On Wednesday, President Donald Trump conducted his first exclusive interview with Sean Hannity of HeadlinesForever since returning to the White House.
Throughout his first week in office, Trump often took questions from reporters, including Hannity.
In front of a primetime audience, Trump pondered on his return to the White House four years after losing to former President Joe Biden, threatened FEMA, provided his thoughts on TikTok’s future, and addressed Biden’s preemptive pardons for officials and family members.
Here are the notable moments.
- Trump muses on his return to the White House.
In his interview with Hannity, Trump reflected on his historic return to the White House, claiming his electoral comeback demonstrates that the policies and beliefs of the “radical left” during the last four years have been “horrible” and “don’t work.”
The 47th president criticized the Biden administration’s actions, once again focusing on inflation, the US exit from Afghanistan, and the start of the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts.
“All that being said, I believe it is bigger. It’s larger than if it were more typical,” he stated on “Hannity,” alluding to his two nonconsecutive administrations. “I think we got there just in the nick of time.”
- Hannity explains what he told Trump following the 2020 election setback.
Hannity said that he warned Trump after the 2020 election that returning to the White House four years after the Biden administration would be “bigger” than a consecutive victory, comparing it to Winston Churchill’s return as prime minister following World War II.
“Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I will. It happened after the 2020 election, and you asked me a question. And we’ve known each other for 30 years, so we have both a friendship and a business connection,” Hannity remarked in an exclusive interview with Trump on Wednesday.
“And the question you asked me was, ‘Maybe in the end, it would be best if I returned in four years.’ And we discussed history. After World War II, Winston Churchill was expelled, although he was later reinstated. Grover Cleveland was the only previous American president who did not serve consecutive terms,” he added.
Churchill served as Prime Minister twice: from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Trump is the second U.S. president to serve two non-consecutive terms, following Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th presidents.
Hannity stated that he felt “it would be bigger if you came back.” Trump acknowledged that it is already looking that way just three days in office.
“It turns out to be bigger. And I believe one thing is happening: people are realizing that they cannot rule and that their policies are bad. I mean, they don’t want to witness a lady being beaten by a man in a boxing ring?” He said.
- Trump warns FEMA of a reckoning after the Biden administration.
Trump warned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is about to suffer a reckoning after four years under the Biden administration, claiming the agency has “not done their job.”
“FEMA has not done its duty for the past four years. You know, I had FEMA operating quite well. We experienced hurricanes in Florida. We had tornadoes in Alabama. However, unless you have specific forms of leadership, it impedes progress. And FEMA is going to be a huge issue very soon, because I’d rather see the states deal with their own problems,” Trump remarked.
FEMA came under fire last year after Hurricane Helene slammed across North Carolina, destroying homes and businesses and killing more than 100 people. FEMA and the Biden administration were heavily criticized for how they handled the situation, while Trump accused the agency of impeding relief operations in Republican-controlled areas.
“The Democrats do not care about North Carolina. What they’ve done to FEMA is terrible. FEMA is a whole different topic, since it only complicates things,” he added.
“So, I’m going to cease on Friday. I’m stopping in North Carolina first because Democrats abused those people horribly. And I’m going to stop there. “We’re going to get that thing straightened out because they’re still suffering from a hurricane that happened months ago,” Trump stated.
Trump will go to North Carolina on Friday for his first trip as president, where he is scheduled to tour and meet with individuals who were affected by the disaster in September. He will also visit California on the same day, where flames have swept across the Los Angeles area this month.
- Trump has a’very warm spot in my heart’ for TikTok.
Trump hailed his campaign’s choice to use TikTok with his excellent 2024 election result among young voters, but he told Hannity that the short-form video platform’s Chinese owners must sell it in order to continue operating in the United States.
“I think TikTok ought to be sold,” Trump remarked. “People want to buy it.”
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order giving TikTok extra time to function and comply with a rule that requires the platform’s Beijing-based owner, ByteDance, to either sell the app to an American buyer or shut it down in the United States.
He has argued that the United States should control half of TikTok and proposed that billionaire Elon Musk or Oracle founder Larry Ellison buy the app.
During the discussion, Trump seemed to disregard Hannity’s fears that TikTok is a “spying app for the communist Chinese.”
“But you can say that about anything made in China.” Look, the majority of our telephones are built in China. We have so many products created in China. So, why don’t they discuss that, you know?” Trump stated.
“You’re dealing with a lot of young people,” she said. “So they adore it. Is it really necessary for China to snoop on young people and children who are watching bizarre videos?
Hannity said that he doesn’t want China snooping on anyone.
“No, but they make your telephones, and they make your computers, and they make a lot of other things,” Mr. Trump said. “Isn’t that a bigger threat?”
- Trump responds to Biden not pardoning himself.
During a discussion of Biden’s preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the House Jan. 6 select committee, Trump said the “sad thing” was that Biden did not pardon himself.
“I was given the option,” Trump remarked, referring to the conclusion of his first term, when political analysts speculated that Trump may pardon himself to avoid punishment for his claimed participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots.
“They replied, ‘Sir, would you wish to pardon everybody, including yourself?’ I declared I was not going to pardon anyone. We did not do anything incorrect. And we had individuals who suffered,” Trump remarked, mentioning that his former chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior trade adviser Peter Navarro were imprisoned for contempt of Congress.
“[Biden] went around pardoning everyone, and the funny thing — or maybe the sad thing — is that he didn’t pardon himself.” “And, if you look at it, it was all about him,” Trump said Hannity.
Biden was questioned in 2020 about claims that then-President Trump was considering preemptive pardons for members of his family, including himself, and he described the notion as troubling.
“Well, it concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice,” Biden told Jake Tapper, CNN’s host.
Four years later, he forgave his sister, two brothers, and their wives. Biden explained that he granted the pardons in part because he was concerned about “baseless” and “politically motivated investigations” of his family by President Trump.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be interpreted as an acknowledgement that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be interpreted as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement issued on Inauguration Day.
Trump failed to respond to Hannity’s question on whether Congress should investigate the Biden family.
“Look, he didn’t give himself a pardon, and he didn’t give some other people a pardon that needed it,” remarked the president.