Trump Declares He Got His PHD in People Over 1st Term – Watch

Former President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he can fix Washington, D.C., now because he “got a PhD in learning about the people.”

Speaking at Turning Point USA’s Action conference in Florida, Trump admitted to his audience that he hadn’t been terribly savvy when it came to choosing the right people for jobs in his administration in 2016 – but he said that his time in the White House had taught him who to choose and who to avoid if he got another shot.

“That’s was only the beginning,” Trump said of his first term, adding that he had plans to finish the job he had started when he took office six years earlier.

“When I get back to the Oval Office, I will totally obliterate the Deep State, they will be obliterated,” he said. “And we know all the good ones now, you know, when I went there, I’d only been to Washington 17 times in my life, according to the fake news, and — 17 times, and never stayed there, so I wasn’t a Washington establishment person.”

“I didn’t know the people, I had to rely on people to give me names, and largely, we got great names, you know, we got the tax cut, we did so much, we rebuilt our military … but there are people that I wouldn’t have put there, and I will fire all of these corrupt bureaucrats,” he continued.

“Now, better than maybe anybody else, I know the great ones, I know the smart ones, I know the dumb ones, I know the weak ones, I know the stupid ones — but I know the ones because I know everybody in Washington,” he said. “I got a — I got a PhD in learning about the people of Washington.”

Trump’s speech comes just one day after he declined to appear at a presidential candidate forum hosted by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.