"Everybody wants to be my friend," Trump brags after tech CEOs seek audiences
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Donald Trump, accompanied by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman and Howard Lutnick at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 16. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President-elect Trump said "everybody wants to be my friend" as he prepares to return to the White House, a notable shift from his first term where "everybody was fighting me."
Why it matters: Trump's first press conference since winning back the White House was a sprawling affair that that touched on everything from supposed drone spottings, the parade of tech CEOs seeking his time, and pardoning embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
- "I don't know, my personality changed or something," Trump said on Monday, in response to a question about his recent meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook. He said that he was also planning to meet with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in the coming days.
Driving the news: Trump answered questions on a number of topics. Here's what else the president-elect said:
- Eric Adams: Trump said he would consider pardoning the New York City Mayor who was indicted on bribery and fraud charges earlier this fall. "I think that he was treated pretty unfairly."
- Drones: "The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from," Trump said of recent drone sightings.
- "They know where it came from and where it went and for some reason they don't want to comment."
- U.S. Postal Service: "There is talk about the postal service being taken private ... not the worst idea I've ever heard, it really isn't," Trump said, adding that "we're looking at" privatizing the service.
- Sen. Marco Rubio's seat: Trump said that he's not sure whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will select Lara Trump, the president-elect's daughter-in-law, to replace Rubio's seat after he was selected as secretary of state.
- "I don't know. Ron's doing a good job, it's his choice. Nothing to do with me," Trump said. "Lara's unbelievable," he said in praise of the former RNC co-chair.
- Media lawsuits: Trump said that he would sue pollster Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register over their poll that found Vice President Harris leading over Trump by three percentage points days before the election.
- "I'm not doing this because I want to, I'm doing this because I feel I have an obligation to," Trump said.
- ABC recently agreed to donate $15 million to Trump's museum foundation to settle a suit over comments by anchor George Stephanopoulos.
- 'DOGE': Trump said that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will eliminate "hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud" through the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. Trump said they're looking to save "maybe $2 trillion."
Between the lines: Trump's press conference stands in stark contrast to President Biden's relatively low number of press conferences during his term.
Go deeper: Takeaways from Trump's "Meet the Press" interview
