President Trump sat down Wednesday with Fox News host and ally Sean Hannity for his first one-on-one interview since returning to the White House for his second term.
Trump has taken questions from reporters on each of his first three days in office, including the Hannity interview.
In his prime-time sit-down with Hannity, the president fielded questions in the Oval Office on his 2024 election win, the natural disasters that have ravaged North Carolina and California, and former President Biden’s use of preemptive pardons in his final hours in office.
Here are five takeaways from the interview.
Trump: Biden got ‘bad advice’ to not pardon himself
Trump told Hannity he was given the option on his way out of the White House in 2021 to pardon himself, but declined because he believed he had done nothing wrong despite public efforts to overturn his election loss.
Trump then went on to suggest it was a mistake Biden didn’t take advantage of that power himself in his final hours, which culminated Monday at noon.
“This guy went around giving everybody pardons,” Trump said. “And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him.”
Trump later said Biden “got very bad advice.”
“Joe Biden has very bad advisers. Somebody advised Joe Biden to give pardons to everybody but him,” Trump said.
Trump told Hannity he would defer to Congress as to whether lawmakers should investigate Biden and his decision to preemptively pardon family members and Trump critics such as retired Gen. Mark Milley, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and members of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
In announcing those pardons, Biden said he was concerned those individuals would be subject to politically motivated investigations.
Trump also revealed to Hannity that he was given the option on his way out of the White House in his first term to pardon himself, but declined.
“I was given the option. They said, ‘Sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to pardon anybody. We didn’t do anything wrong,’” Trump said.
Legal experts suggested at the end of Trump’s first term that it was untested legal grounds for a president to try to preemptively pardon themselves.
Trump bashes FEMA, suggests disaster recovery be left to states
The president was sharply critical of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), suggesting at one point states should handle their own response to natural disasters but still have the federal government providing money.
“FEMA has not done their job for the last four years. … But unless you have certain types of leadership, it’s really — it gets in the way,” Trump said. “And FEMA is gonna be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.”
“I love Oklahoma,” Trump continued. “But you know what, if they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it. And then the federal government can help them out with the money.”
Trump repeatedly attacked the Biden administration and FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. A FEMA worker was fired last year after they told aid workers not to go to homes with Trump yard signs, further inflaming GOP criticism of the response.
Trump previews North Carolina, California trips
The president will make his first domestic trip away from Washington on Friday when he travels to North Carolina and California to tour disaster recovery efforts.
But it’s unclear whether Trump will meet with Democratic state leaders on the ground. The president told Hannity he wasn’t sure if he’d be meeting with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a fierce political rival, or with North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D), who just took office.
The president repeated his claims that he’s been making for days that California could better combat its fires in Los Angeles if it directed water from the northern part of the state to the southern part of the state.
Trump signed an executive order Monday directing departments to “route more water” from Northern California to Southern California. But Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), who represents a Northern California district, said the president’s executive order was a “blatant political ploy that does nothing to implement science-backed methods that would strengthen water supply or support firefighting capabilities.”
Trump shrugs off TikTok privacy concerns
Trump brushed away national security concerns about the TikTok app, which were at the center of a bipartisan law to ban the platform if its China-based owner did not divest its ownership stake.
“You can say that about everything made in China,” Trump said when Hannity noted concerns that the app could be used by Beijing to spy on its users.
“We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention that?” Trump said. “The interesting thing with TikTok, though, is you’re dealing with a lot of young people. Is it that important for China to be spying on young people? Young people watching crazy videos and things.”
The president signed an executive order Monday giving TikTok an additional 75 days before a law banning the popular video-sharing platform takes effect. The move has been greeted with skepticism by some Republicans.
Trump signed an executive order in 2020, during his first term, effectively banning TikTok over data privacy concerns because of its parent company, ByteDance. While the order was never enacted after legal challenges, Trump has in the past year become an outspoken fan of TikTok, citing his popularity on the app during his campaign.
Trump calls Jan. 6 assaults on police officers ‘minor incidents’
For the second day in a row, Trump was asked about his decision to pardon defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol who committed violence against police.
On Wednesday, the president dismissed some of those clashes as “minor incidents.”
“They were in there for three and a half years … treated like nobody’s ever been treated. So badly. Treated like the worst criminals in history,” Trump said of his decision to pardon roughly 1,500 people.
“The other thing is this: some of those people with the police, true. But they were very minor incidents. They get built up by a couple of fake guys who are on CNN all the time,” Trump said.
His comments were likely referring to individuals such as former Washington, D.C., police officer Michael Fanone, who have appeared on CNN to criticize Trump’s rhetoric and actions around Jan. 6, including the mass pardons.
Trump on Monday night in one of his first official acts as president granted roughly 1,500 “full, complete and unconditional pardons” for rioters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. There have been 1,583 total defendants charged.
About 600 Jan. 6 defendants were accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding police, including some charges of using flagpoles and pepper spray to assault police officers protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6. Ten defendants were convicted of sedition, the crown jewel of the Justice Department’s sprawling prosecution.
