NEW: Trump Talks Election Win, Ambitious Agenda In First Interview Of Second Term
President Donald Trump reflected on why his 2024 campaign was so successful and discussed his ambitious first 100 days agenda during the first sit-down interview of his second term, which was conducted by Fox News host Sean Hannity at the White House.
At one point in the interview, Hannity recalled a private conversation he had with Trump in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election and the January 6 Capitol protests. “And you asked me a question. And we’ve known each other for 30 years so we have a friendship and we have a professional relationship. And the question you asked me, ‘maybe in the end it will be better if I came back in four years?’” Hannity recalled, noting that only one former two-term president who did not serve them consecutively in Grover Cleveland.
“My answer to you was, I thought it would be bigger if you came back,” Hannity added. “It’s turning out to be bigger,” Trump responded before offering his own opinion on why Democrats lost big in 2024.
“And I think one thing is happening is people are learning that they can’t govern and that their policies are terrible. I mean, they don’t want to see a woman get pummeled by a man in a boxing ring. They don’t want to see men in women’s sports. And otherwise they don’t want to see them. And they don’t want to have transgender for everyone. They don’t want a child leave home as a boy and come back two days later as a girl. A parent doesn’t want to see that. And there are states where that can happen.”
“They don’t use common sense. In my opinion the Democrats don’t use common sense,” he added.
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump reflected on the July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. “Do you believe you’ve changed? Has this for example increased your faith in God?” Hannity asked, to which the president responded in the affirmative.
“I don’t think I’ve changed, but I think that has taken place, yeah. Because when you look at statistically, I should never be here. I mean, if I don’t tell you, I’m looking at an immigration chart, my favorite chart ever in history,” Trump said, recalling the moment he turned his head at the last possible second to look at a chart on illegal immigration numbers when the shots rang out.
“When I turned and it had to be at exactly 90 degree angle. And I said, throw down the chart or something to that effect. And they bring the chart and I’m literally looking exactly at the right angle. I couldn’t have even been a little further or a little bit less. It would have whacked,” the president said of the bullet aimed at his head. “Because it was an eighth of an inch. The entire ride was an eighth of an inch.”
Trump also discussed President Biden’s decision to pardon multiple members of his family, as well as a number of political figures who have been accused of committing crimes, including the January 6 committee members and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The president noted that he did not issue any preemptive pardons for himself or others because they had not done anything wrong. “I was given the option. They said, ‘sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to pardon anybody. We didn’t do anything wrong.’ And we had people that suffered. They’re incredible patriots,” Trump told Hannity.
“We had people that suffered. You had Bannon put in jail. You had Peter Navarro put in jail. You had people that suffered. And far worse than that, they’ve lost their fortunes. They’ve lost their whatever their nest egg, paying it to lawyers.”