President Donald Trump reflected on his political comeback and the raft of challenges before him in his first sit-down interview since returning to the White House.
Speaking to Fox News’s Sean Hannity in the Oval Office, Trump described his election victory on Nov. 5 as “bigger” and more decisive than if he had won a second term in 2020.
“It’s bigger than if it were more traditional,” said Trump on Wednesday, his third day back in office. “Well, they say it’s historically bigger. I don’t know about that. But I can say it showed us a couple of things. It showed us that the radical Left, their philosophies and policies are horrible.”
Trump laid into President Joe Biden, claiming several global crises wouldn’t have happened if 2020 had turned out differently.
“We wouldn’t have inflation, we wouldn’t have had the Afghanistan disaster, we wouldn’t have Oct. 7 in Israel, where so many people were killed, and you wouldn’t have a Ukraine war going on,” said Trump.
But he also looked forward, fielding questions on the future of TikTok, his agenda in Congress, and a trip to North Carolina and California he will be making later this week.
Here are the top takeaways from Trump’s interview with Hannity.
1. Trump downplays the threat of TikTok
One day after claiming he would be amenable to Elon Musk buying TikTok before a forced sale takes place, Trump downplayed the security threats posed by the Chinese-owned social media platform.
“We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention that?” Trump said. “You’re dealing with a lot of young people, it isn’t that important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids watching crazy videos?”
“They make your telephones, and they make your computers, and they make a lot of other things. Isn’t that a bigger threat?” Trump asked.
On Monday, Trump quickly signed an executive order giving TikTok 75 days to either divest from ByteDance or risk shutting down in the United States.
But if TikTok hasn’t divested itself by that deadline, the app could once again go dark. House Speaker Mike Johnson told NBC News’s Meet the Press that he would uphold the law banning the app.
Trump, for his part, has floated the idea of giving a U.S. entity a 50% stake in the company.
2. Trump slams Democrats over FEMA
The president took aim at how the Federal Emergency Management Agency handled natural disasters in North Carolina, which faced a devastating hurricane, and California, currently grappling with destructive wildfires.
“The Democrats don’t care about North Carolina. What they’ve done with FEMA is so bad,” Trump bemoaned. “FEMA is a whole other discussion because all it does is complicate everything. FEMA has not done their job for the last four years.”
In contrast, Trump claimed that under his first administration, he “had FEMA working really well.”
“We had hurricanes in Florida. We had Alabama tornadoes … but unless you have certain types of leadership, it’s really, it gets in the way,” Trump said. “And FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems”
Congress is currently in the process of deciding whether requirements will be attached to any relief aid sent to California.
3. Trump bristles at Newsom over immigration, wildfires
Trump spent a portion of the interview attacking Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), a longtime foe of his, over his handling of the wildfires in Southern California.
The president is set to visit the Golden State on Friday after visiting North California, but he was noncommittal about meeting with Newsom.
“I don’t know. I haven’t even thought about it. Look, Gavin’s got one thing he can do. He can release the water that comes from the north,” said Trump. “There is massive amounts of water, rainwater and mountain water, that comes through with the snow, comes down as it melts. There’s so much water. They’re releasing it into the Pacific Ocean.”
During the interview, Trump also slammed Newsom’s handling of illegal immigration and sanctuary cities in California.
“California is a great example of it. If you actually polled the people, they don’t want sanctuary cities, but Gavin Newsom does and these radical left politicians do,” Trump said before again attacking the governor over the state’s water system.
“Why is it that you don’t want millions of gallons of water a day pouring throughout California?” Trump said.
4. Trump defends Jan. 6 pardons
Trump once again defended his controversial blanket pardon of Jan. 6 defendants, including those convicted of violence against law enforcement, after excoriating the House select committee that investigated the Capitol attack.
“No. 1, they were in there for 3 1/2 years, a long time,” Trump said of those convicted. “And in many solitary confinement, treated like nobody’s ever been … treated so badly, they were treated like the worst criminals in history.”
Trump said the rioters were protesting the “rigged” 2020 election, to which Hannity replied, “But you shouldn’t be able to invade the Capitol.”
The president also slammed Biden’s preemptive pardons of his family members, former White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, and the Jan. 6 committee in the hours before leaving office.
“This guy went around giving everybody pardons. You know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him,” Trump said.
5. Trump dances around whether to investigate Biden pardons
Trump left open the possibility of investigating Biden when Hannity asked about his pardons but did not give a definitive answer either way.
He instead claimed it would be deserved given the federal cases on his handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“I went through four years of hell by this scum that we had to deal with. I went through four years of hell,” Trump said about the multiple indictments he faced. “I spent millions of dollars in legal fees, and I won. But I did it the hard way.”
The federal charges against Trump were dropped after he won the election in November.
“It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it also. It is very hard to say it,” Trump said. However, he also noted that he did not prosecute his 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, during his first term in office.
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When Hannity questioned if Congress should investigate Biden, Trump punted the decision to lawmakers.
“I think we’ll let Congress decide,” he responded.
