Flanked by his family members, President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday as he celebrated being selected as Time’s 2024 Person of the Year.
Trump sat down for an interview with the news outlet on Nov. 25 at his Mar-a-Lago resort, in which he discussed his “comeback” electoral win, his vision for a second term in office, and the key policies he will push for once sworn in.
After an unprecedented campaign that saw him survive two assassination attempts, face two different Democratic opponents, and trounce a large field of GOP primary rivals, Trump gloated that he ran a “flawless campaign.”
“It was, it was really quite something. I called it ’72 Days of Fury.’ There were no days off. There were no timeouts,” Trump said as he reflected on the election cycle.
Among the key issues that Trump said he wanted to focus on in his second term was fixing the economy, which he has repeatedly blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for, and tamping down illegal immigration.
However, Trump’s admission that the economy may not be easily solved raised eyebrows among politicos in Washington.
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Here are the top issues from the wide-ranging interview.
The top issue for voters during the campaign trail was the high costs of grocery and gas prices. Trump continuously claimed that he would offer relief to the average American family.
“Vote Trump and your incomes will soar. Your net worth will skyrocket. Your energy costs and grocery prices will come tumbling down,” Trump said at a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, in September.
Yet, he had a different tune during his Time interview.
“Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down,” Trump said, speaking about lowering grocery prices. “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down.”
It was a stark admission for Trump, who spared no mercy for Biden’s unsuccessful efforts to alleviate the pain average families felt about increased costs.
Still, Trump claimed his presidency would not be a failure if grocery prices didn’t come down.
The second top issue for voters was the migrant crises at the U.S. southern border, which Trump consistently claimed he would tamp down by initiating widespread deportations.
Trump has not backed down from that mandate, telling the outlet he’ll “only do what the law allows, but I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows” when it comes to using the military to enforce deportations.
“I think in many cases, the sheriffs and law enforcement is going to need help. We’ll also get National Guard,” Trump said.
The president-elect also wavered on the necessity of detention facilities. At first, Trump said there wouldn’t be a need to build more, but then suggested it could happen.
“No, because, look, we may have to do it anyway,” Trump said. “Because look, they brought in millions of people, and many of those people have been, you know, taken out of jails and prisons.”
When asked for a second time, Trump was more forceful. “Well, there might be. Whatever it takes to get them out. I don’t care,” he said. “Honestly, whatever it takes to get them out. Again, I’ll do it absolutely within the confines of the law, but if it needs new camps, I hope we’re not going to need too many because I want to get them out, and I don’t want them sitting in camp for the next 20 years.”
Trump didn’t appear eager to enforce the controversial family separation policy during his second term in office.
“I don’t believe we’ll have to because we will send the whole family back to the country,” he said. “I would much rather deport them together, yes, than separate.”
Harris and her fellow Democrats spent much of the campaign trail slamming Trump over abortion and reproductive rights.
Trump has tried to toe the line between appeasing anti-abortion conservatives while not displeasing moderate voters who don’t want strict limits on abortion.
When Time asked Trump whether his FDA would limit access to medication abortion, he equivocated.
“Well, we’re going to take a look at all of that. That’s why I’m here. We’re going to take a look at all of that,” he said at first.
When asked again, Trump claimed, “It’s unlikely, very unlikely.”
“You know my stance from a long campaign. A long and hard campaign. I was against that. I was against that. Strongly against,” Trump added.
When asked directly by Time if he would commit to making sure that the FDA does not strip access to abortion pills, Trump said, “That would be my commitment. Yeah, it’s always been my commitment.”
Trump declined to talk about the transgender bathroom problem during the interview due to the small number of people it affects, but he did claim that the legal arena would decide how to proceed.
“I am a big believer in the Supreme Court, and I’m going to go by their rulings, and so far, I think their rulings have been rulings that people are going along with,” Trump said. “But we’re talking about a very small number of people, and we’re talking about it, and it gets massive coverage, and it’s not a lot of people.”
However, Trump agreed with incoming transgender Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) that lawmakers should be focused on governing, not litigating what bathrooms transgender lawmakers can use in Congress.
“I do agree with that. On that — absolutely. As I was saying, it’s a small number of people,” Trump said when asked about McBride’s dismissal of Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-SC) attempts to block the Delaware Democrat from using the women’s bathroom in Congress.
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Although various members of Trump’s family have held adviser-type roles in his political career, Trump signaled daughter-in-law Lara Trump as a possible inheritor of the Trump dynasty.
“I think there could be, yeah. I see the people we’re talking about,” Trump said about a potential dynasty. “Lara has been amazing. Look, she was the head of the Republican Party. She’s a young, a young woman, and she was the head of the Republican Party. And look at the job we did.”
Lara Trump recently announced her resignation as the co-chair of the Republican National Committee and is a possible contender to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Trump’s secretary of state nominee, in the Senate.
Still, the president-elect claimed Don Trump Jr. would do well if he decided to run for office.
“I think he’d do very well. I think he’s a very capable guy,” Donald Trump said. “Eric is very capable and a very different type … Ivanka would be, if she wanted to be, would be a superstar in politics. I think she, she’s a great person.”
Tech billionaire Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will co-chair the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, but Trump did not seem concerned about any conflicts of interest this might create for Musk, who owns X, SpaceX, and Tesla.
“I think that Elon puts the country long before his company. I mean, he’s in a lot of companies, but he really is, and I’ve seen it,” Trump said. “He considers this to be his most important project, and he wanted to do it.”
Musk and Ramaswamy have proposed cutting $2 trillion from federal spending, an endeavor that would have a seismic impact on the nation. But it’s ultimately Congress that has control over the government’s spending powers, though Trump could undercut that.
Trump claimed he might veto a budget or appropriations that does not comply with DOGE.
“But there are many things you can do without Congress. When it comes to cutting, harder to get, but to cut, you can do a lot of things without Congress,” he explained.
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Trump reiterated his intent to grant pardons to those who were prosecuted for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. However, he did not commit to a blanket pardon.
“I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were non-violent, I think they’ve been greatly punished,” Trump said.
The president-elect also claimed that pardoning the Jan. 6 defendants would come in the first hours of his presidency. “I’ll be looking at J6 early on, maybe the first nine minutes,” he said.
Trump was asked if he would grant pardons to those who had committed violent acts during the melee, which he did not directly address.
“Well, we’re going to look at each individual case, and we’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office,” Trump said. “And a vast majority of them should not be in jail.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, two ex-Democrats, remain some of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominees. But Trump isn’t abandoning them.
Kennedy’s past skepticism on vaccines and autism could threaten his bid as Health and Human Services Secretary. Yet Trump did not definitely say he would not sign off on Kennedy possibly ending childhood vaccination programs.
“We’re going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it,” Trump said.
The president-elect said he would listen to Kennedy and that nixing some vaccinations could be a possibility. “It could if I think it’s dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial, but I don’t think it’s going to be very controversial in the end,” Trump said.
Gabbard’s nomination as director of national intelligence has been criticized by intelligence officials who are concerned about Gabbard’s relationship with Russia and Syria.
But, when asked about American allies not sharing intelligence with the U.S. if Gabbard were confirmed, Trump did not say it would change his support of her nomination.
“I’m surprised to hear it because I think she’s, like, a really great American,” Trump said at first.
When asked again about whether it was worth it to nominate Gabbard despite allies not sharing intelligence Trump, again, said he was “surprised.”
“I think she’s a person with tremendous common sense. I’ve watched her for years, and she has nothing to do with Russia,” Trump said. “This is another, you know, a mini Russia, Russia, Russia scam. I think probably if that’s what’s happening. No, I don’t see it. Certainly, if something can be shown to me.”
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