Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, attends a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., April 12, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, in Florida.
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Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, attends a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., April 12, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, in Florida.
Wilfredo Lee/AP
Donald Trump has already been president once and has been outspoken about the policies he would support and embrace if elected again in November.
He promised mass expulsions of millions of migrants and suggested the United States would not defend its foreign allies against aggression in certain circumstances. He pledged to gut the federal bureaucracy and fill career public offices with political loyalists, use law enforcement to target enemies, and paint a dire picture of America’s future. he is not coming back to the White House.
In two in-depth interviews with TIME magazine published Tuesday, Trump elaborated on this vision of a second term, which would run counter to traditional conservative views on the role of government and expand the powers of the presidency he would exercise. then against a wide range of groups in America.
Trump has addressed a number of issues that are important factors for voters ahead of November, such as abortion, crime and the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump also made chilling comments about political violence, the use of the military against civilians and the multiple criminal cases against him.
Here are some takeaways from one of the few long-form interviews Trump has given this election cycle:
Abortion
One of the biggest political flashpoints in recent years has been access to abortion, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Trump largely evaded questions about what specific policies he would support as president, and continued to do so in the TIME interview, arguing that decisions are now made at the state level.
“I will not have to commit to (federal restrictions on abortion) because it will never happen — first of all, it will never happen,” Trump said in the interview transcript. “Second, it’s about states’ rights. You don’t want to go back into the federal government.”
Trump also deflected the issue of access to abortion pills, promising to issue a statement on the matter “over the next 14 days.”
This is an important question to answer, and one that has big political consequences. As NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben reported, Trump’s allies are pushing for him to implement the Comstock Act, a 19th century law that could be used to stop the mailing of abortion pills and, essentially, to stop all abortions in the United States.
The former president insisted that it was up to states to make all decisions about abortion, including whether they would monitor pregnancies to see if someone had an abortion or whether they would prosecute that person in court.
“It doesn’t matter whether I feel comfortable or not,” Trump said of prosecuting women who have had abortions. “It doesn’t matter at all, because the states will make those decisions.”
Voters have sided with abortion rights advocates every time the issue has been on the ballot so far, and several states — like Florida, where Trump resides — will have similar questions on the ballot vote this year. He also declined to indicate how he would vote on the issue in November.
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 Republicans aren’t the only ones concerned about the U.S.-Mexico border, making Trump’s statements on immigration and migrants particularly noteworthy.
In his campaign speeches, Trump pledged to implement “the largest domestic deportation operation” in history and roll back virtually all of the Biden administration’s policies around the border. He continues to equate immigrants with crime, often pointing to murders and other gruesome crimes committed by non-citizens as evidence of the need for a crackdown under his watch.
In the TIME interview, Trump goes further in his rhetoric, suggesting he would use the National Guard and the US military to pursue migrants, potentially in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act which prevents the use of federal troops against civilians. When asked about this provision, he falsely stated that people living in the country illegally “are not civilians” and would not rule out the construction of additional migrant detention camps.
Political violence, law enforcement and criminal prosecutions
Trump once said on Sean Hannity’s show that he wouldn’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 inflammatory claims, Trump said it was a sarcastic joke, but it’s only a small part of the aggrieved perspective he would bring to law enforcement during of a second term.
In the interview, Trump claimed that many people “love” the language describing being a dictator and don’t understand why anyone would take it as anything other than a joke.
Trump said he was not concerned about political violence in this year’s presidential election, but suggested he would be because he would be victorious in November.
“Well, I think we’re going to win. We’re ahead. I don’t think they’re going to be able to do the things they did last time, which were horrible. Absolutely horrible. So, so much They have did a lot of different things, which totally violated what was supposed to happen and you know it and everyone knows it. We can recite them, make a list that would be very long. I think we’re going to win. And if we don’t win, you know, it always depends on the fairness of an election.”
He faces multiple criminal trials in several states, including federal election interference charges stemming from a hush money payment to adult film director Stormy Daniels for which he is currently on trial in New York ; and a racketeering case in Georgia stemming from his unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat there, and more than 800 of his supporters have been convicted of various crimes stemming from the January 6, 2021 attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol targeting to stop the transfer. power to President Joe Biden.
Trump reiterated that he would consider pardoning these supporters.
Repeatedly in recent years, Trump has suggested he would go after his political opponents and seek to prosecute them, ranging from Biden to local prosecutors who don’t 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 that presidential immunity applied to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, then Biden would be “prosecuted for all his crimes, because he committed many crimes.” “.
No criminal charges are currently pending against Biden, and a yearlong effort to impeach the president over alleged improper business dealings with his son Hunter has stalled without any evidence of crimes.
If re-elected, Trump would gut the federal bureaucracy and rebuild it according to his ideological vision, using something called Schedule F to fire nonpartisan career 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 GOP chairman North Carolina, Michael Whatley.
Trump said in the interview that he wouldn’t hire anyone who thought Biden won the 2020 election, continuing to repeat false claims that voter fraud cost him the presidency, but saw Republicans elected high down in key states.
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