Former President Donald Trump is well known for playing a part in a number of controversies, and critics have repeatedly accused him of misleading the public.
Just a few days after President Joe Biden was inaugurated and Trump begrudgingly departed the White House, a report from The Washington Post tallied a total of 30,573 “false or misleading claims” the president had made during his four-year tenure.
When Maggie Haberman from the New York Times sat down with the 45th president to interview him for her 2022 book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” Trump was surprisingly candid.
The Question: During the interview, the former leader of the U.S., who referred to Haberman as his “psychiatrist,” reflected on his decision to run for the presidency, according to a column Haberman wrote in The Atlantic.
“The question I get asked more than any other question: ‘If you had it to do again, would you have done it?’” Trump said. “The answer is, yeah, I think so. Because here’s the way I look at it. I have so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are,” he continued.
What’s More: Haberman met with Trump for three separate interviews. According to Haberman, Trump lied to her about multiple topics, including denying that he was watching TV during the Jan. 6 attack on Washington, which is contradicted by multiple first-hand witnesses and their testimony.
Trump also lied about the breadth of power he had given to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, during his presidency, according to the report.
Still, there were many times of candid honesty, such as when Trump seemingly admitted his friends may not be in it for the right reasons.
Haberman shared one of her encounters with Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. “You know why Lindsey kisses my ass?” Trump asked, referring to Graham, his at-the-time golf partner. “So I’ll endorse his friends,” he then answered, which, according to Haberman, set Graham into a fit of unrestrained laughter.
Photo: Joseph Sohm via Shutterstock
Originally published on Aug. 26, 2022.
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