Washington DC:
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday sat for his first interview since returning to the White House and targetted his predecessor former President Joe Biden for issuing several pardons for family members and officials on his last day in office. Mr Trump claimed he was given the option to pre-emptively pardon himself at the end of his first term, but chose not to.
“I was given the option, they said, ‘Sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?'” Mr Trump told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
“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,” he said.
When asked how he felt about returning to the Oval Office, the President said, “Well, it was a lot of work and as you know, I felt that we shouldn’t have had to necessarily be here.”
Insinuating that had he been re-elected in 2020, Mr Trump stated, “It could have been done, a lot of work could have been done, it would have been over.”
Adding to his claim, the President said, “We wouldn’t have inflation, we wouldn’t have had the Afghanistan disaster, we wouldn’t have October 7 in Israel where so many people were killed and you wouldn’t have a Ukraine war going on. But with all that being said, I think it’s bigger. It’s bigger than if it were more traditional.”
President Trump also asserted that America’s problems are “all solvable,” touting the “very unified” Republican caucus in Congress.
“They’re all solvable problems … with time, effort, money – unfortunately – but they’re all solvable,” Trump asserted.
“We can get our country back…But if we didn’t win this race, I really believe our country would have been lost forever,” he added.
The President said that he “might” have to cut off federal funds to “sanctuary cities”– a term used for municipalities that limit or deny their cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law.
“We’re trying to get rid of them. We’re trying to end them. And a lot of the people in those communities don’t want them,” Trump said.
When asked if he would cut off their money, the President said, “I might have to do that. Sometimes that’s the only thing you can do.”
The Republican also brushed off security concerns related to the TikTok app, and said, “You can say that about everything made in China.”
“We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention that? The interesting thing with TikTok though is you’re dealing with a lot of young people. Is it that important for China to be spying on young people? Young people watching crazy videos and things,” he added.
