The Washington Post released a collection of transcripts from interviews for a book on Donald Trump. | Getty The 21 best exchanges in The Washington Post's Trump interviews

On the heels of its new book, “Trump Revealed,” The Washington Post on Tuesday made public an extensive archive of its reporting used to compile the work, including a collection of transcripts from interviews conducted during the heat of the primary season — from March through June — with Donald Trump as the businessman weaved his way toward the Republican presidential nomination.

From hinting that he might sue the Post over its book, to learning for the first time about his father's arrest 40 years ago, to countless other instances where the showman-turned-politician boasted of his fame, the transcripts show a Trump willing to engage with reporters, a man who never misses an opportunity to sell his brand.


Here are 21 of the most revelatory moments pulled from the hundreds of pages of Post transcripts speaking with Trump:

1. Opening with a threat

Speaking to Robert O'Harrow, Drew Harwell and Shawn Boburg on May 13, Trump warned the reporters about his expectations for the book.

Trump: “Hello?”

O’Harrow: “Mr. Trump, it’s Bob O’Harrow here with Drew Harwell and Shawn Boburg. Thanks for making time for us.”

Trump: “Hi, fellows. How are you?”

Harwell: “Hi. Great, Donald. How are you?”

Trump: “Okay. I’m very good. Thank you. What is this for, the book, the book that’s being written in less than a week?”

O’Harrow: “Yeah, it’s a tight deadline, but it’s a little longer than a week. We’re certainly working diligently, and –“

Trump: “I just hope the book could be fair because otherwise, you know, we’ll see what happens. But it would be nice if the book could be fair. But we’ll see.”

O’Harrow: “That’s our guiding light, is being fair and diligent.”

Trump: “I would hope so. I would hope so.”

2. The announcement ‘speech’ was more of an ‘outline’

Speaking to Dan Balz and Jenna Johnson, Trump remarked that he did not necessarily want to do the speech that was sent out prior to his June 16, 2015, announcement at Trump Tower.

“Because I really view that, again, never having done this before, I viewed that as an outline, not necessarily something that I would have to follow. So I gave out to you what was called an outline. Little did I know that's very unusual that somebody would give out a speech and then go totally off speech,” Trump said. “Because I didn't go off speech on Mexico; I want off speech on virtually everything.”

3. Won't say if he voted Hillary Clinton for Senate

Michael Kranish: “Did you vote for her for the U.S. Senate?”

Trump: “Who was she running against?”

Marc Fisher: “Rick Lazio.”

Trump: “You have to understand that for the most part in New York, whoever gets the Democratic nomination wins.”

Kranish: “Did you vote for Hillary Clinton?”

Donald Trump: “I never say who I'm going to vote for, I never tell. I know. But I did have a fundraiser for the party at the time. I think you know and I've said it pretty loud and clear that I get along with all politicians. I felt it was an obligation to get along, including with the Clintons and including with a lot of other people. It was very important for me to get along with politicians in my business.”

4. On supporters calling Clinton a ‘bitch’ at rallies

Trump: “They're what? They're calling her what?”

Johnson: “A bitch.”

Trump: “A bitch? No, I haven't heard that.”

Johnson: “Yeah, I mean, there are t-shirts at the rallies and the back of the t-shirt says: 'Trump that bitch.' There's a popular button --“

Trump: “No, that I have not seen. No, I don't like that. I have not seen it, though, Jenna. How often do you go? Do you go to a lot of my speeches?”

Johnson: “Almost every single one, and I see it more and more.”

Trump: “It's getting better and better?”

Johnson: “Is that an appropriate word for your fans to be using?”

Trump: “I have not heard that. I don't like that. But I have not heard that. I would not be happy if I heard it. No, I have not heard it. Did you see that the crowds are getting bigger and bigger?”

5. ‘I actually backed a Hispanic candidate’ for mayor in 2001 ‘which tells you something’

Trump: “I actually backed a Hispanic candidate.”

Kranish: “Right, exactly. You did. That person lost to [mayoral candidate Mark] Green.”

Trump: “He lost to Green but I backed a Hispanic candidate.”

Kranish: “You did.”

Trump: “Which tells you something. Okay. He was a very nice guy and a very good guy. He lost to Green.”

...

“Back to Hispanic, a very good guy who lost. I think he lost to Green actually. Yeah, he lost to Green in the primaries. Then after that I don't think I was involved. Then I actually backed [Michael] Bloomberg after that.”

6. Down goes Frazier

On not knowing about the impact of his “rapists” remark: “I got hit so hard. And it was sort of like the delayed. Did you ever watched [sic] George Foreman knocking out -- when he hit Joe Frazier, where he hit him? And about two seconds later, Joe went up in the air. It's almost like a spring. He hit him. You know what I'm talking about.

“It was weird because it would’ve been one thing if it was the day after the speech. But it was a week later. It's almost like people started reading the speech a week later," Trump said. "And that was really, really brutal. A couple of weeks went by and then what happened is people started looking at the incredible crime statistics, how bad it is.”

He then asked for someone to show a recent State Department travel advisory to Mexico to underline his point.

7. On an old baseball coach, who died the day before an interview

“He was a wonderful guy. He was a coach. He was my coach. And he said wonderful things. He said I'm the best baseball player he has ever seen, that he had ever had, that he had ever coached. He coached a lot of good players, a lot of good teams. But he was a good guy. A tough guy. He was tough. But yeah, he died yesterday. Can you believe it?”

8. Trump learns of his father's arrest from a Post reporter

Kranish: “So there was a day in 1976, he was down at Prince George's County, Maryland looking at a housing project. Do you know what I'm talking about?”

Trump: “Prince George's, yeah.”

Kranish: “He was arrested.”

Trump: “He was?”

Kranish: “You didn't know this?”

Trump: “No.”

Kranish: “He was arrested. The bond was $1,000. There was a Washington Post reporter who works at The Post who wrote the story in '76. So I can show you that.”

Trump: “My father was arrested?”

Kranish: “Your father was arrested.”

Trump: “For what?”

Kranish: “It was a housing code violation matter. It was a $1,000 bond. He called someone in New York, I didn't know if it was you, that's the reason I was asking the question. If you don't remember this, obviously, it wasn't you. But he called someone at the company in '76. You were working there at the time to arrange for the $1,000.”

Trump: “I never knew he was -- I never heard that at all.”

9. Talking assets

“The assets are disproportional because some of them are like buying a painting, like, as an example, you can almost look at any of them. You look at the land I own on the Potomac River, on the Pacific Ocean or any of them.”

10. ‘I'm just saying though that Tim O'Brien is a psycho’

The presidential candidate was still not over a lawsuit brought against author Timothy O'Brien, who Trump said grossly underestimated his total net worth.

Trump: “Well, what do my accountants say I’m worth?”

Harwell: “Well, for example, in 2004 they said you were worth 3.5 billion and you said you were worth 6 billion.”

Trump: “Who were the accountants that said 3.5?”

Harwell: “In the deposition that you gave under the Tim O’Brien case. Donald Trump: I’m just saying though that Tim O’Brien is a psycho. Tim O’Brien, he wrote a book that failed badly. It was a book -- and frankly, it was a lawsuit that I should have won. But you can't win that kind of a lawsuit. But I enjoyed bringing it anyway because it cost him a lot of money. But Tim O’Brien is a guy that knew what I was worth because he looked at some of the assets, not all of the assets. He knew he wrote a phony book and, you know, the book failed. It cost him money. You know, he’s a dumb guy. He’s a guy that had -- he doesn’t have a clue. But he did have an axe to grind, so that’s it.”

11. How the Muslim ban came to be

Balz: “But was this something that just kind of came to you? We have to do something and here's what we have to do?”

Trump: “Yes, it was. It absolutely was. I said we have a problem. We have a president that won't even mention the term. And we had San Bernardino where they were radicalized. They became radicalized. He probably became radicalized by her. And they killed 14 coworkers that had previously given them a shower party for their baby, a baby shower for the baby. And a wedding shower. And they were friendly, they worked there, and they killed them. And they killed more -- they had many people still in the hospital. And then you had the horror show of Paris where 130 people killed and many, many people in the hospital right now that will never fully be able to recover. And obviously many other things, many other things.

“So I said something has to be done. So I said we're going to call for a temporary ban on them coming in. And you also had the whole thing with the migration starting to form where people are starting to think about let's let a lot of people come in from Syria, even though we know nothing about them, who they are, et cetera, et cetera. But they do have cellphones. And they do have ISIS flags on some of those cellphones. And you say, what are we doing? I don't know if you know but a lot of the cellphones had the ISIS flag on them. And we let them into our country. So I said it's time we get smart.”

12. Brushing off his past support for invading Iraq

“They like to say, well, on Howard Stern -- that was while before the war started. And even then, I was, I don't know. That's the first time I was ever asked the question. Don't forget, I'm a businessman. Nobody is asking me about the Iraq War. But Howard is a friend of mine. If you go back to 2004, I was strongly against that war. And I was against it before it ever started because I said it's going to destabilize the Middle East. And Hillary voted for it. But beyond that -- because maybe she was given bad information. Beyond that -- because I said it was going to destabilize the Middle East. Everything I said was exactly right.”

13. Fighting with the pope

Trump told the Post journalists that on one day in February as he prepared for the South Carolina primary, his aides told him there was “bad news” about him from Pope Francis, who denounced building walls as “not Christian.”

Trump: “And then I immediately thought of the Vatican with the massive walls. I said, well, wait a minute, he’s got the bigger walls. He's got walls like you couldn't even dream of. So it was sort of strange. The Pope actually came out with a very second statement which was absolutely -- because he was given a lot of false information by the Mexican government."”

Johnson: “Why hit him that hard? Why not just wait a little bit to see exactly –“

Trump: “I didn't hit him.”

Johnson: “Or come out and defend yourself.”

[cross-talking]

Trump: “But Jenna, I had an election. I had the Pope coming out. I thought this was not -- so anyway, that was one thing. So I had three things. I had the Pope which worked out fine because just before -- and he came out and released a statement that really brought it down a big notch.”

14. On how ‘many, many people’ said he ‘blew’ South Carolina after engaging with Jeb Bush at the debate

Balz: “Did anybody on your team say to you after that debate, Mr. Trump, you might have a problem in a state like this where the Bushes are popular, going that hard after President Bush?”

Trump: “More than one person, I can tell you that. Many, many people said -- there were people that said you just blew the state. I said I have to be honest. I have to be honest. And because it's a military state, a lot of soldiers, sailors, and I said I have to be honest. I have to be true to myself, okay? And you can't keep making statements that go unchallenged like Jeb was doing. By the way, when I said that, he went, huh. His response was so bad. So I made those statements. And as you know I won South Carolina going away.”

15. Defending lawyer Roy Cohn with Steinbrenner

O'Harrow: “You stuck with him through thick and thin even when he was accused of being too close to the mob. When he was accused of ethics violations and all that, you stuck with him. Some people would say that’s Donald Trump being loyal. Other people would say why would he do that. Why did you stick with Roy Cohn even though other people accused him of all this crazy stuff?”

Trump: “Because I’m a very loyal person and we had great success. I had great success with Roy as my lawyer and I stuck with him. You know who else stuck with him? George Steinbrenner stuck with him, and so did Si Newhouse.”

O’Harrow: “A lot of people did. There were a lot of people that went to bat for him during the disbarment.”

Trump: “Yeah, because they were loyal.”

16. ‘They were great decisions for myself’

Trump also went to bat for himself against allegations that his actions as a businessman harmed workers and communities.

O’Harrow: “Here’s what we’re asking about. I just want to rephrase Shawn’s question. The question is you may have come out good for yourself, but did you make good business decisions or did those decisions lead to bankruptcies which hurt a lot of people?”

Trump: “They were great decisions for myself. I mean, I’m representing me. I’m not representing other people. I’m representing me. When I made these deals, as you said yourself, I mean I make great deals for myself. These deals were great. I know the bankers. These bankers are tough guys. They can handle themselves. But I made these great deals for myself. I wasn’t worried about the banks. When somebody said, oh, why didn’t you take a tremendous amount of money in junk bonds, and I’d say, well, I’ll take extra. They say, well, why don’t you add another 100 or 200 million to it, I’ll say, oh, I’ll take it. Then they say why don’t you take the casinos public or something. You know, if you take them public, you make money on that. All I can say is I wasn’t representing the country. I wasn’t representing the banks. I wasn’t representing anybody but myself. I was representing only myself.”

17. Trump claims he could have won Romney the election

Trump: “Oh, I was just like everybody else. I was watching it. I heard — I mean, it was too bad but I didn't run, it wasn't me that was running. Had they used me in a few of the states that he lost, he would have won those states. But they didn't do that. They used me in the primaries in five states — every single state that he used me, I won. I made speeches and I did robocalls. Every single state he won. In the general, they didn't use me — which was fine with me, I'm busy, you know, I'm always busy. But they didn't use my services and they should have and I would have won. I tell ya: I would have won Florida and that would have won him the election if he won Florida. But I would have done great there, I would have done great in Pennsylvania, you know, places he lost, we could have won. But they chose not to use my services — which was fine with me because I’m very busy, you know. But I was invited to the party and I felt that it was too bad. This was a great opportunity to win.”

18. President Reagan was weak on trade and immigration

Ronald Reagan was the best president of Trump’s lifetime, he said.

Trump: “[B]ut I disagreed with him on the borders. I disagreed with him on trade and the borders. But trade really was -- he got a bum rap. A lot of people thought Reagan was, you know, for some reason everyone thought Reagan was NAFTA. It was Clinton that was NAFTA. Ronald Reagan got a bum rap because NAFTA’s been a disaster for our country.”

…

Kranish: “Eighty-seven, you called Reagan a great performer but you wondered whether there was anything behind that smile. You wrote that. That doesn’t sound complimentary.”

Trump: “Well, I really liked him. I really liked his energy. I liked his heart. I disagreed with him on trade. I thought he was far too weak on trade. And I disagreed with him on the border. He was weak on the border. But in terms of a feeling, I loved his attitude on Iran. He released those prisoners. I loved what happened in Iran and Reagan as opposed to Jimmy Carter where they would’ve kept those people for a hundred years. But I felt he gave a great tone to the country. I disagreed with him on trade. I totally disagreed with him on trade.

“Reagan has been given a bad rap though because Reagan thought, very strongly thought that -- everybody thought that Reagan was NAFTA. And Reagan wasn’t NAFTA. It was Bill Clinton that was NAFTA. Bill Clinton signed that bill.”

19. ‘I don’t feel I insult people’

Despite his well-documented rhetoric — even before he launched his White House campaign — Trump refused to concede that he insults his critics.

O’Harrow: “Here’s the thing, and I’ll tell you I’m a [sic] actually a little baffled, just maybe because I’m naive and I haven’t seen it before, but the tactics of the aggression where you are demeaning opponents and insulting people, the Mexican American judge, from all I can tell, and certain women, feel very insulted by some of your remarks. Is that an overall strategy? What’s that about?

Trump: “I don’t feel I insult people. I don’t feel I insult people. I try and get to the facts and I don’t feel I insult people. I hear what you’re saying but I do not feel that I insult people. Now, if I’m insulted I will counterattack, or if something is unfair, I will counterattack, but I don’t feel like I insult people. I don’t want to do that. But if I’m attacked, I will counterattack.”

20. Trump seeks political advice from Post reporter

Trump noted that his Turnberry resort and golf course was opening in June and sought Johnson’s input on whether he should go to Scotland amid his presidential campaign.

Trump: “As you know, Turnberry — I’m thinking about, you know, it’s under construction now but it’s opening in June, and I was wondering if I should go over and cut the ribbon. Give me advice. I was wondering: Should I go over and cut the ribbon? You know, we’ve rebuilt the big building, it’s a big hotel project and its got the great courses of the world, also, it’s got a course that was a four-time Open Championship. You know, formally the British Open.”

Johnson: “Correct.”

Trump: “And the question is: Should I go there in June. What do you think? Would you go there if you were me and under my circumstance? Or no? You know this stuff better than I do.”

Johnson: “Oh, I’m not going to advise you. But I had heard that the Open is not going to be held at Turnberry. That the Open board decided…”

Trump denied that, insisting it was “absolutely false.”

“By the way, don’t write that because it’s totally false,” he advised.

21. Hanging up

At the end of the May 13 interview, the journalists inquired about recent reporting that accused Trump of creating a fake spokesman, alternately named John Miller or John Barron (or Baron).

Boburg: “Mr. Trump, we just have two more questions and then we’ll let you run. The story today about John Miller. Did you ever employ someone named John Miller as a spokesperson?”

Boburg: “I think he hung up. I’m pretty sure he hung up.”

O’Harrow: “Yeah, he hung up. That’s the end of the interview with Donald Trump. This is Robert O’Harrow, Shawn Boburg, and Drew.”

The reporters then attempted to reconnect with Trump through assistant Rhona Graff to figure out whether he had hung up on them or whether there had been some sort of disconnection.

Graff: “Oh. Hi, Bob. Yeah, I heard you got disconnected. Actually, he can't take the call now. I don’t know what happened, but we’re going to have to reschedule maybe for another day?”

O’Harrow: “Okay. Let me know.”

Graff: “I heard some of it though. Boy, those were really negative questions. Do you have any good questions to ask him? Some positive questions?”

O’Harrow: “Well, I think we all agreed and he said they were soft questions. We’re just trying to ask the questions of a guy who might be the president, so I don’t think they were negative. They’re just trying to get to the root of stuff. It’s a little bit hard to pin down particulars because he won’t provide them. And for newspapers, we have to try to get to the particulars.”

Graff: “All right. Well, I think we have to at this point now reschedule it for some time next week. So let’s talk on Monday and we’ll see if we can regroup. Thank you.”

O’Harrow: “Okay. Thank you. Bye-bye.”