OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President-elect Donald Trump revealed this week that he plans to use the beginning hours of his presidency to pardon people convicted of participating in the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, begin deportations of illegal immigrants, and increase oil production.
During an interview with Time magazine, Trump said the pardons would go to “nonviolent” people at the Capitol.
“We’re going to do it very quickly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office. A vast majority should not be in jail, and they’ve suffered gravely,” Trump said about pardons in Jan. 6 cases.
Trump’s comments came during an in-depth conversation on Nov. 25 that was part of the magazine’s selection of Trump as its “Person of the Year.”
On foreign policy, the president-elect criticized President Joe Biden for letting Ukraine use U.S.-made weapons against some targets in Russia. He called this a worsening of the fighting that started when Russia invaded Ukraine in full in 2022. He suggested that efforts to end the war could intensify once he returns to office.
“But I would imagine people are waiting until I get in before anything happens. I would imagine,” he told Time. “I think that would be very smart to do that.”
“I think that the Middle East is an easier problem to handle than what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine. OK, I just want to say that up front. The Middle East is going to get solved,” he said, adding, “I think it’s more complicated than the Russia-Ukraine, but I think it’s, it’s, it’s easier to solve.”
In another part of the interview, Trump said Vice President Kamala Harris’ biggest mistake of the election was “taking the assignment” of running for president in the first place.
Trump said that it was a mistake because it’s important for people to “know what you’re good at.”
“I think that when she wouldn’t talk to anybody, it shone a light on her,” Trump said. “In other words, if she would have gone out and just did interviews where they’re comparable to Steve, if there is anybody comparable, would say, could you do an interview here? An interview there? You know, she didn’t do anything.”
“And people said, is there something wrong with her?” he continued. “Why would they? I mean, I’m doing this interview with you. I did interviews with, if I had the time, anybody that would ask, I’d do interviews. I think the Joe Rogan interview, you know, that went on for almost three and a half hours.”
Trump said her campaign “made a big tactical mistake by literally not talking to the press, even if [it was] a really friendly” publication.
“They turned everybody down. They wouldn’t do the basic,” he said. “And people, including me, would start to say, is there something wrong with her? What’s wrong? Why wouldn’t you do some basic interviews?”
“And then she had some pretty failed interviews, and maybe it was highlighted more than it would,” he added. “In other words, if she did those same interviews, but she did another 15 interviews, you know, you wouldn’t have really noticed it that much.”
Trump also took the time in the interview to praise billionaire Elon Musk, saying that he has “no concerns” about him leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) because Musk loves the U.S. more than his companies.
“I think that Elon puts the country long before his company,” Trump said. “I mean, he’s in a lot of companies, but he really is, and I’ve seen it. He considers this to be his most important project, and he wanted to do it. And, you know, I think, I think he’s one of the very few people that would have the credibility to do it, but he puts the country before, and I’ve seen it, before he puts his company.”
Trump argued that our country desperately needs spending cuts to encourage economic growth.
“Look, we have a country that is bloated with rules, regulations and with, frankly, people that are unnecessary,” Trump said. “We are going to need a lot of people in a lot of other jobs. We’re looking to get people into private sector jobs where they can do better and be more productive. We’re going to see what happens. We have some interesting months coming up, at the beginning. We’re going to see what happens. But this country is bloated.”
