Talks with China, peace in Ukraine and Trump 2028: The best moments of the president's interview with Time

From the tariff war to the wars in Ukraine and Israel, from immigration to potential reelection, Donald Trump spoke at length about the first 100 days of his second term with Time magazine.

He denied, first, that he was expanding presidential powers, asserting that he was using the office "as it was meant to be used." Those who accuse him of that point to the imposition of tariffs, which they point to is the power of Congress, the challenges to the courts, the rallies against private institutions like universities.

"I think that what I'm doing is exactly what I've campaigned on," the Republican assured. "You know, everything that I'm doing—this is what I talked about doing." He gave illegal immigration as an example: "I said that I'm going to move the criminals out," he recalled and affirmed that he was complying, after blaming Joe Biden for opening wide the border.

Trump's economy 2.0

"The prices of groceries have gone down," Trump asserted, although he acknowledged that "the only price that hasn't gone down is the price of energy." Inflation came out first in several pre-election polls as Americans' top concern, and one of the main reasons voters turned out for the president.

Then he demurred, saying the cost of energy had gone down. The problem, in truth: "The interest rates." In earlier statements, Trump took aim at Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, "Mr. Too Late," urging him to lower rates. He also ruled out wanting to remove him after assuring that his "termination cannot come fast enough."

He also claimed that the United States was taking in "billions and billions of dollars from other countries" because of tariffs. Rebutting that inflation is similar to Biden's and that there were forecasts of decreases, Trump promised "the wealthiest country we've ever had."

200 tariff pacts

Asked about tariffs, he insisted that "our country is going to be very rich in not a long period of time." Trump detailed that, although part of the objective of imposing levies on foreign products is for companies to move their factories to the United States, he also does not want to import all production: "There are some products I really don't want to make here." He will analyze this on a case-by-case basis.

He further stated that his policy would be a "total victory" even if tariffs of up to 50% are still in place a year from now "because the country will be making a fortune." These taxes, therefore, could be here to stay.

Trump further assured that there were "many deals" reached. Days after announcing a barrage of tariffs against hundreds of countries on "Liberation Day," the president paused the "reciprocal" tariffs (except those on China) for 90 days. The plan is to use these three months to negotiate bilateral agreements with the affected countries.

Almost two weeks after the pause, the Republican assured that he had reached "200 deals." In three or four weeks, he assured, he will have finished the negotiations.

Talks with China

One of the most anticipated issues of the interview was the state of relations with Beijing. Trump assured that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had called him. "And I don't think that's a sign of weakness on his behalf." He did not specify when.

In subsequent statements to the press he insisted they had talked "many times." China, for its part, denied engaging in tariff negotiations.

Asked about his dialogue with Xi, he assured that "there’s a number at which they will feel comfortable." "But you can’t let them make a trillion dollars from us," he said. "You can’t let them make $750 billion."

Abrego García case

"I leave that to my lawyers. I give them no instructions," Trump said of the immigrant mistakenly deported to El Salvador. "I don't make that decision."

He also denied asking Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to return Abrego García. "I haven’t asked him positively, but he said he wouldn’t." He also insisted that the media portrayed him as a "saint," when in reality "he was MS-13 [a criminal organization]."

DOGE

"We found hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse," Trump said of the role of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk. "Billions of dollars being given to politicians, single politicians based on the environment."

"I mean, it’s a crazy question." That's how he responded to doubts over whether DOGE would be centralizing data from previously unlinked agencies because of security concerns for citizens. Asked whether the IRS data would be used to find illegal immigrants, he replied, "Not that I know of, no."

"Crimea will stay with Russia"

The promise to end the war in Ukraine on day one was, he defended himself, an exaggeration to make a point.

While he said he believed Vladimir Putin would take the necessary steps to reach a truce, he acknowledged that, if it were up to the Russian, he would "rather go and take the whole thing." "We've had very good talks, and we're getting very close to a deal," he added.

He also said he was confident that Volodymyr Zelensky would do the same. "Crimea will stay with Russia," he asserted on one of the most controversial points of a possible deal. Only hours earlier, the Ukrainian leader had refused to accept the occupation of the region as part of a deal, controlled by Russia since 2014.

Trump 2028?

"I have more people begging me to run again, but I haven't looked at even the possibility," he maintained about a possible third term. He avoided, however, getting into specifics. Although the 22nd Amendment limits the number of terms to two, in the past, Trump said there were avenues to pursue one more term.

The president also responded on pardoning the Jan. 6 protesters, his support for the House Republican budget only if it does not carry cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, plus his first official trip, to the Middle East.