(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump doubled down on his media attacks, talked up his “highest of IQs,” floating pardoning his own administration officials and much more in a lengthy and fiery interview with TIME.
Trump sat down for an interview with senior political correspondent Eric Cortellessa and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs this week, and Trump wasted little time, jumping into numerous topics, lashing out at his own nominees to the Supreme Court, dismissing his falling approval ratings as “fake news,” and even lashing out at the reporters directly at one point.
Here are the five wildest moments from the rollercoaster interview.
1. Trump Regrets All of His SCOTUS Picks
The president has lashed out at the Supreme Court over decisions against him, but made it clear in the TIME interview that he regrets nominating Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Trump said:
Yeah. What can I do? I put them in. They voted against me too often. I was very—I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often. They vote for me too. The Democrats stick like glue—those three, they virtually never vary. You can come up with the worst thing in the world and they’ll vote as a group. And while I don’t like it, there’s something I admire about it: there’s loyalty. So they have loyalty to [former President] Barack Hussein Obama. They have loyalty to [former President Joe] Biden, even though Biden doesn’t even know who the hell they are. He wouldn’t know. He doesn’t even know what the Supreme Court is. And me, I gave them the chance of a lifetime, and it’s unfortunate what they did.
He took issue with the court’s rulings on birthright citizenship and tariffs.
The court ruled in June to strike down Trump’s executive order that attempted to redefine birthright citizenship, declaring that children born to illegal immigrants, or those in the country temporarily, are not American citizens.
The court also ruled earlier this year that Trump’s emergency tariffs are illegal, something he warned will cost the country greatly.
“This tariff decision again, all they had to do was a little clause saying any money paid does not have to be paid back…would have saved $400 billion. They chose not to save that,” Trump said.
2. Trump Ramps Up Kaitlan Collins Attacks, and Threatens to Add New York Times to Media Ban
Trump had plenty to say about the media during his interview. He defended banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House grounds recently, accusing the outlets of publishing “fake” and negative stories about him, while ignoring more positive or “fair” stories. A judge has since temporarily reversed the ban against the outlets covering the White House.
While complaining about the media attention he gets, Trump targeted Kaitlan Collins, a frequent media target. He called the CNN White House correspondent and TV anchor an “average person” and the “most unhappy young person” he’s ever seen. He even asked, “What’s the purpose of Kaitlan Collins?”
“I can name 100 great things I’ve done. I never get good press. I never get fair press. Doesn’t have to be good. All it has to be is fair. So at a certain point, you say, ‘What’s the purpose of like this crazy Kaitlin Collins?’ She’s a very average person. She’s the most unhappy young person I’ve ever seen. If I did something spectacular by any standard, and they would write about it, they will only write badly,” Trump said.
The president later in the interview floated barring The New York Times from White House coverage too. He accused the outlet of giving more positive press to Iran than him during the ongoing war.
“I have The New York Times saying how well they’re doing, and it’s so crazy. Their whole military is gone. Their radar is gone. Their leaders are gone. You know, we went through two levels of leaders, and The New York Times keeps writing about how well they’re doing. They have no money. They have no value of money. They have nothing going, and just fake news, fake news, and maybe they’ll be next,” Trump said.
3. Trump Says He’d Pardon His Staffers
During a discussion about the midterms and the possibility of Democrats taking control of the House, Trump predicted they will “go” after him and he vowed to do the same. Asked if he would go so far as to pardon his own officials before leaving office, Trump flat-out said it could be on the table.
“You mentioned the Democrats will come after you if they win. Are you considering pardoning members of your administration prior to the end of your term?” the reporters asked.
“Yeah, sure I’d do that,” Trump said, adding that “sleepy” Biden “gave pardons to everyone.”
4. Trump Insists He ‘Met’ His ‘Timeline’ on Iran
Trump insisted he’s met his “timeline” on Iran despite the war dragging on for six months. This followed initial projections from the president of a war lasting a few weeks. The president claimed that the extended period of time is because he wanted to go “further” in his actions.
“Only because I wanted to go further. I took them out. I could have stopped then, but I wanted to go further. I didn’t want them—because I met my timeline,” the president said.
He continued:
If you look at what I did when we bombed the sites with a B-2 bomber. Like we bombed those sites, and I call it nuclear dust—was under 1000s of tons of rubble. I could have stopped there, and I felt it was just inappropriate because—and they were itching to go on with their lives, if not there, someplace else. And so I went further. They’re doing very poorly. Their economy is gone. Their inflation is at 300% or something like that. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Everything’s gone, and they want to make a deal, but I want to make the real deal. But when I said I was going to be there for a short period of time, I was, and then I decided I wanted to go further than that because I didn’t want to have them come back in some different form.
5. Trump Snaps About Lack of ‘One F*cking Positive Question’
Towards the end of the interview, Trump let his frustration with the media flow freely and snapped at the reporters interviewing him and their line of questioning.
Trump let loose and dropped a good old-fashioned F-bomb after being asked whether Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) should resign over concerns about his health struggles.
The president said:
It was a disappointment to a lot of Republicans. So that’s just—well, Sleepy Joe gave pardons to everybody. He gave them to Fauci. He gave them to this. But you mean I’m not allowed to give them, but Sleepy Joe’s allowed to give them? This ain’t gonna be much of a story. Here we are doing this. You haven’t asked me one f*cking positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? What about that? What about this? All negative. Why are you devoting all this time to the White House? You know how I do, I do that out of my back pocket. I pay for a lot of it, but I fix it because the White House should look like that.
He then complained that more of his successes hadn’t been brought up in the interview, admitting, “I’m just thinking to myself, fake news.”
“Well, I hope I get a decent story. I don’t think—you know, it’s hard to get a good story. Every question’s a hit. I don’t know what the hell’s wrong,” Trump said.
The post 5 Wildest Bombshell Moments From Trump’s Rollercoaster TIME Interview first appeared on Mediaite.