Top 5 Political Questions from a Supposedly Apolitical Trump Interview Conducted By College Football Podcaster Josh Pate

President Donald Trump appeared on the podcast of top college football analyst Josh Pate — whose promise of an apolitical conversation was quickly broken.

Last week, Pate revealed that the president would be joining him on an upcoming episode of Josh Pate’s College Football Show. In the wake of that announcement, Pate faced a wave of scrutiny by those wanting his show to remain about college football. In response, Pate assured viewers that “those expecting political discussion will be sorely disappointed.”

The interview, which premiered on Pate’s YouTube channel on Sunday, was roughly 10 minutes long. About three-and-a-half minutes in, the conversation shifted to politics.

Here are some of the political questions Pate asked the president:

1. Pate Asked Trump How He Assembled His Cabinet

Pate first brought up Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti. The host noted that Cignetti assembled a coaching staff good enough to win a national championship, and used that to segue into a discussion about Trump’s presidency.

“You’re a guy, you’ve hired thousands of people in the business world,” Pate said. “You’ve vetted people for cabinet positions, but you’ve sat across from them like we’re doing right now, right? What do you look for in someone to know, that’s the characteristic I want, that’s a guy or that’s a girl I want on my team?”

In response, Trump praised his “unbelievable” cabinet and claimed he has a good “instinct” for people.

2. Trump Was Asked What He Learned From His First Term

Pate followed up with another question about Trump’s presidency, saying:

You mentioned experience. I mean, not many people get to be the President of the United States. Not many people, even further down the line, get to do it twice. And so you kind of got to experience and then reassess, go in there a second time. What are the things when people ask you, “Hey, what’d you learn the first time that you applied the second time?” What are the go-tos for you?

Trump emphasized the importance of getting “the right before” around him, adding that “you can be really good, but it’s never going to be the same.”

3. Pate Asked Trump About Using His Instinct When Making Important Decisions

Pate again brought up college football as a means to transition into a question about the presidency, mentioning the fact that coaches also have to rely on “instinct.” He then asked Trump how he balances trusting his instinct with listening to experts around him when it’s time to make world-altering decisions.

He continued:

I love talking to coaches about that because, oftentimes, you’re in a room and you got important decisions to make every day — football-wise or running the country — and there are a lot of times, probably, where you’ve got expert voices nearly consensus telling you one thing. Your instinct may say another thing. How do you know how to balance that when you pull the trigger?

Trump claimed “you never know” how to strike such a balance, added that you simply have to “go with your gut.”

4. Trump Was Asked How It Felt Winning the Presidency, and He Pushed His Bogus 2020 Election Claim

Moments later, Pate brought up how awestruck Trump was when he walked into the Lincoln Bedroom for the first time when he won the 2016 election. The president mentioned being so busy that he often takes moments like that for granted. He then snuck in the debunked theory that he also won the 2020 election, saying:

They talk about having that feeling. I walked in and I won and, you know, you’re so busy and you realize you won and maybe you take it a little bit for granted. Then, you win a second time and then you win a third time, to be honest. But I stood the first time and I was standing upstairs in the beautiful White House. There’s no building like it.

5. Pate Asked Trump How He Separates Business from Personal Matters

The interview ended with a question about Trump’s ability to separate personal matters from the business of running the country. Pate claimed to be “fascinated” by Trump’s ability to remain unfazed by negative things said about him, adding:

You frequently have to be face-to-face with people who have maybe said not such nice things about you in the past. Maybe you’ve said things their way in the past, and there’s this separation. It’s always fascinated me because normal people aren’t really capable of the separation of business and personal, right? And I watch you do it all the time. And, I mean, is that instinctive? Is that something you need to have? Is that something you can learn? Because it’s not normal.

Trump disagreed with that assessment, admitting he’s “not so good at that” and that “I usually go after them.”

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