U.S. President Donald Trump’s new interview with Time magazine, released Friday, touched on topics ranging from his tariff policy to foreign wars to the rule of law in America.
Trump told the magazine he’s “not trolling” when he talks about making Canada the 51st American state, but that was far from the only moment that stood out from the wide-ranging interview, released to coincide with the 100th day of his second White House term.
Here are some other highlights from the complete transcript:
Trump says he’s made trade deals with several countries
- “You have to understand, I’m dealing with all the companies, very friendly countries. We’re meeting with China. We’re doing fine with everybody. But ultimately, I’ve made all the deals.”
- “I’ve made 200 deals.”
- “I would say, over the next three to four weeks, and we’re finished, by the way.”
- “I’ll be finished. Now, some countries may come back and ask for an adjustment, and I’ll consider that.”
Trump compares U.S. to a ‘department store’ while talking about tariff policies
- “We’re a department store, a giant department store, the biggest department store in history. Everybody wants to come in and take from us. They’re going to come in and they’re going to pay a price for taking our treasure, for taking our jobs, for doing all of these things. But what I’m doing with the tariffs is people are coming in, and they’re building at levels you’ve never seen before.”
- “If people want to–well, we all want to make deals. But I am this giant store. It’s a giant, beautiful store, and everybody wants to go shopping there. And on behalf of the American people, I own the store, and I set prices, and I’ll say, if you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay.”
Trump says he waits for Chinese President Xi Jinping to call him
- “He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf.”
Trump maintains 145% China tariffs, says potential reductions depend on Beijing’s actions
Trump gets mixed up on which prices are going down
- “The prices of groceries have gone down. The only price that hasn’t gone down is the price of energy. The cost of energy, I’m sorry, well, energy has gone down, excuse me. Let me change that—is the interest rates. And interest rates have essentially stayed the same.”
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Trump open to taxing wealthy Americans, but not if it hurts him politically
- “I would be honoured to pay more, but I don’t want to be in a position where we lose an election because I was generous, but me, as a rich person, would not mind paying and you know, we’re talking about very little. We’re talking about one point. It doesn’t make that much difference, and yet, I could just see somebody trying to bring that up as a subject, and, you know, say, ‘Oh, he raised taxes.’ Well, I wouldn’t be, really, you know, in the true sense, I wouldn’t. I’d be raising them on wealthy to take care of middle class. And that’s — I love, that. I actually love the concept, but I don’t want it to be used against me politically, because I’ve seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news.”
Trump on his vow to end the Ukraine war on his first day as president
- “Well, I said that figuratively, and I said that as an exaggeration, because to make a point, and you know, it gets, of course, by the fake news [unintelligible]. Obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest, but it was also said that it will be ended.”
Trump says Russia will keep Crimea
- “If Crimea will stay with Russia—we have to only talk about Crimea because that’s the one that always gets mentioned. Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zelensky understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along. Again, this is Obama’s war. This is a war that should have never happened. I call it the war that should have never happened.”
‘I think we have a deal with Russia,’ but Ukraine negotiations have ‘been harder’: Trump
Trump says he’d go ‘willingly’ into war with Iran if a nuclear deal can’t be reached
- “By the way, he (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) may go into a war. But we’re not getting dragged in. … You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly. No, I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”
Trump on not asking El Salvador’s president to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia
- “Because I haven’t been asked to ask him by my attorneys. Nobody asked me to ask him that question, except you.”
Trump says he wants repeat American criminals deported to El Salvador, but only if legal
- “Yeah, I would have no trouble with that but subject to it being allowed by law. And one of the reasons I like it is because it would be much less expensive than our prison system, and I think it would actually be a greater deterrent.”
Trump insists he completed border wall, blames Biden for not building ‘extension’
- “I built hundreds of miles of wall, and then he (Biden) didn’t want to, and we had another, an extra hundred miles that I could have put up because I ordered it as extra. I completed the wall, what I was doing, but we have, I wanted to build additional because it was working so well. An extension. And he didn’t want to do that. And when he said he wasn’t going to do that, I said, ‘Well, he must want open borders.’”
Judge rules Kilmar Abrego Garcia entitled to court hearing
Trump says he pardoned Jan. 6 rioters convicted of violent acts because of ‘double standard’
- “Because I’ve watched in Portland and I watched in Seattle, and I’ve watched in Minneapolis, Minnesota and other places. People do heinous acts, far more serious than what took place on Jan. 6. And nothing happened to these people. Nothing. And I said, what a double standard it is. And we were talking about a very small group of people that are in your definition, most of these people should have been let out a long time ago. There’s never been a group of people, maybe with one exception, I won’t even go into it, one exception as a group. But there’s never been a group of people that’s been treated so horribly as the J6 people.”
Trump defends massive public sector layoffs as necessary for U.S. government efficiency
- “Because we have to have an efficient country. And when the country gets down to bare knuckles, you’re going to see, you’re going to see something the likes of which this world has never seen before. We’re going to make our country strong, powerful, and very rich again.”
Trump says he’s not considering a third presidential term, but acknowledges ‘loopholes’
- “I have more people begging me to run again, but I haven’t looked at even the possibility. But the only thing that’s changed is they think I’m doing a great job, and they like the way I’m running the country.”
- “I’d rather not discuss that now, but as you know, there are some loopholes that have been discussed that are well known. But I don’t believe in loopholes. I don’t believe in using loopholes.”
Trump says he wouldn’t agree with former U.S. president John Adams that America is ‘a government of laws, not of men’
- “Well, I think we’re a government ruled by law, but you know, somebody has to administer the law. So therefore men, certainly, men and women, certainly play a role in it. I wouldn’t agree with it 100%. We are a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you’re going to have honest men like me.”
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