(TNND) — President Donald Trump hosted ABC News’ Terry Moran for a lengthy interview to mark the first 100 days of the president’s second term.
Trump showed off how he’s made the Oval Office his own, talking about why he picked portraits of past presidents, before the wide-ranging interview that grew increasingly combative.
Trump called ABC, the network with which he granted the interview, “one of the worst” after a series of questions from Moran that Trump seemingly didn’t like.
Moran asked Trump if he were using the office of the presidency to exact personal revenge.
“No. I’ll tell you what … you’re really not asking, and you should be asking,” Trump responded. “There has never been a president in this country in the history that was persecuted like I was persecuted by really crooked people. Dishonest, horrible people. And it’s been proven. So, when you say I’m treating people rough, I’m not treating people rough. I was treated worse than any president in the history of our country.”
Moran asked Trump if the reputation of the U.S. had been damaged, noting the anti-Trump sentiment in Canada that had propelled the Liberal Party to election victory.
“I think it’s gone way up, and I think we’re a respected country again,” Trump said. “We were laughed at all over the world. We had a president that couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs, couldn’t walk down a flight of stairs, couldn’t walk across a stage without falling. We had a president that was grossly incompetent. You knew it, I knew it, and everybody knew it. But you guys didn’t want to write it, because you’re fake news.”
Here are the big topics tackled in the ABC News interview with Trump.
Most Significant Achievement
Moran asked Trump what he considered his most significant achievement 100 days into his second term.
Trump said it was border security.
“Well, I think maybe the border is the most significant, because our country was really going bad,” Trump said. “They were allowing people to come in from prisons, as you know. And you’ve heard me say it, but you’ve heard a lot of people say it. Prisons, mental institutions, gang members, murderers.”
Trump repeatedly blamed his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, for what he framed as failures on a range of issues, including immigration and border security.
Trump again said that “many murderers” and other bad people were streaming over the border under Biden’s watch.
Southern border crossings have plummeted since Trump took office and began implementing his crackdown on illegal immigration.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it recorded its lowest southwest border crossings in history last month.
There were under 23,000 southwest border encounters in February and March combined, compared to nearly 380,000 in the same two-month period a year earlier.
Immigration Enforcement Methods
Moran asked Trump if his methods were too harsh in securing the border or expelling immigrants from the country.
“Well, they seem to work,” Trump said.
Moran said the law requires everyone being deported to be granted due process rights. He asked if the Trump administration was following that.
“Well, are we talking about people that are citizens of our country or not?” Trump said.
Trump accused Biden of allowing 21 million illegal immigrants to cross “a stupid open border.”
“Do you think we can give 21 million trials? Let’s say each trial takes two weeks. Is that what you want us to do?” Trump said.
Pressed on the due process question, Trump said that’s for the lawyers to sort out.
But Trump said he’s deporting “criminals” and wants to remove them from the country fast.
Moran asked Trump about podcaster and Trump supporter Joe Rogan, warning that the U.S. needs to honor due process rights to avoid becoming “monsters while we’re fighting monsters.”
Trump said he agreed and that they were being careful.
Moran asked about the dispute over whether the 200 Venezuelans sent to a prison in El Salvador all had criminal records.
Trump brushed aside the question, calling the men they deported “violent people.”
Moran asked Trump about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported despite a protective order that said he should not be sent back to El Salvador.
Trump admitted he could get him back to the U.S.
But, Trump said, “This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland.”
“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump said.
Trump insisted that Abrego Garcia is a “gang member, a tough cookie, been in lots of skirmishes, beat the hell out of his wife.” And Trump insisted that Abrego Garcia sports an MS-13 gang tattoo.
Abrego Garcia’s alleged gang affiliation and the meaning of his tattoos are contested.
The Economy and Tariffs
Moran asked Trump about the economy, which is the most important issue for a lot of folks.
Consumer expectations have fallen to a 13-year low amid uncertainty over tariffs, inflation and jobs, The Conference Board reported this week.
“And there is a lot of concern out there,” Moran said to Trump. “People are worried, even some people who voted for you, saying, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ So, how do you answer those concerns?”
“Well, they did sign up for it, actually,” Trump responded. “And this is what I campaigned on. I said that we’ve been abused by other countries at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. We were losing $3 (billion) to $5 billion a day on trade.”
Trump pushed back on the idea that his tariffs, primarily the 145% tariffs on China, will spur inflation for American consumers.
“You don’t know that. You don’t know whether or not China’s going to eat it. China probably will eat those tariffs,” Trump said. “But at 145, they basically can’t do much business with the United States. And they were making from us a trillion dollars a year. They were ripping us off like nobody’s ever ripped us off.”
Trump said that “great times are ahead” and boasted about falling prices for gas and groceries, noting falling egg prices without mentioning the impact of the bird flu.
“Interest rates are the same. Interest rates should be down, but we have a Federal Reserve that wants to be stubborn. They want to be cute,” Trump said after ticking off a list of costs for Americans on the decline.
Moran asked Trump about small businesses in America that built their operations with products sourced from overseas suppliers.
Trump said other countries were ripping off the U.S., and that wasn’t sustainable.
And he said companies are investing trillions in the U.S.
“Apple’s putting up $500 billion, but that’s only one of many companies,” Trump said.
Is there pain ahead?
“Everybody’s going to be just fine,” Trump said. “It wouldn’t have been if I didn’t do this. I had a choice. I could leave it, have a nice, easy time. But I think ultimately you would’ve had an implosion.”
Ukraine
Moran and Trump discussed the state of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“Well, look, Ukraine is a very serious, very tough situation,” Trump said. “And this is Biden’s war. This is not my war. But I want to see if I can solve it.”
Trump admitted Russian President Vladimir Putin could be “tapping me along a little bit.”
But Trump said he believes Putin respects him and will stop the fighting because he’s sitting in the White House now.
“Ukraine was the apple of (Putin’s) eye,” Trump said. “I think he wanted the whole country.”
Trump was asked if he trusts Putin.
“I don’t trust you,” Trump told Moran. “I don’t trust, I don’t trust a lot of people. I don’t trust you. Look at you. You come in all shootin’ for bear. You’re so happy to do the interview.”
If there’s no peace deal, will the U.S. cut off military aid to Ukraine?
“I want to leave that as a big, fat secret, because I don’t want to ruin a negotiation,” Trump said.
Hegseth
Trump stood by his embattled defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who used Signal group chats to share details about military attacks.
Trump said Hegseth will be a “very good defense secretary.”
He called Hegseth a talented, smart guy.
“I had a talk with him, and whatever I said, I probably wouldn’t be inclined to tell you,” Trump said.
DOGE
Trump said his Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting task force has saved taxpayers $150 billion while rooting out “tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Moran asked if the DOGE cuts went too far, too fast.
“That’s a lot of money,” Trump said. “There’s also a lot of things right now under investigation, which is going to increase that amount by a lot. And that’s a tremendous amount of money. There were some things where when I heard about them I, I put them back, as you know. There are things that I’m considering right now putting back. But overall, we’ve saved hundreds of billions of dollars.”
