The president of the United States kept talking so long on live television that his own former economic adviser had to break in and warn that he was about to get in trouble.
President Donald Trump, 80, phoned into Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” from the White House on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, for an interview of about 25 minutes with interim host Larry Kudlow, 79, and spent nearly all of it talking — until Kudlow cut in mid-sentence to end the call.
Kudlow, who ran the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term and is one year the president’s junior, needed two tries to get him off the phone. “I’ve got to let you go. I’m going to get into trouble. Good luck!” Kudlow said, breaking in.
Trump replied that no country in the world was hotter and that Kudlow had just gotten good ratings, so nobody would bother him. Kudlow said goodbye a second time. Trump kept talking: “I’m proud of you, Larry! I’m proud of you.” Then the line was cut off.
After the line went dead, Kudlow told viewers he loved talking to Trump and called the two of them old friends.
Two More Minutes on an Optimistic Note
Before that first attempt to wrap, Trump praised his old aide as “One of my great students of all time.” Kudlow thanked him, then asked him to “end this campaign on an optimistic note.” The answer ran nearly two more minutes.
“I’m campaigning harder than I would for myself because we have so many good people, and they want to keep it going, and I don’t want to see them turning around,” Trump said in that closing stretch.
He told Kudlow the U.S. has “number one growth in the world.” Kudlow said yes. He said the country now has the lowest crime. Kudlow said yes again. Trump described pre-MAGA Washington as a killing field that looked like hell, and said the city is now clean and beautiful — a turn he dated to after what he called big vandalism on the Reflecting Pool. On camera, Kudlow looked glum, winced, shifted in his seat and nodded along.
Trump also recounted the king of Saudi Arabia calling the United States the “hottest country in the world.” The military, he said, was something he rebuilt in his first term, and former President Joe Biden then gave much of it away to Ukraine. Biden could have charged Europe and did not, Trump said; he sells to Europe, and Europe pays the United States.
Trump Took 77% of the Words
A transcript of the call shows just how lopsided the conversation was. Of its 4,877 words, Trump spoke 3,731, or 77%, and he held the floor for 1,106 of 1,491 seconds. Kudlow managed 1,146 words.
Kudlow opened by telling the president he was on a roll and calling his campaigning “herculean.” Trump put his count at 14 rallies in nine days and said he was heading back to Ohio.
Trump also praised Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, who played football and who, in Trump’s telling, refuses to discuss those years on the field. In his own case, Trump said, he would have called himself the greatest of all time. His endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate, came with a backhand: Trump brushed off complaints about how Paxton dresses and how he talks as irrelevant, saying what matters is that Paxton is a great attorney general.
Kudlow offered numbers of his own, saying retail and same-store sales are up almost 10% year on year, the fastest in decades. Both men talked up an Audi plant in Macon, Ga. Kudlow acknowledged that gasoline prices are temporarily too high.
The Rally Fox Walked Away From
The day before the phone call, the network cut away from Trump’s rally in Perry, Ga., on Oct. 24, after he started ridiculing Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Fox switched to its in-studio anchors, who talked about his appearance. One anchor said Trump was in “rare form.” Another said he was “letting it all loose.”
At that rally, Trump referred to unsubstantiated claims that Omar, 44, legally married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009 to help him secure U.S. immigration status.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned the attack in a statement Saturday, Oct. 24. “Donald Trump has consistently trafficked in vile and xenophobic rhetoric against the Somali American community, targeting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with unhinged personal attacks and baseless accusations,” he said.
Agents from Homeland Security Investigations carried out a search at Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12. A reported criminal fraud investigation into her immigration paperwork was underway at the time. Jeffries addressed that search in the same statement: “After lawlessly sending his violent DHS machine to Congresswoman Omar’s home earlier this month, the President is once again peddling sick propaganda against her at a moment when political violence is surging.”