Saying he was 'too nice' in his first term, Trump plots an aggressive second chance
Wilfredo Lee / Wilfredo Lee
Donald Trump has already been president once, and has been outspoken about the policies he would support and enact if elected again in November.
He’s promised mass deportations of millions of migrants and suggested the United States would not defend foreign allies from aggression in certain circumstances. He’s vowed to eviscerate the federal bureaucracy and staff those career civil service roles with political loyalists, use law enforcement to target foes and painted a dire picture of America’s future if he does not return to the White House.
In two wide-ranging interviews with TIME Magazine published Tuesday, Trump expanded upon that vision for a second term, which would buck traditional conservative viewpoints about the role of government and expand the powers of the presidency that he would then wield against a wide range of groups in America.
Trump touched on a number of topics that are important factors to voters ahead of November, like abortion, crime and the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump also made eyebrow-raising comments about political violence, using the military against civilians and about the multiple criminal cases against him.
Here’s a few takeaways from one of the few longform interviews Trump has given this election cycle:
Abortion
One of the biggest flashpoints in politics the last few years has been abortion access, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Trump has largely sidestepped questions about what specific policy he would support as president, and continued to do so in the TIME interview, arguing that the decisions are now made at the state level.
“I won’t have to commit to [federal abortion restrictions] because it’ll never — number one, it’ll never happen,” Trump said in the interview transcript. “Number two, it’s about states’ rights. You don’t want to go back into the federal government.”
Trump also deflected on a question about access to abortion pills, promising to release a statement on that “over the next 14 days.”
That’s an important question to answer, and one with great political consequence. As NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben has reported, Trump allies are pushing for him to enforce the Comstock Act, a 19th century law that could be used to halt the mailing of abortion pills and essentially stop all abortion in the U.S.
The former president insisted that it was up to states to make all decisions about abortion, including if they would monitor pregnancies to know if someone has an abortion or prosecuting them.
“It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not,” Trump said of the prosecution of women for having abortions. “It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.”
So far, voters have sided with abortion rights advocates every time the issue has been placed on the ballot, and several states — like Florida, where Trump lives — will have similar questions on the ballot this year. He declined to indicate how he will vote on that issue in November as well.
Immigration
Trump’s aggressive stance on immigration is a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign, as well as a key issue for many Republican primary voters. But it’s not just Republicans that have concerns about the U.S.-Mexico border, making Trump’s pronouncements about immigration and migrants especially noteworthy.
In campaign stump speeches, Trump has vowed to enact “the largest domestic deportation operation” in history and roll back virtually every Biden administration policy around the border. He continues to equate immigrants with crime, often mentioning murders and other grisly crimes committed by non-citizens as evidence that a crackdown is needed under his watch.
In the TIME interview, Trump takes that rhetoric a step further, suggesting he would use the National Guard and the U.S. military to go after migrants, potentially in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act that prevents federal troops from being used against civilians. When asked about that provision, he falsely said people in the country illegally “aren’t civilians” and would not rule out constructing additional migrant detention camps.
Political violence, law enforcement and criminal indictments
Trump once said on Sean Hannity’s show that he would not want to be a dictator “except for day one: I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.” Like many of his inflammatory claims, Trump said it was meant sarcastically as a joke, but it’s just a small part of the aggrieved view he would bring to law enforcement in a second term.
In the interview, Trump claimed that a lot of people “like” language about being a dictator, and did not understand why anyone took it as anything other than a jest.
Trump said he is not worried about political violence in this year’s presidential election, but implied it would be because he is victorious in November.
“Well, I do think we’re gonna win. We’re way ahead. I don’t think they’ll be able to do the things that they did the last time, which were horrible. Absolutely horrible. So many, so many different things they did, which were in total violation of what was supposed to be happening. And you know that and everybody knows that. We can recite them, go down a list that would be an arm’s long. But I don’t think we’re going to have that. I think we’re going to win. And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election. I don’t believe they’ll be able to do the things that they did the last time. I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with it. And if that’s the case, we’re gonna win in record-setting fashion.”
He faces multiple criminal trials in several states, including charges of federal election interference stemming from a hush money payment made to adult film start Stormy Daniels that he is facing trial for in New York currently; and a racketeering case in Georgia stemming from his failed efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat there, and more than 800 of his supporters have been sentenced for various crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol seeking to stop the transfer of power to President Joe Biden.
Trump repeated that would consider pardoning those supporters.
At several times over the last few years, Trump has suggested he would go after political opponents and seek to prosecute them, ranging from Biden to local district attorneys that do not align with his views on crime.
In the interview, Trump said he would not go after Biden, but if the Supreme Court did not find presidential immunity applied to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, then Biden would be “prosecuted for all of his crimes, because he’s committed many crimes.”
There’s no criminal charges currently pending against Biden, and a year-long effort to impeach the president over alleged improper business dealings with his son Hunter has stalled with no evidence of crimes.
If elected again, Trump would gut the federal bureaucracy and remake it in his ideological view, using something called Schedule F to fire career nonpartisan civil servants. A similar purge and rebuilding of the Republican National Committee and several key state Republican Parties has taken place in recent years, with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara leading the RNC alongside former North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley.
Trump said in the interview he would not hire anyone who believed Biden won the 2020 election, continuing to repeat false claims that voter fraud cost him the presidency but saw Republicans elected up and down the ballot in key states.
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