Check Out the Five Most Bonkers Moments from Trump’s Interview With AP
The Associated Press released a transcript for an extensive interview they had with President Donald Trump…It was quite a doozy.
The AP has been releasing excerpts from Trump’s conversation recently, but on Sunday, they released a complete readout of what he had to say to White House reporter Julie Pace. The interview has garnered significant media attention, not only because of the wide range of topics discussed, but also because of how many times Associated Press noted that Trump’s recorded remarks were “unintelligible” to their transcribers.
As for the interview itself, let’s take a look at five of the most interesting parts, shall we?
1. The First 100 Days
Trump used the interview to double down about how the 100 day marker is a “ridiculous standard” for evaluating his presidency. AP noted that Trump made several major campaign promises that he pledged to fulfill by now, but Trump wrote off the checkpoint as an “artificial barrier.”
AP: That takes precedent over health care? For next week?
TRUMP: Yeah, sure. Next week. Because the hundred days is just an artificial barrier. The press keeps talking about the hundred days. But we’ve done a lot. You have a list of things. I don’t have to read it.” .
AP: So in terms of the 100-day plan that you did put out during the campaign, do you feel, though, that people should hold you accountable to this in terms of judging success?
TRUMP: No, because much of the foundation’s been laid. Things came up. I’ll give you an example. I didn’t put Supreme Court judge on the 100 (day) plan, and I got a Supreme Court judge.
2. The Presidency is Harder Than Trump Thought It Would Be
As Trump talked about the missile strike he authorized in Syria, he seemed to convey that the scope and responsibilities of the White House exceeded his expectations.
AP: Can I ask you, over your first 100 days — you’re not quite there yet — how do you feel like the office has changed you?
TRUMP: Well the one thing I would say — and I say this to people — I never realized how big it was. Everything’s so (unintelligible) like, you know the orders are so massive. I was talking to —
AP: You mean the responsibility of it, or do you mean —
TRUMP: Number One, there’s great responsibility. When it came time to, as an example, send out the 59 missiles, the Tomahawks in Syria. I’m saying to myself, “You know, this is more than just like, 79 (sic) missiles. This is death that’s involved,” because people could have been killed…Every decision is much harder than you’d normally make. (unintelligible)… This is involving death and life and so many things…So it’s far more responsibility. (unintelligible)
3. Trump’s Obsession With Ratings
Trump decided to talk once again about his talent for high ratings whenever he appears on TV. In particular, Trump pointed to an interview he did last year on CBS’ Face the Nation, and he bragged about how it got the highest ratings the show had ever seen since 9/11.
TRUMP: It had 9.2 million people. It’s the highest they’ve ever had. On any, on air, (CBS “Face the Nation” host John) Dickerson had 5.2 million people. It’s the highest for “Face the Nation” or as I call it, “Deface the Nation.” It’s the highest for “Deface the Nation” since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It’s a tremendous advantage.
Recently, Trump reportedly said that he would keep Sean Spicer as his press secretary because his daily briefings “get great ratings.”
4. WikiLeaks
Trump largely avoided commenting about how CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently blasted Wikileaks, and how Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken action to have Julian Assange arrested. Trump also tiptoed around how he proclaimed “I love Wikileaks” when the organization was releasing damaging information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.
TRUMP: When Wikileaks came out … never heard of Wikileaks, never heard of it. When Wikileaks came out, all I was just saying is, “Well, look at all this information here, this is pretty good stuff.” You know, they tried to hack the Republican, the RNC, but we had good defenses. They didn’t have defenses, which is pretty bad management. But we had good defenses, they tried to hack both of them. They weren’t able to get through to Republicans. No, I found it very interesting when I read this stuff and I said, “Wow.” It was just a figure of speech. I said, “Well, look at this. It’s good reading.”
This exchange happened a little bit later:
AP: Can I just ask you, though — do you believe it is a priority for the United States, or it should be a priority, to arrest Julian Assange?
TRUMP: I am not involved in that decision, but if Jeff Sessions wants to do it, it’s OK with me. I didn’t know about that decision, but if they want to do it, it’s OK with me.
For the record, Trump was aware of Wikileaks before the election, as evidenced by this 2010 Fox News clip of him saying Assange should be executed.
5: Coverage From the “Fake Media”
Trump talked about how he still has a lot of resentment toward “fake media” reports on him. After talking about how Fox News “treats me well,” the president said he hoped his press coverage would be more positive after he won the election:
TRUMP: You have to love people. And if you love people, such a big responsibility. (unintelligible) You can take any single thing, including even taxes. I mean we’re going to be doing major tax reform. Here’s part of your story, it’s going to be a big (unintelligible). Everybody’s saying, “Oh, he’s delaying.” I’m not delaying anything. I’ll tell you the other thing is (unintelligible). I used to get great press. I get the worst press. I get such dishonest reporting with the media. That’s another thing that really has — I’ve never had anything like it before. It happened during the primaries, and I said, you know, when I won, I said, “Well the one thing good is now I’ll get good press.” And it got worse. (unintelligible) So that was one thing that a little bit of a surprise to me. I thought the press would become better, and it actually, in my opinion, got more nasty.
[Image via shutterstock]
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