something to think about. Trump’s a big TV guy. What we need to do is get the Rush Limbaugh app on his phone so that he can watch the program on the Dittocam.” At night he can listen to the podcast or watch the Dittocam version. He’s a TV creature, although I’ll tell you this. I did remember this.
By the way, welcome back. It’s always great to have you here. Rush Limbaugh at 800-282-2882.
Back early in the campaign — I just remembered this — Trump had jury duty and he went out to his car at lunchtime so that he could listen to the program. And he told the press that he always listened to this show whenever he could. I remember that. And, in fact, in the early stages of the Trump campaign — he was very strategic about this — whenever he was conducting a rally, at the beginning of every rally he would mention some people and say “great guy, great guy.”
And he would measure the audience reaction to the names that he dropped to see what kind of reaction they got, to see if it was worthwhile mentioning the name in other places. And every time he would talk about having talked to me or say, “Yeah, I heard Rush on the radio the other day –” the audience would go nuts and applaud so he would get positive feedback. And we did interview him once when he was down at Doral, down at his property in Miami. But when he called me and I was on the golf course at Bel Air, it was nothing but a thank-you call. It was just appreciation and so forth. And Vice President Pence was on the phone too.
And he said, “You know, I listen to you more than you think. I mean, you’d be surprised. You’d be surprised.” And I’ve always thought that he was just being polite and nice ’cause when does he have time, especially now as prexy there in the Oval Office. That’s why I’m suggesting that somebody — and he may have already done it but, you know, if you have the Rush Limbaugh app at the app store, and I think it’s for Android, too, then you can watch this program on your phone or your iPad with the app, if you are a subscriber to RushLimbaugh.com.
The app works even if you’re not a subscriber, but to get the Dittocam you gotta be a subscriber. And you can watch it live, you can watch it later, you can watch last week’s edition on the Dittocam. I’m not even aware that it’s on, it’s been around here for so long. I never play to it. I never think to look at it. I’m looking at it now just because I’m thinking about it, but I hardly ever do, but it is available on TV.