He was on Meet the Press and gave a batshit insane interview. I'm waiting for clips I can share, but the highlight for me was hearing him say RFK Jr. will be looking into the autism / vaccination connection and when asked if he'll remove vaccination requirements he said, "If they're dangerous for children."
I can't find any sharable clips or news articles (yet) about the vaccine element because the articles are all focused on the other crazy shit he
said:
Trump said he would fulfill a campaign promise to levy tariffs on imports from America’s biggest trading partners. In a noteworthy moment, he conceded uncertainty when Welker asked if he could “guarantee American families won’t pay more” as a result of his plan.
I can’t guarantee anything,” Trump said. “I can’t guarantee tomorrow.”
Trump also said he will not raise the age for government programs like Social Security and Medicare and will not make cuts to them as part of spending reduction efforts led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Asked if “raising ages or any of that stuff” was “off the table,” Trump agreed, saying, “I won’t do it.”
Random thoughts:
He said he would consider raising the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009, but would like to consult with the nation’s governors. “I will agree, it’s a very low number,” he said.
He said he’ll release his full medical records. Trump will be 82 by the time his term ends in 2029 — the same age Biden is now. He said he doesn’t plan to divest from Truth Social, the billion-dollar platform he launched after leaving office. “I don’t know what’s to divest,” he said. “All I do is I put out messages.” And he said he will not try to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom he has criticized in the past.
Immigration:
Immigration was the centerpiece of Trump’s campaign, and he didn’t flinch in saying he will carry out mass deportation of those who are living in the country illegally.
First will be convicted criminals, he said. Pressed on whether the targets would go beyond that group, Trump added: “Well, I think you have to do it, and it’s a hard — it’s a very tough thing to do. It’s — but you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally.”
It’s also possible that American citizens will be caught up in the sweep and deported with family members who are here illegally, or could choose to go.
Asked about families with mixed immigration status, where some are in the U.S. legally and some illegally, Trump said, “I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”
...
He also said he intends to eliminate birthright citizenship, the protection enshrined in the 14th Amendment that guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents. Asked about the likelihood that doing so unilaterally would face legal opposition, Trump said he would consider amending the Constitution.
Note that bolded part he just slips in, like it's no big deal.
Healthcare:
“Obamacare stinks,” he said. “If we come up with a better answer, I would present that answer to Democrats and to everybody else and I’d do something about it.”
When will he have a developed plan? “Well, I don’t know that you’ll see it at all,” Trump said, adding that health care experts are studying possible alternatives.
Foreign Policy:
He would not commit to keeping the U.S. in NATO, the European military alliance that has been a bulwark against Russia since World War II. “If they pay their bills, absolutely,” he would preserve America’s role in the alliance, he said.
On another foreign policy front, Trump expressed doubt that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be able to remain in power.
“It’s amazing, because he stayed for years under you would think much more adverse conditions, and all of the sudden, just rebels are going and they’re taking over large pieces of territory,” Trump said. “People have bet against him for a long time, and so far that hasn’t worked. But this seems to be different.”
