Former Congressman and presidential candidate and host of the “Ron Paul Liberty Report” joined FNC’s Jesse Watters Saturday to grade President Trump’s first term in office.
RON PAUL: Depends on what day of the week it is. It is up-and-down, he does not get an A+, I don’t like walls and fences and things like that. But actually immigration is down, I don’t know if that’s because of Trump or whether he has helped do that. Illegal immigration is down, I would give him a low C, he does not get in high A and I don’t think he’s completely failed because he does talk a little bit about my theory, about what we do, if you don’t subsidize, it won’t help, I think the subsidies for illegally entering this country is the main motivating factor.
JESSE WATTERS: You’re talking about benefits in terms of entitlements or state tuition or things like that, driver’s license like they’re doing in new york?
RON PAUL: All of that for a starter, but it is also a special way to become a citizen, easy road to citizenship, jumping in front of the line and getting the free education. It makes no sense at all,. All I can say if both Americans were put in that situation they would be praying or helping they could get some of that –.
JESSE WATTERS: Low C- is a tough grade — I would give him maybe a B+ but we just had word that the Pentagon just transferred close to $4 billion to fund the border wall construction. I think it’s moving in the right direction but we can disagree on that. Tell me about his economic policy, where you stand on that in terms of great.
RON PAUL: Partially, I endorse, under most conservatives, you know how to be a libertarian or an economist to say lowering taxes and lowering the regulation is a good idea. But he’s a long way from what Austrian economics teaches and what free market is all about. That deals with the monetary policy and the Federal Reserve. You want to have interest rates design by the marketplace, not by putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to get the rates down.
And in the short run it’s like if people need to get ahead and if they can hold somebody out and steal some money and live beyond their means or borrow the money from the Federal Reserve, you can have an appearance of pretty good prosperity. But it always ends. The 0 interest rate is the craziest thing ever, it is not going to work, the biggest problem with that overall is what a lot of people are admitting, it creates a lot of debt, $14 trillion in household debt. This is unsustainable.
JESSE WATTERS: We have been saying that for decades, the debt is out of control and keeps getting bigger and bigger. Neither party is going to do anything about that. Finally, you never gave me a great what was the grade for economic policy. You have to admit —
RON PAUL: C-.
JESSE WATTERS: You are a tough grader. C- again. I would like to see your grades for Barack Obama.
RON PAUL: If you care about the economy you have to care about those people who, in secret, manipulate interest rates and the money supply, they’re the bosses of the whole economy and Trump knows it.
JESSE WATTERS: Finally, foreign policy, I just have to stop and, he is probably someone up your ally, he is not starting a lot of new wars, wants to get out of the Mideast, clearly you have to give him better than a C-.
RON PAUL: I think we’re in the same category, I’ll have to give that some thought. But if we go by what he says and what he said in the campaign, he deserves a B+, but take Syria for instance, he said what we need to do is come home, he makes the announcement next day sends more troops over there.
Too much intervention for me.
JESSE WATTERS: I think any intervention is too much for you. Did I hear any final grade on foreign policy?
RON PAUL: On the foreign-policy, it’s another C-.
JESSE WATTERS: C- across the board.
