WALLACE: Love him or hate him, Rush Limbaugh is the king of conservative talk radio. Twenty million people listen to him each week on close to 600 stations across the country. He’s also written a new children’s book called Rush Revere and the Presidency. And Rush Limbaugh joins us now live from his EIB studio in Florida. Rush, welcome back to Fox News Sunday. Always good to have you, sir.

RUSH: Thank you, Chris. It’s great to be here.



WALLACE: You say that what’s happening to Donald Trump right now is that the left-wing courts, the left-wing media, the left-wing bureaucracy are trying to, in your words, “sabotage” his presidency. Sabotage?

RUSH: Well, actually, yes, and it is driven by two things, actually. The first thing that’s going on, Chris, is in my view, it is preposterous to believe that the Russians had any effect on the outcome of voting in this country. It’s absurd. There is no evidence. Zilch. zero. nada. The New York Times has run two stories that are basically propaganda on this, one in October and one this past week. And, both stories clearly say no evidence. Nobody they’ve talked to has any evidence whatsoever to suggest it. The second thing I think that’s important for people to remember: People that voted for Donald Trump, people that support Donald Trump really, really believe that they were gonna lose the country if Hillary Clinton won.

This is not an idle thought; it’s not an exaggeration. They really believe that the country as founded was up for grabs. It was over if Hillary had won, if the Democrats had another four or eight years to do what they do with the judiciary and so forth. So those two things. And I think if you try to understand both of those — not you personally. But people have a much greater ability to understand Trump and his supporters if you can intellectually understand those two premises.

WALLACE: You also use a phrase which I have to say that I only heard for the first time in the last couple of weeks, “the deep state,” and that’s the notion that there’s an Obama shadow government embedded in the bureaucracy that is working against this new president. I think some folks are gonna think that’s right on and some folks will think it’s awfully conspiratorial.

RUSH: Well, I would love to claim credit for that, but actually I think a reporter by the name of Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept — who has got a relationship with, what’s his name, Assange. I think he actually coined the term. And I think it works. I don’t think there’s any — who’s driving this business that the Russians hacked the election? It’s the Democrat Party. It’s Hillary. It’s Obama. It’s all those people who just can’t accept that they lost. They’re intellectually —

WALLACE: And you think they’re behind the leaks, too?

RUSH: Absolutely. Of course they are. They’re trying. Look, they can’t win at the ballot box. You know they’re down 1,200 seats since 2010? They’ve become a marginal party, electorally. All they’ve got is their embeds in the bureaucracy and the judiciary, and they’re pulling out all the stops. There’s no question. This business that the Russians hacked the election? This is a serious, serious allegation that is impossible. The Russians could not have had any impact whatsoever on voting, either how they were cast or how they were counted.

In fact, if you want to say they did, they did their job! Hillary won the popular vote. How could they possibly have had any…? This whole premise — and it’s been driving news coverage here ever since Trump took office and even before. You don’t need any more evidence than that to suggest and to know that the left — which is run by Obama and Hillary and the hierarchy in the Democrat Party — is doing everything they can to undermine, to sabotage, and to prevent Trump from implementing his agenda. There’s no question about it.

WALLACE: You —

RUSH: I know what Trump should do.

WALLACE: Well, I’m gonna get to that in a second. Uh, but you suggest that there are some things that President Trump may be doing wrong. For instance, you’ve said that you’re skeptical about his idea — and we heard it again, uh, from Reince Priebus — that they’re gonna come up with a new executive order on the so-called travel ban and that this new one is gonna pass muster with the federal courts. You’re skeptical about that?

RUSH: Well, not so much skeptical. I think they’re going to do it, and I think they should do it, because the judiciary, again, is pockmarked with judicial appointees that Democrat presidents have made for years, and they’re in there for life. As we have seen in the first executive order… You know, Chris, his executive order hasn’t even been ruled on. The judge in Seattle said (paraphrased), “Well, the president said during the campaign that he wanted to ban Muslims, and…” It’s irrelevant.

They’re not even using the law to try to stop the president on this. I think what the president has to do — and I was happy to see it. This rally was something that I hoped he would do, and in the rally he really focused on domestic agenda. Look, here’s the thing. Donald Trump has nobody helping him other than the people that voted for him. Obama had the media; Obama had the judiciary; Obama had all kinds of support. At an Obama press conference, typical question, “What enchants you?” I mean, Obama was never challenged seriously by the media.

Trump doesn’t have any of that. He’s got to keep his supporters on board; he’s gotta keep ’em revved up. So the rally was great. But the thing that will really make all this Russia stuff and all this deep state stuff not take hold is getting to work implementing the repeal of Obamacare, getting to work and really doing tax reform, and getting to work and really shore up our borders. Because that is the primary area where people that voted for Trump felt that we were on the way to losing the country. We’ve even lost the definition of immigration.

“Immigration” today, if you listen to the left, equals anybody who wants to come into the country should be allowed. That’s not what immigration is. That’s illegal immigration, and we ought to all oppose it. We are all in favor of immigration that determines who gets in, the quantity of people who get in, whether they assimilate or not. Nobody’s opposed to that. But immigration has been defined now as people flooding the country who are noncitizens. And that’s called “immigration,” according to the culture of the left. And we’re just ruining our opportunity to stay together as a people —

WALLACE: I want to —

RUSH: — with a common culture by doing this, and it’s being done on purpose.

WALLACE: I want to get to this question focusing on the domestic agenda, because, interestingly enough, that’s something you’ve been saying: He needs to focus on the key things that would improve people’s daily lives. There is a columnist for the Washington Post who is no conservative, and he actually wrote this week — (laughs) and I don’t know whether it’s gonna give you heartburn — he said, “Rush Limbaugh is exactly right about how Donald Trump can fix his problems,” namely, focus… Ignore the political chatter and focus on the domestic agenda. But, I gotta tell you, by historical standards, by this point Obama’s stimulus had already been passed. President Trump is pretty slow on Obamacare, is pretty slow on repealing Obamacare, pretty slow on tax reform. Uh, and there’s a lot of disarray inside the Republican Party on Capitol Hill.

RUSH: Well, now, here I have to tiptoe. (laughs) We’re not talking Republicans and Democrats opposed to Trump. We’re talking establishment versus Trump. Trump is considered to be an outsider. The establishment doesn’t want any part of Trump. They don’t want him to succeed. And I would throw some Republicans in that as well. It’s just the way Washington works. And this is why I think moving forward on this agenda is crucial. You mentioned Obama’s stimulus. Here’s the difference — and this is what Trump supporters know. It wasn’t a stimulus. It was a payoff to unions, Chris. It didn’t stimulate anything! We don’t have a growing economy. We don’t have jobs being created at a replacement level for those we had lost. We don’t have anything Obama said. He lied about the cost of premiums coming down.

WALLACE: But, you — You — Rush, you may be right, and I’m not —

RUSH: No, no. This is important stuff. The —

WALLACE: Well, no, I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just saying at least he passed his program, and President Trump hasn’t passed any of his programs yet.

RUSH: Well, of course. It makes my point. Here you had… I tiptoe again. You have the historic, first African-American president —

WALLACE: (laughing) You’re not very good at tiptoeing.

RUSH: Well, you know, it’s television. It’s Fox News. I have deep respect. But, no, seriously. You have the first African-American president; you have everybody falling all over themselves to acknowledge that, to reward that. Obama was gonna get everything he wanted in the first year because, if anybody opposed it, they were gonna be accused of being a racist, or bigot, or who knows what. But don’t ignore the substance. The voters know that his stimulus… It doesn’t matter when it got passed; he misled everybody about it.

The people of this country are tired of being misled.

They’re tired of voting based on what candidates have told them they’re gonna do, and nothing ever changes.

Trump has a wide berth here, Chris. The media did not make Donald Trump, and they can’t destroy him. But the media thinks — and when I say “media,” let me define: ABC, CBS, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, L.A. Times. That cadre. They have a formula, they have a blueprint for destroying Republican political officials they don’t like. It’s not gonna work on Trump. He doesn’t fit that mold. They’re trying to every day. It’s kind of comical to watch, and my point about the domestic agenda, if he really wants to lead with the domestic, get going on it.

WALLACE: And I’m not interrupting. I’m not interrupting, because we agreed.

RUSH: That’s fine.

WALLACE: I’m just moving you along. I want to stay with this media issue.

RUSH: Okay.

WALLACE: ‘Cause you heard my conversation just now with Reince Priebus, and tell me what you think. When Trump sends out a tweet and says, “The Fake Media” and all those organizations you just listed “are not my enemy; they’re the enemy of the American people,” does that go too far?

RUSH: Well, again, not to his voters. His voters have thought this —

WALLACE: I’m asking you. What do you think?

RUSH: — for the longest time. I think that there’s something to it. Enemy of the people, enemy of the state; they’re enemies of Trump. And Trump won the election. Trump won the election — on substance. Trump did more interviews, he explained his agenda more than any political presidential candidate ever has, in my memory, and he has tried to stick to it as people perceive it. And this effort to stop him, this is what people include, anti-American, anti-this. It clearly is anti-Trump. And Trump has a connection with his voters that most politicians don’t have. I understand it perhaps better than anybody in media, and that connection that he has is not anything that anybody else can break. Only he can break it.

WALLACE: And — and I’ve got about a minute left, so I’m gonna ask you to keep the time on this. As you look —

RUSH: Is that all?

WALLACE: No, you’ve been doing great. As you look at where they are one month in, is he in good shape? Is he in trouble? Is…? What’s the state of the Trump presidency? One minute.

RUSH: My impression… Well, it depends who you ask. If you ask the media, they want people to believe that it’s chaotic and falling apart and it’s already over. Trump’s defeated, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and everybody’s running away from it, and we’ve got people in the deep state trying to sabotage Trump in order to save America. I think he’s doing exactly what he said he was gonna do. And, at the bottom line, I don’t think really he’s fazed by any of this. I know Donald Trump; he’s a winner; he’s committed; and he has intended all along to do what he thinks is necessary to save the country.

So perceptions are what they are. Keep an open mind. We’re only one month in, and he’s got three years and 11 months to go, and his supporters have nowhere near gotten to the point where they’re worried or want to abandon him. They hope he hangs in, they hope he just continues to stick it to them, and they want to see this agenda moved. And, believe me, that’s the magic here: Get tax reform, Obamacare repealed, and he’s free.

WALLACE: Rush, thank you. Thanks for coming in today. Always good to talk to you. Please come back.

RUSH: Thank you very much, Chris. I appreciate this very much. I really do. Always a pleasure.