Five key quotes from Trump's interview with The Atlantic
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Cover: The Atlantic
President Trump mused on his political comeback and the first 100 days of his second term in a newly published interview with The Atlantic out Monday.
The big picture: The Atlantic's June cover story, "Donald Trump Is Enjoying This," lays out Trump's thinking in the lead up to his return to the White House. The magazine asked him about his embattled Pentagon chief, unpopular immigration crackdown and if he'll really seek a third term.
- The president met with representatives of the publication that dropped the biggest bombshell of his second term so far: Signalgate.
- "I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it's possible for The Atlantic to be 'truthful,'" Trump said in a Truth Social post last week ahead of the sitdown.
Here are five key quotes from the president's interviews with The Atlantic.
1. "I run the country and the world"
Asked how his second term so far differed from his first, Trump said: "The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys."
- "And the second time, I run the country and the world," he added.
- "I'm having a lot of fun, considering what I do ... You know, what I do is such serious stuff."
2. A third term "would be a big shattering"
Of a potential 2028 run, Trump told the magazine it "would be a big shattering."
- He continued, "Well, maybe I'm just trying to shatter." But Trump added, "It's not something that I'm looking to do. And I think it would be a very hard thing to do."
- That follows his comments from last month, when said he is "not joking" about a third term,
Reality check: Trump launching a bid for a third term wouldn't just shatter norms — it would violate the 22nd amendment.
- Meanwhile, the Trump Organization has started selling "Trump 2028" hats.
3. The billionaire class' "higher level of respect"
The billionaire class has largely bowed to Trump in his second term. He described the mega-rich taking a friendlier posture as "just a higher level of respect."
- "I don't know ... Maybe they didn't know me at the beginning, and they know me now," he continued.
Zoom in: Of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Trump said he's "100 percent. He's been great."
- He also praised Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a one-time-foe turned friend.
4. Hegseth will "get it together"
Despite fallout from the Signal scandal and turmoil at the Pentagon, Trump has stood by embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
- "I think he's gonna get it together," he said of Hegseth.
- He added, "I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him."
Zoom out: Trump also said that Mike Waltz, his national security adviser who accidentally added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the now-infamous group chat, was "fine" despite being "beat up" by the incident.
5. "Nothing will ever be perfect"
Trump was pressed on his administration's efforts to deport undocumented immigrants without due process and the possibility that a legal resident or American citizen could be accidentally removed — a hypothetical that advocates have said already happened.
- He replied, "Let me tell you that nothing will ever be perfect in this world."
Go deeper: Trump's boundary-breaking 100 days
