Trump says he’s fighting to ‘help the world and to help the country’ in second term in interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg
In his first term, Trump was “was fighting for survival and I was fighting to run the country. This time I’m fighting to help the world and to help the country. You know, it’s a much different presidency.”
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On Monday, The Atlantic published a wide-reaching interview with Donald Trump, highlighting his return to the White House and his first weeks back in office.
Trump said he didn’t think of his path back to the Oval Office as a comeback, but told reporters with the outlet, “but you’re right, I guess. There could be some truth to that.” He said it was not a matter of whether he thought he would be able to return to the office, but instead “whether or not I would want to come back.”
“I thought that maybe I wouldn’t do it, but I thought if I did do it, I’d win. But I never considered it a comeback. A lot of people call it a comeback. Most people, I guess, call it the greatest political comeback in history. I think that’s an honor, but I don’t view it as a comeback. I just sort of view it as: I just keep trudging along. I shouldn’t be embarrassed by that word, because it’s probably accurate. I just didn’t view it as a comeback.”
He said his time in office is a “much more powerful presidency than I had the first time, but I accomplished a tremendous amount the first time.” In his first term, Trump was “was fighting for survival and I was fighting to run the country. This time I’m fighting to help the world and to help the country. You know, it’s a much different presidency.”
Trump was asked about the prospect of a 2028 run for the presidency, and whether he has sought a “legal opinion about running a third time,” to which Trump said he had not.”
“That would be a big shattering, wouldn’t it,” he said of running for a third term, noting that his supporters frequently shout “2028” wherever he goes, but he was not looking into it.
When asked whether he thought the various criminal prosecutions against him made him stronger, Trump said, “Shockingly, yes. Normally, it would knock you out. You wouldn’t even live for the next day. You know, you’d announce your resignation, and you’d go back and ‘fight for your name,’ like everybody says—you know, ‘fight for your name, go back to your family.’ Yeah, it made me stronger, made me a lot stronger.”
The Atlantic wrote in its piece on the interview, “While reporting on Trump over the past four years, we were repeatedly struck that, in failing to drive a stake directly through his heart, all of the would-be vampire slayers—Democrats, Never Trumpers, Republican-primary opponents, prosecutors, judges, media critics—only strengthened him.”
Now back in the highest office in the US, Trump told the outlet about the differences between his two terms, “The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world.”
Trump was also asked about Trump administration officials and their usage of Signal to communicate, which has been dubbed “Signalgate,” Trump said, “I think we learned: Maybe don’t use Signal, okay? If you want to know the truth. I would frankly tell these people not to use Signal, although it’s been used by a lot of people. But, whatever it is, whoever has it, whoever owns it, I wouldn’t want to use it.” He said that he does not use Signal himself.
Trump said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was “safe” from firing, and that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was “fine. I mean, he’s here. He just left this office. He’s fine. He was beat up also.”
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