This about right? About where I was? - Yep, make yourself comfortable, and can you...? I'll keep my hands above the table, though. - Yeah, just go like this. Like in the Old West, you always had to keep your hands above the table. Well, you might be going for your gun. WESTERN MUSIC OK, now I'm ready. Do I look skinny? So, I'm like staring into which camera? No, you're going to stare into me. That's good. OK, there you go. So who are...who are you... I mean, what is the topic? It's obviously Trump, but, like... Yeah, so what happens when a lunatic crazy person becomes president? SHE GROANS OK. I will find you, Rob, if this gets cut down to 15 seconds of talking about Trump's penis and his black socks. What you hear is, "Orange man bad." But I gotta tell ya, he could be in the handful of greatest presidents we've ever had. So, am I looking directly at the camera now? You just want me to look at the camera? Has he delivered? Absolutely! Oh, my God! Yes, he's delivered. I'm going to tell you that this is literally crazy town. Pfff! Yeah, you don't want a boring show. I mean, you don't want all that bullshit, that spin-cycle bullshit that all these political clowns give you, you know. SEAN SPICER: OK. So, it's election night, we're crowded into this room, um, on the fifth floor of Trump Tower. It had been the floor where they had filmed The Apprentice. And so we're gathered in there - Ivanka, Mike Pence, Reince Priebus... I remember taking a bunch of video, and we've got a projector on the wall with the results coming in. Donald Trump will carry the state of Florida. This night is turning out to be a real nailbiter. Suddenly someone starts to realise we might win this thing. And Trump was up in his residence, and he calls Ivanka and she says to him... He says, "Well where are you?" And she says, "We're down on the fifth floor." And she said, "Why don't you come down, Dad?" And he's just standing there, watching the TVs. Everyone around him kinda going nuts. APPLAUSE WHOOPING AND CHEERING And he's just soaking it in. That's the moment where he realised, "Oh, my gosh, this is really about to happen." Donald Trump wins the presidency. The business tycoon and TV personality, with an astounding upset victory. He was a middle finger to the bureaucrats. You can bleep this out. People were ready to give a "fuck you" to the system. I was thinking to myself, "You son of a bitch, you did this. I cannot believe you did this." It's a stunning... Obviously, it's a stunning historic upset. The polls were wrong, the prediction models were wrong. SEAN SPICER: I mean, literally the New York Times had us at 93-7, saying that we were going to lose. And so the idea that he blew through the political hurdles that he did was just unbelievable. Make no mistake about it - this is the biggest political upset in the modern history of the United States of America. SCATTERED CHEERS Sorry to keep you waiting. One day, if someone were to make a movie of your life, who would you see playing yourself? Maybe, uh, maybe myself. Reality television has taken over America. Donald Trump is the reality television king. We love you, Trump! I love you too. CHEERING Tremendously entertaining. The guy knows how to put on a show. CAMERAS CLICK Welcome back to the studio. OK, we're good. Is this in the shot over here? I'm afraid it is, sorry. Well, let me...let me just go back...back to the beginning. I mean, I've known Donald Trump for a long time. And he used to call me up quite...quite frequently, usually to complain about something the magazine had said about him, or even more often to complain that the magazine had not said anything about him. And then there came the moment when, um, uh, he won. Um, as incredible as that might seem to me, that was even more incredible to him. He never, ever, not for a second, believed that this was going to happen. So you almost have an experiment. HE CHUCKLES And the experiment is what happened if a person, wholly unaware of the history of this job, of the responsibility of this job, as though he were just dropped from Mars into this job, that's what you have in...in Donald Trump. "We don't like politicians - "we'll elect somebody who is at odds "with everything a politician is supposed to be." I thought that we were going to see something about a man's character and something about the nature of the White House that we had never seen. So in a way, that's the... ..that's the grand experiment. You are watching the inauguration of Donald Trump. It is all becoming very, very real. The reality TV host about to become commander in chief of the most powerful nation on Earth. OMAROSA: The first time that we met was in the boardroom from The Apprentice. We went from colleagues who, you know, made this great, successful show and had great success on television to now he was the leader of the free world. And...and I had a front-row seat to all of it. OK, look, we're moving. Hello. Hello, everybody. Hello, everybody. Sorry. He was always selling. Even up until the moment we went into the White House, he was selling, selling. While we were preparing for the inauguration, I went into his office, I popped in to brief him. And he says, "You know, my book is number one. You know, "It's the best business book ever." You know, that's Donald Trump. And so he...he starts off on this riff about how great The Art Of The Deal is, and I'm trying to figure out, you know, where this is... ..this story is going, and he says, "You know, I'm thinking... "..I'm thinking about taking my oath of office on The Art Of The Deal." And I was like, "What?!" I was like, "Please do not repeat that to anyone else." But, you know, that's...that's Donald. # Ain't that bad a place I was born that way # I bite my fingernails... # Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Donald John Trump... I, Donald John Trump... ..will preserve, protect and defend... ..preserve, protect and defend... ..the Constitution of the United States. ..the Constitution of the United States. # I love the USA # I love the USA # Fuck, yeah, this place is great # I love the USA # Stop at coffee bean # This is like a dream... # He was so excited. And the grandeur of it... It's just kind of like, "Boom, we're...we're there." I remember standing in the Oval Office with him, and he said, "Look around. We're standing in the Oval Office." In the Beast, which is the presidential limo, he said, "Tap on the windows. Feel how thick they are." And I said, "OK." And he's like, "They're bulletproof. Isn't that cool?" MICHAEL WOLFF: I remember shortly after he won the election... ..I went up to Trump Tower to see Trump. And I said, you know, "I'd like to come into the White House, "as an observer." I wanted to write a book. And he seemed so uninterested in the idea of a book that he said, "Yeah, yeah. OK, whatever." I remember this, "Whatever." So I became a kind of permanent fixture on the couch in the West Wing. And literally before my eyes, you saw a guy who is so unprepared... ..and he doesn't really know anybody. And he's freaked out. Thank you very much, everybody. This is really our first official meeting and I really do, I appreciate we'll get to know each other very well. We'll have these meetings every...whenever you need 'em. OMAROSA: Somehow he was still the Donald Trump from The Apprentice. Donald just kept doing strange and bizarre things in those first couple of weeks. We could be in a meeting about the Social Security Administration, about housing, and out of nowhere, he would start talking about the election. He had these huge graphics that he would pull out of nowhere. He would say, "Madeleine, bring in the map," and so I would walk in with the map, like Vanna White, and then show everyone this big beautiful map with tons of red. He wanted to show you, state by state, county by county, how he beat Hillary Clinton. He was obsessed about it. He talked about it nonstop. And I saw him early on in the White House struggle with that transition. We're five days in. You plan on signing the order to build the wall. Will American taxpayers pay for the wall? We will be, in a form, reimbursed by Mexico, which I've always said. So they'll pay us back? The FBI is investing any links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. There was conflict after conflict. I mean, it was crazy. My whole thing was - hit hard, always be on the attack. And come out... We're gonna have five executive orders a day, every day, flood the zone. Everything from immigration to building a border wall. He's a disrupter. But the system needs disrupting. Breaking news - President Trump's controversial executive order bars seven Muslim countries from coming to the United States. They are pouring in, and we don't know what we're doing. SEAN SPICER: The president had a checklist. He was one of the rare politicians that says, "OK, this is what I promised the American people - "I'm going to get it done." But a lot of it is getting rushed through. Totally. Totally, it's not a Muslim ban, but we are totally prepared to work it out very nicely. CHANTING: This is what democracy looks like. REPORTER: It was quite the scene at airports around the country. Police actually dispersed some crowds with pepper spray. It's like someone was continually walking into a set of drums and knocking them flying. And bang, bang, crash, bang, wallop! Boom, boom, boom, boom! Another chaotic day in the Donald Trump administration. Donald Trump's National Security Advisor has resigned. MICHAEL WOLFF: So I'm circulating in the West Wing, and I'm talking to all of the people who have come in at that point. They were all asking themselves what was going on here. The kind of facial gestures would start. You know, they would say what they were supposed to say, but then they would go, "Argh!" No-one thinks he is actually, on his own, capable of handling this job. No-one. * Thank you very much. I'm here today to update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration. But I turned on the TV, opened the newspapers, and I see stories of chaos, chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration... ..is running like a fine-tuned machine. Can you say definitively that nobody on your campaign had any contact with the Russians? Well, I had nothing to do with it. I have nothing to do with Russia. I told you, I have no deals there, I have no anything. Now, this is fake news put out by the media. Aren't you concerned, sir, that you are undermining the press in this country when you call stories you don't like fake news? Why not just say, "It's a story I don't like"? I do that. When you call it fake news, you're undermining the confidence... No, no, I do that. ..in our news media. Here's the thing, OK? Isn't that important? Quiet, quiet, quiet. See, he lied about... He was going to get up and ask a very straight, simple question, so, you know, welcome to the world of the media. I'm really not a bad person, by the way. But tomorrow the headlines are going to be, "Donald Trump rants and raves..." I'm not ranting and raving, I'm just telling you, you're dishonest people. STEVE BANNON: I mean, listen. From the very beginning, there was absolutely a thing from the media that this was not a legitimate president, that this come-from-behind victory had somehow been stolen by this group of not just outsiders, but unworthy outsiders. And President Trump, I think, to a degree... I'm not saying he's naive, but he thought that, "Hey, the New York Times and all these guys will accept me," and I said, "I don't think that's going to happen." Um, this is... You have rejected absolutely everything they stand for. MICHAEL WOLFF: It's important to try to keep in mind this was as strange an experience for him as it was for the country watching him. You know, the...the interesting thing about Trump is that he's this incredible creature of habit. You know, he's lived in Trump Tower since 1984. So here he is suddenly put into... ..into entirely new surroundings, new people around him, new expectations, and he retreats, actually, to the bedroom. And he has a lock installed on the door, which precipitates an early battle with the Secret Service - they can't allow that. And then he's freaked out by the White House staff and the help coming in to clean his room and to strip his sheets, and he yells at them. He says, "If I want my sheets taken off, I will take them off myself." He just seemed very overwhelmed. All come together as Americans... Every night, they would give him a briefing book that he was supposed to go through and make very important, significant decisions based on that information. But we could tell that he was struggling with processing that kind of vital information. And so someone came up with the idea that they would allow him to go on a victory tour. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the President of the United States. CHEERING # From the lakes of Minnesota # And New York to LA # Well, there's pride... # Yes! Thank God! # In every American heart # And it's time we stand and say # That I'm proud to be an American # Where at least I know I'm free... # OMAROSA: Those rallies were very much oxygen for Donald. I mean, he needed it. # And I'd gladly stand up... # He needed the energy of the crowd, he needed to hear their cheers. We love you, Mr President! Thank you, everybody. Thank you. CHEERING I'm here because I wanna be among my friends and among the people. And I saw this man on television just now. You. I just saw him on television. He said, "I love Trump. Let Trump do what he has to do." That's my guy right there. They interviewed this man. Come on up here. Come on up. Guy was great. Hop over the fence, come on. He can do it. This guy... So, he's been all over television, saying the best things, and I see him standing... And didn't you get here at like four in the morning? I did, sir. Say a couple of words to this crowd. Mr President, thank you, sir. We the people, our movement is the reason why our President of the United States is standing here in front of us today. CHEERING JON SOPEL: I think people underestimate him at their peril. He understands theatre, understands entertainment, understands politics as entertainment. When President Trump, during...during the election, promised all these things that he was gonna do for us, I knew he was gonna do this for us. He may not have read his briefing documents, but his visceral sense of what the mood is of the American people, and how to tickle that mood, I think is extraordinary. A star is born. A star is born. Thank you. Thank you. STEVE BANNON: I think he's a master of mass communication. He speaks from the gut, he hits people in the solar plexus, right? And I think he did the smart thing to do after he won - Trump's out there, in your face. They see a guy giving the finger to the establishment every day, and the establishment doesn't have a response. * TRUMP: We have a great, great cabinet. Wait till you see what we have next week. And I don't wanna tell you, I don't wanna tell you this, because I wanna save the suspense for next week. Don't let it outside of this room, do you promise? Raise your hand. Promise. We are going to appoint... ..Mad Dog Mattis... CHEERING ..as our Secretary of Defense. OMAROSA: People were selected based on their look. A lot of the briefing materials would have a photo clipped on it. Then it was almost like a casting call. It was tremendously entertaining. Especially when he announced Mad Dog Mattis as his Defense Secretary. Yes. I mean, the guy knows how to put on a show. He wanted tough generals that kind of projected strength. He would parade these candidates in front of the cameras. And I look forward to joining the National Security team and doing everything I can to advance and protect the interests of the American people. Thank you very much, sir. You're going to do a great job. Yes, sir. Mr Trump announced this morning Rex Tillerson as the Secretary of State. Tillerson has headed the world's largest oil company, ranked number 25 on Forbes' list of the most powerful people. Hi, I'm the new guy. LAUGHTER Hello, everybody. Thank you, everybody, for being here. We appreciate it. HE MOUTHS OMAROSA: On The Apprentice, he always got like a little sparkle in his eye whenever there was conflict. Whenever there were people in the boardroom kinda fighting amongst themselves, fighting between the teams, that's when he really kind of leaned in and you could tell he was so much more engaged, and this was happening in the White House. There were two factions. There was Steve Bannon and his crew. And then there was Reince and his crew. Both of them were competing to get closer to Donald. You have Steve Bannon, the far right-wing, the populist... ..would like to bring the establishment down. And then you have the chief of staff, who was Reince Priebus. He's an establishment Republican figure. Absolute contradictions. The intensity - the hatred, really - became overwhelming within a few weeks. You know, that's what you felt in the West Wing, is this feeling of...of near murder. Let me ask you two... We read a lot about you two. Um... What are you... You've worked really closely with Steve. What do you like the most about him? Um... LAUGHTER Hold on, let him speak. I love how many collars he wears. Interesting look. Um... Uh... He's not so bad. He's not so bad! Yeah, most of the time. Yeah, exactly. JON SOPEL: There was a tug-of-war going on about which way they would pull Donald Trump. The two of them tried to alter the direction of thinking of the president. A lot of reporting in the last few days about Steve Bannon having more influence than anyone else now on the president. Are you comfortable with the amount of influence Mr Bannon has? We value... We value Steve Bannon. Brings a strong perspective into discussions. OK, let's get focused. My whole thing was sticking to the hardcore Trump programme, not modifying it. You had the America First policy - it's obviously bringing manufacturing jobs back, it's building a border wall. It's about a fundamental reordering of what the modern world has become. TRUMP: I have been very, very direct. NATO members are still not paying what they should be paying. This is not fair to the people of the United States. Then there was another school of thought that, no, he should become a gentler Trump, whether it was the generals, or Rex Tillerson, or Reince Priebus. They have bought into the institution, heart and soul. They're the company men. That's where some of the internal fighting got pretty intense. TIM ALBERTA: Rex Tillerson, Jim Mattis, Reince Preibus were constantly plotting and scheming behind the president's back on how best to contain him. And so they invite him to a meeting at the Pentagon. Wow. What a great-looking group. You taking some pictures? They all sit down at a big conference table... ..trying to educate the president on the post-World War II order. American foreign policy, American economic policy, American trade policy... The president hears all of this and blows up on his generals. "What do you know? "Voters turned to me, and they gave me the keys to the car and they asked me to drive it. "They don't need you to drive the car." STEVE BANNON: He goes, "No, no, we're not going to do that." Couldn't be more definitive. "We're not going to do this. "We gotta think outside the box." And that leads to full systems meltdown. JON SOPEL: Rex Tillerson was so furious with what the president had said, he called him a moron. Except, well, he didn't quite call him a moron, he called him a fucking moron. And from that moment on, Tillerson had a black mark against his head. STEVE BANNON: At first, Trump was maybe a little uncertain, but I think he rediscovered that his inner voice was the right voice. These guys are not that smart. GERARD ARAUD: I give you a story. It was the centennial of the First World War... ..and Trump suddenly decided, really overnight, to come to Paris. He loves winners. He really... And for him, Macron was a winner. He looked at Macron and he said, "What do you think of Merkel and May?" Macron was very polite, you know, really, and he said, "Oh, I appreciate that they are colleagues." Really... And Trump looked at him and said, "They are losers." HE CHUCKLES As good French intellectuals, we were trying to understand what was behind Donald Trump. He was totally impressed by the military parade. I remember one meeting... to his people. He said, "You know I want the same military parade, "with horses, horses - very important to have horses." No, it was... It was quite a shock. In Europe, in most of the capitals, there was a state of denial. "You know, he will change over time, he will get normalised." You know, suddenly we realised that he was there for real. SEAN SPICER: And with that, I'll be glad to take your questions. LAUGHTER John Roberts. It's still upside down. Your pin's upside down. John Roberts, always helping me with the fashion tips. It's still upside down. Is that a distress call, Sean? Thank you. We have done plenty of reporting on all of it. You're coming to some serious conclusions for a guy that has zero intelligence... Uh, classified... LAUGHTER Give me some credit. I'll give you some. A little intelligence, maybe. I wasn't done - clearance, maybe both. Well, come on... Once you have the first day that I did, and some of the events that occurred...ensued since then, things don't tend to turn around image-wise. The president called and asked that I come over to the Oval Office to catch up. Erm, and the president came in and said, "Hey, I-I know you need help. You're getting killed out there," and he says, "I'm bringing in Anthony Scaramucci." # Uh, uh, uh # C'mon Ha! # Sicka than your average Poppa twist cabbage off instinct # N...think shit stink, pink gators # My Detroit players # Timbs for my hooligans in Brooklyn... # This was not going to be a good fit, for a lot of reasons. # Poppa been smooth since days of Underroos # Never lose, never choose to, bruise crews who... # Take a look at the camera. How do I look? Come on, I'm going to look like an ostentatious, nouveau riche prick, OK? But I'm going to do it for you, OK? I think he has a lot of confidence in me understanding his message and being able to explain his message. So the good news there is... He didn't hand me any talking points or anything like that. He says, "OK, go and do a good job." That's what he always says, actually, you know. "Go, go do a good job." He had seen me on television, so we talked regularly. He would call me for my opinion of things, I would express it, and he also admired the fact that I had some moxie, I had some New York moxie. I wasn't sitting there as the typical sycophant. I then call him, I say, you know, "Priebus and Bannon are "actually bad guys. They're going to hurt you." "And if you want to get rid of 'em someday, you give me a call, "I'll come down and fix it for ya." Ivanka called me. I went in to see him with her. We were in the study off the Oval Office. The president basically said to me, "Look, you were right about these guys, Priebus and Bannon are big-time leakers. "They're very disruptive. Why don't you come in here and we'll figure it out? And then I said, "I'm absolutely game for that. Let's do it." SEAN SPICER: Anthony had no government experience, had no communications experience, and I thought to myself, "OK." And so I went in that next morning, drafted up my resignation letter and said, "Mr President, you deserve to have a clean break and a new slate, "and...and I don't think that can happen with me here." I-I want to make a couple of statements. The first thing I want to say is I want to thank personally Sean Spicer, not only on behalf of myself, the president, the administration, but Sean is a true American patriot. I wish him well and I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money. Thank you. REPORTERS TALK OVER EACH OTHER The president said to me, "You know, I had a 45-year great relationship with the media. "What the hell happened?" And I looked at him, I said, "Well, you declared war on the media." And I said, "That is a bad strategy, but let's work on improving that relationship." TAPE CLICKS ON Anthony Scaramucci has resigned as White House communications director. More to come on that. Wow, he's only been there for... LAUGHTER ..about a week, and you can hear the reaction in this...in this studio right now. Director Anthony Scaramucci is out after ten days. That F-bomb profanity-laced interview that Scaramucci gave to the New Yorker. I got fired. I trusted somebody I should not have trusted. And I said, "If you publish that, and you publish those quotes, I'm gonna lose my job." Scaramucci came in bigger than President Trump, in his own ways, and received an even bigger spotlight than the boss himself, and, as all of us who cover this administration knows, that is the one way to get out of this White House. Like getting rolled in broken glass and then salted, but that's life, you know what I mean? I went into politics, and it's a rough sport. It's a blood sport, and I got hit pretty hard. (MELLOW ELECTRONIC MUSIC) There's something inside Kiwis that makes us believe a boat can fly or that a yacht race can become a cycling event,... that makes us happy to live outside our comfort zone and turn a mighty challenge into a fighting chance. Maybe you gotta be a bit mad. Some people might even call us a bit crazy. * It's been a stunning week and a stunning 24 hours. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is coming in to investigate the Trump campaign. There is no collusion, and there hasn't been collusion. And it was all a big hoax. SHE SPEAKS KOREAN North Korea, successfully testing its first intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury. ANGRY CHANTING We are determined to take our country back. We're going to fulfil all the promises of Donald Trump. CHANTING: USA, USA...! SCREAMING Whoa! Medic! We need to get... Move back, move back! Three people died of the aftermath of Saturday's rally. The 20-year-old suspect accused of ramming his car into a crowd and killing one woman will be arraigned today on murder and other charges. CAMERAS CLICK We're closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides, on many sides. We love our country, we love our God, we love our flag, we're proud of our country, we're proud of who we are. CAMERAS CLICK President Trump has come under fire for not explicitly condemning the role of white supremacists in those deadly protests. Those three critical words that people talked about quite a bit over the weekend, "on many sides". JONATHAN KARL: Top advisors are trying to convince him that he needs to come out and make a clear and unambiguous condemnation of white supremacists. Donald Trump has constantly had advisors tell him to tone things down, and over time he just came to think, "To hell with it! It's never worked. I got myself elected, I'm here. "And I'm here by doing what I thought was the right thing to do." So, what does he do the very next day? He comes out in Trump Tower and he did something extraordinary. "On both sides," sir. You said there was hatred, there was violence on both sides. Well, I do think there's blame, yes, I think there's blame on both sides. Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. I think there's blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it, and you don't have any doubt about it either. Thank you all very much, thank you, thank you. What about the Nazis that support you? Do you plan to go to Charlottesville, Mr President? REPORTERS TALK OVER EACH OTHER I own a house in Charlottesville. Will you go...? Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville? Where is it? Where is it? Oh, boy, it's gonna be... It's in Charlottesville, you'll see. Is it by the winery, or something? It's a... It is the winery. REPORTERS TALK AT ONCE CHEERING All right, let's give it up for the 45th president of the United States. TIM ALBERTA: The president came into office with a degree of caution about what he could and could not do on the job. But, over time, the president began to push those boundaries. And eventually, what the president realised was that he could do what he wanted to do with impunity. And sure enough, over the next three years, what you saw was a president who no longer had any regard for any boundary that was placed around him by anyone. Good afternoon. We are coming on the air right now because the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has just announced that Reince Priebus, current chief of staff, is out. He no longer needed a chief of staff. He no longer needed a chief strategist. Because nothing they could say or do was going to be smarter or more effective than what he himself was planning to do. Well, let me talk about Steve Bannon a little bit, because it was very interesting what was happening with the press. I remember they put Steve Bannon on the cover of Time magazine. And I remember having to go in to brief Donald shortly after he got a copy of that Time magazine, and he lost it. He hates for anyone to get more attention or more shine than him. And I remember saying to myself, "Oh, this is the beginning of the end." A stunning development inside the Oval Office. Stephen Bannon, the chief strategist for President Trump, has resigned. JON SOPEL: General McMaster had his parting of the ways with Donald Trump. Rex Tillerson, who's old school, doesn't do social media, he was flying back into Washington, his aides turn on their phone to find that Donald Trump has fired him by tweet, and the aides are talking amongst themselves, going, "One of us has got to tell him that he's been fired." To try and keep track of the people getting fired and quit, we have tried to keep a running tally of who's gone, who's fired, who's quit. They told me in the control room that we only have one more option for how to find more space up here. Where are they going to put them? One, two, three. Oh, we can go around the corner! Look at all the room! SHE LAUGHS Not to our headline - the Trump administration. Omarosa Manigault Newman, a White House aide and former Apprentice contestant, is on her way out. Omarosa was escorted off the White House grounds. It was kind of par for the course of what was happening in the Trump White House at the end of that first year - crazy, chaotic. "Anthony Scaramucci is a highly unstable nut job "who wheedled his way into my campaign. I barely knew him!" "I authorised zero access to White House. "Actually turned him down many times for author of phoney book. "Watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve." HE LAUGHS TWEET WHISTLES * JONATHAN KARL: It was an incredibly tense time, cos North Kora was acting increasingly more belligerent. Their nuclear programme was growing. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself. We will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. And Donald Trump threatens to wipe North Korea off the map! Kim Jong-un's saying he takes President Trump's threats personally. Calling him a... And then he makes this, like, almost on a whim, "I'll meet with the guy!" CHEERING And on June 12th, in Singapore, I'll be meeting with Kim Jong-un to pursue a future of peace and security for the world, for the whole world. CHEERING I-I thought the whole thing was a big mistake. He had an affinity for authoritarian leaders. And, erm, you know, he's a big guy. He likes being with other big guys. They do big guy things. It was always worrying, because in one of those conversations, there was always the risk he would give something away gratuitously to show what a big guy he was. CAMERAS CLICK Mr Trump, Mr Trump! First time an American president meets the leader of North Korea. There's a lot at stake there. JON SOPEL: On Air Force One, he wants to know... "Where will the camera positions be? "Will it be a straight-on headshot, like this? "Or will there be a top shot where the cameras will look down on me as well? "How are we going to meet? What's the backdrop?" The theatricality... He wanted to direct the visuals, because he knew this was gold dust. CAMERAS CLICK JONATHAN KARL: I travelled with him to Singapore. I could not believe what I was seeing with my own eyes. MUSIC: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Theme By Ennio Morricone I mean... And then...and then to see the two of them come together, it was mind-blowing. I mean, it was showmanship of the highest order. Getting a good picture of everybody, so we look nice and handsome and thin and... Beautiful. ..perfect? Young. TIM ALBERTA: Donald Trump, who has an insatiable thirst for reality television-style drama, saw an opportunity to be the star of the biggest show in global politics. TRUMP: All I can say is they want to make a deal. That's what I do - my whole life has been deals. I've done great at it. And I really believe a lot of great things can happen. TIM ALBERTA: This is Donald Trump sending a message to the political establishment at home and internationally that there's a new sheriff in town and the presidency was going to be show business. Expect the unexpected. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Able 2020