PALM BEACH, Florida — Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday evening that he is “honored” to be the GOP nominee for president for the third straight presidential election, but he is concerned the United States of America is in “deep trouble,” as the “lunatic” Democrat President Joe Biden is still in charge for the next seven months.
“Number one, I’m honored to be the one representing the great Republican Party,” Trump said in a 90-minute-long exclusive interview at his luxurious seaside resort and club here in southeast Florida. “It’s very important. I thought I would be. I didn’t think it would be this fast. I thought we had some candidates who would be tougher than they were that didn’t do as well as some people thought they would.”
Trump’s Wednesday evening interview with Breitbart News, which covered a number of topics from immigration to trade to tech to China and more, was the first print interview he conducted after formally locking down a majority of GOP delegates to the Republican National Convention on Tuesday of this week. That means Trump will formally become the GOP nominee for president again at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July, and is now the presumptive nominee. His massive victories on Super Tuesday and in earlier primary states—he won every contest from the Iowa caucuses to the New Hampshire primary to the Nevada caucuses to the South Carolina and Michigan primaries to the Michigan and Missouri caucuses except for lobbyist-heavy Washington D.C., and every super Tuesday state except the hardcore leftist stronghold of Vermont—knocked out his competitors and cleared the way for an early victory.
Trump, recounting his successful GOP primary campaign, says he is proud of his team and the issues and policy and personality he focused on during it. But, he said, he understands there is a “long way to go” until the general election on Nov. 5, and he knows there is a major battle ahead with Biden.
“When I was doing it at the very beginning I still had a 25-point lead, it wasn’t like it was very close, but it was possible that I was catchable, but it turned out we did very well,” Trump said. “I think we ran a very good campaign. We ran it on policy, we ran it on issues, and we ran it on other things too, including personality. I think the campaign has gotten really good marks. Even from people who normally wouldn’t say it, they’re saying this has been an unbelievable campaign thus far. We’re up to today. We still have a long way to go.”
Trump also said in hindsight some decisions he made early in the GOP primary—like not doing the primary debates and like hitting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis early—were clearly right.
“i might have done the debates—if it was even, if I got even, I would have done the debates,” Trump said. “When you’re leading by 40, when Ron came in—I’m amazed he would go in, because I got him elected. I hit him very hard early. By the time he formally announced, he was very much in trouble.”
Nonetheless, Trump is now squarely focused on November and defeating Biden and then on course correcting the country and undoing the damage Biden did to America.
“This country is in deep trouble,” Trump said. “We’ve never been in trouble like this. We’re in more trouble because [Vladimir] Putin doesn’t respect us. Ukraine never would have happened with Russia. Israel never would have been invaded. We wouldn’t have inflation, because it was all caused by energy. Day one it was caused by energy. I think we’re in massive trouble as a country. We have a little more than seven months until the election, and that sounds like a short time, but that’s an eternity for this lunatic to be running this country. If we don’t win… I think that Nov. 5 is the most important day in the history of our country.”
Much more from Trump’s latest exclusive interview with Breitbart News is forthcoming.
