President Donald Trump defended his admission that he hasn’t been thinking about “Americans’ financial situation” while negotiating with Iran.
The president, 79, sat down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier in Beijing to discuss his three-day state visit to China as well as his ongoing war with Iran, which is now 10 weeks old.
While discussing rising costs on everything from gas to groceries, Baier brought up a controversial comment the president made as he left for Beijing earlier this week, in which he seemed to suggest that the financial struggles so many Americans are facing right now do not keep him up at night.
When Trump was asked by a reporter on Tuesday, “When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans’ financial situation motivating you?” the 79-year-old commander in chief responded: “Not even a little bit,” adding, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.”
Baier tried to thread the needle between confronting Trump about that comment and framing it as an issue that “Democrats and political pundits jumped all over.” The Fox News anchor played the clip, but before he could ask a question, Trump blurted out: “That’s right. That’s a perfect statement. I’d make it again.”
Baier then played into Trump’s contention that his remarks were somehow being taken out of context.
“You could imagine how many people stopped the soundbite at: ‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,’” Baier said, as Trump agreed.
“No, they played that up,” the president said.
Baier then asked: “So, what’s your response to that framework?”
“It’s very simple. When people hear me say it, everybody agrees: short-term pain. It’s going to be short-term pain,” he said, before shifting the goalposts.
“But the pain is much less than people thought, because people thought that the oil would go up to $250. You know, it was $99 yesterday; $99 a barrel. I thought it might go up to $200,” he said. “I was OK with that. Not that I wanted it, but you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. They will use it on us. They will start off with Israel, wipe it out. The Middle East, wipe it out. It’ll go to Europe.”
“When you tell somebody you’re going to have to pay a little more—not that much more—for gasoline for a very short period of time, because we want to stop the threat of being blown to pieces by a lunatic, by a crazy person, and they are crazy—using nuclear weapons—everybody says that’s fine,“ the president insisted.
Trump then complained about the White House reporter’s initial question.
“And that question was a fake question, and they didn’t put my full answer. I totally care,” he argued.
Later in the interview, Trump cited 401(k)s and the stock market as proof that the economy is in a positive place.
Still, the consumer sentiment index, as measured by the University of Michigan, hit all-time lows in May, and polls have shown a majority of Republican voters blaming Trump for the economy.
A majority of Americans said Democrats would handle the economy better, an April Fox News poll found.
