Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends a press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on April 12 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Wilfred Lee/AP
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Wilfred Lee/AP
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends a press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on April 12 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Wilfred Lee/AP
Donald Trump has already been president once and has been outspoken about the policies he would support and enact if re-elected in November.
He has promised mass deportations of millions of immigrants and suggested that the United States would not protect foreign allies from invasion under certain circumstances. He has gutted the federal bureaucracy, placed political allies in the roles of career civil servants, used law enforcement to target his enemies, and painted a dire picture of America's future unless he returns to the White House. I swear.
In two wide-ranging interviews with Time magazine published Tuesday, Trump further expanded on his vision for a second term, going against traditional conservative views on the role of government and expanding the powers of the presidency. It will be used against a wide range of people. American group.
President Trump touched on a number of topics that will be important to voters heading into November, including abortion, crime and the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump also made eyebrow-raising comments about the use of military against civilians, political violence, and multiple criminal cases against him.
Here are some takeaways from one of Trump's few full-length interviews this election cycle.
abortion
One of the biggest flashpoints in politics over the past few years has been access to abortion, following the overturning of a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Roe vs. Wade.
Trump has largely avoided questions about what specific policies he would support as president, and continued to do so in his Time interview, insisting that decisions are now being made at the state level.
“There's no need to promise. [federal abortion restrictions] Because it's never going to happen — number one, it's never going to happen,” Trump said in a recorded interview, adding, “Number two, it's about states' rights. You want to go back to the federal government. There isn't.
President Trump also deflected questions about access to abortion pills, promising to issue a statement on that “in the next 14 days.”
This is an important question to answer, and one with huge political implications. As NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben reported, Trump's allies are calling on him to implement the Comstock Act. This is a 19th century law that could be used to stop the mailing of abortion pills, effectively blocking all abortions in the United States.
The former president argued that all decisions about abortion are up to the states, including whether to monitor pregnancies to know if someone is having an abortion or whether to prosecute.
President Trump said “it doesn't matter whether I'm comfortable or not” about prosecuting women who have abortions. “That's completely irrelevant, because the state will be making the decision.”
So far, voters have sided with abortion rights advocates every time the issue has appeared on the ballot, and several states, including President Trump's state of Florida, have similar questions on this year's ballots. I'm planning on leaving. He did not say how he would vote on the issue in November.
immigration
President Trump's aggressive stance on immigration is a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign and a key issue for many Republican primary voters. But Republicans are not alone in their concerns about the U.S.-Mexico border, and President Trump's comments on immigration and immigration are particularly noteworthy.
In a campaign speech, President Trump vowed to launch the largest “domestic deportation operation” in history and reverse nearly all of the Biden administration's policies on the border. He continues to equate immigration with crime, often citing murders and other gruesome crimes committed by non-nationals as evidence of the need for crackdowns on his watch.
In an interview with Time, President Trump took his rhetoric a step further, suggesting he would use the National Guard and the U.S. military to track down immigrants, which could violate the Civil Policing Act, which prohibits the use of federal troops against civilians. There is sex. When asked about this provision, he falsely stated that people in the country illegally are “not civilians” and said he would not rule out building additional migrant detention camps.
Political violence, law enforcement and criminal prosecution
President Trump once said on Sean Hannity's show, “I don't want to be a dictator except on day one. I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill.” Like many of his incendiary claims, President Trump said it was meant sarcastically as a joke, but this is just one of the unpleasant views he will bring to law enforcement during his second term. It's just a department.
President Trump claimed in the interview that many people “like” what he says about being a dictator and that he doesn't understand why some people take it as nothing more than a joke.
President Trump has said he's not worried about political violence in this year's presidential election, but implied that's because he won in November.
“Well, I think we're going to win. We're way ahead. I don't think we can do something as bad as they did last time. Absolutely terrible. So many things. The various acts that were done were in complete violation of what was supposed to happen. And we can list it countless times, but I don't think we will win. “If we don't win, it always depends on the fairness of the election. They can do what they did last time, and if they do, we will win in record-setting fashion.”
He is facing multiple criminal trials in several states, including federal election interference charges stemming from hush money payments to adult film director Stormy Daniels. He is on trial in New York. In Georgia, there is an extortion case stemming from his failed bid to overturn his 2020 defeat, and various charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, where he sought to block his extradition. More than 800 supporters were convicted. Give power to President Joe Biden.
President Trump reiterated that he would consider pardoning these supporters.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly hinted in recent years that he would seek to pursue and prosecute political opponents, from Mr. Biden to local district attorneys who do not share his views on crime.
In the interview, Trump said he had no intention of going after Biden, but if the Supreme Court denies that presidential immunity applies to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Biden “He has committed many crimes and will be charged with all of them,” he said. . ”
There are currently no criminal charges pending against Biden, and a year-long effort to impeach the president over allegations of improper business dealings with his son Hunter has stalled without evidence of a crime.
If Trump is re-elected, he will gut the federal bureaucracy, restructure it based on his own ideological views, and use something called Schedule F to fire nonpartisan career civil servants. Similar purges and shakeups have taken place in recent years at the Republican National Committee and several key state Republicans, with Trump's daughter-in-law Lara leading the RNC alongside former North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley. .
President Trump said in an interview that he would not hire anyone who believed that Biden won the 2020 election, saying that although he lost office due to voter fraud, Republicans won the election in key states. He continued to repeat false claims.
