The Associated Press released the transcription of the interview at the White House with Trump by Julie Pace and wow. I don't know what is more disturbing, the alternate reality he lives in or the insights into what is actually important to him. I've noted a few parts that stuck out to me below, but you can read the full transcript here:
https://apnews.com/c810d7de280a47e88848b0ac74690c83The most disturbing is still as President he is fixated with his TV Ratings, going as far as boasting that his appearance on CBS's Face the Nation was their highest rated segment ever comparing his ratings to that they received by those watching the world trade centres fall,
Quote:AP: And that's one of the difficulties I think presidents have had is that you can have these personal relationships with people from the other party, but then it's hard to actually change how people vote or change how people —
TRUMP: No I have, it's interesting, I have, seem to get very high ratings. I definitely. You know Chris Wallace had 9.2 million people, it's the highest in the history of the show. I have all the ratings for all those morning shows. When I go, they go double, triple. Chris Wallace, look back during the Army-Navy football game, I did his show that morning.
AP: I remember, right.
TRUMP: It had 9.2 million people. It's the highest they've ever had. On any, on air, (CBS "Face the Nation" host John) Dickerson had 5.2 million people. It's the highest for "Face the Nation" or as I call it, "Deface the Nation." It's the highest for "Deface the Nation" since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It's a tremendous advantage.
I have learned one thing, because I get treated very unfairly, that's what I call it, the fake media. And the fake media is not all of the media. You know they tried to say that the fake media was all the, no. The fake media is some of you. I could tell you who it is, 100 percent. Sometimes you're fake, but — but the fake media is some of the media. It bears no relationship to the truth. It's not that Fox treats me well, it's that Fox is the most accurate.
That last part is also frightening. So many of Fox's reports are provably false or at the least opinion presented as fact that doesn't hold up to scrutiny, but he seems to interpret what is more favourable to him as what is truthful, even if he claims otherwise. That or he needs to check his confirmation bias. But he actually believes it. He really does live in his own separate reality to the rest of us (well, not all of us),
Quote:AP: Do you believe that? That Fox —
TRUMP: I do. I get treated so badly. Yesterday, about the thing, you know when I said it's a terrorism ... it may be. I said it may be a terrorist attack and MSNBC, I heard, went crazy, "He called it a terrorist attack." They thought it was a bank robbery. By the way, I'm 10-0 for that. I've called every one of them. Every time they said I called it way too early and then it turns out I'm ... Whatever. Whatever. In the meantime, I'm here and they're not.
He doesn't understand that as the President, he really needs to keep his mouth shut until the facts are known and
they have a plan to deal with it as his words hold a lot of power. He's not been right 10 for 10, he's been lucky.
And if he was wrong, you know he'd call it fake news away and claim he was right. He really doesn't seem to understand the importance of his role and the responsibility he has to do the right thing but most importantly the damage he can cause by saying the wrong thing.
I won't highlight each and every "what the!?" moment from the interview, but the other major things that stood out include him rewriting the history of him and Merkel specifically saying they "have one of the best chemistries" but more broadly he has the best relationships with all world leaders:
Quote:TRUMP: Yeah, it's funny: One of the best chemistries I had was with (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel.
(Crosstalk) AP: Really?
TRUMP: Chancellor Merkel.
TRUMP: And I guess somebody shouted out, “Shake her hand, shake her hand,” you know. But I never heard it. But I had already shaken her hand four times. You know, because we were together for a long time.
AP: Did you expect you would have good chemistry with her?
TRUMP: No. Because, um, I'm at odds on, you know, the NATO payments and I'm at odds on immigration. We had unbelievable chemistry. And people have given me credit for having great chemistry with all of the leaders, including el-Sissi. ...
TRUMP: So it was a great thing to see that happen.
The comment about el-Sissi goes much deeper with the release of Aya Hijazi and Trump claiming he had to give nothing in return for it, but it seems he's now unconditionally supporting el-Sissi publicly which given what he's doing to his people, will likely be again something that will came back and hurt Trump, so you know he'll be calling it Fake News soon enough.
I would recommend reading the entire interview, it's... Well I'll leave that up to you. For those who don't like reading, here is Trump's common speech habits after his first 100 days as US President,
The only thing this post is missing is gratuitous highlighting as if it strengthens the points made somehow. I give you all more credit than that, you don't need me to highlight it.
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"Trump at 100 Days" by The Associated Press (Read 551 times)
