It took two attempts, one mid-sentence interruption and a confession that he was about to get into trouble before a Fox News host finally got the president off the phone.
President Donald Trump, 80, called in to Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” from the White House on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, and talked for most of a roughly 25-minute interview before interim host Larry Kudlow, 79, cut him off on the air.
Kudlow, who ran the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term and served as the president’s economic adviser, is one year Trump’s junior. He opened the segment by telling Trump he was on a roll and calling his campaigning “herculean.”
Trump said he had held 14 rallies in nine days. Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, a former football player, drew the president’s praise for refusing — by Trump’s account — to talk about his own playing days, unlike Trump, who said he would have claimed to be the greatest of all time. The president said he was heading back to Ohio.
He also handed a backhanded endorsement to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate. Trump brushed off complaints about how Paxton dresses and how he talks as irrelevant. What matters, he said, is that Paxton is a great attorney general.
“I’m Going to Get Into Trouble”
Kudlow teed up the economy with numbers, saying retail and same-store sales were up almost 10% year on year, the fastest in decades. The two men talked up an Audi plant in Macon, Ga. Kudlow acknowledged that gasoline prices were temporarily too high.
Then came the host’s last question, an invitation to wrap: he asked Trump to “end this campaign on an optimistic note.” Trump talked for nearly two more minutes.
He said the United States has “number one growth in the world,” and Kudlow said yes. He said crime is now at its lowest, and Kudlow said yes again. The president described pre-MAGA Washington at length as a killing field that looked like hell, and said the capital is now clean and beautiful, after what he called big vandalism on the Reflecting Pool. Kudlow, on camera, looked glum, winced, shifted in his seat and nodded along.
Trump recounted the king of Saudi Arabia calling the United States the “hottest country in the world.” He said he had rebuilt the military in his first term, only for former President Joe Biden to give 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.
Kudlow finally broke in mid-sentence. “I’ve got to let you go. I’m going to get into trouble. Good luck!” he said.
Trump replied that the country is the hottest anywhere in the world, that Kudlow had just gotten good ratings and that nobody would bother him. As Kudlow repeated his goodbyes, Trump kept going. “I’m proud of you, Larry! I’m proud of you,” the president said, before 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.
77% of the Words
A transcript of the call shows how lopsided the conversation was. Of the 4,877 words spoken, Trump accounted for 3,731, or 77%, and he held the floor for 1,106 seconds out of 1,491. Kudlow managed 1,146 words.
The Rally Fox Refused to Air
The call-in came a day after Fox News cut away from Trump’s rally in Perry, Ga., on Oct. 24, after he started ridiculing Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. The network switched instead to its in-studio anchors, who talked about his appearance. One anchor said Trump was in “rare form.”
At the Perry rally, Trump referenced unsubstantiated claims that Omar legally married her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009 to help him secure U.S. immigration status.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries defended Omar in a statement the same day. “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,” Jeffries said.
Agents from Homeland Security Investigations carried out a search at the congresswoman’s Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12. The search came amid a reported criminal fraud investigation into her immigration paperwork.