Jim Young/Reuters
President Donald Trump has described his discussions with Democrats over a Mexico border wall as a “waste of time” and hinted at declaring a national emergency once negotiations for his desired $5.7 billion are over. “I think [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi is hurting our country very badly by doing what’s she doing and, ultimately, I think I’ve set the table very nicely,” Trump told The New York Times in a Thursday interview. “I’ve set the table. I’ve set the stage for doing what I’m going to do.” Trump also reportedly said he “never” talked about WikiLeaks to his longtime friend Roger Stone—who pleaded not guilty to charges filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller this week—or asked anyone to get in touch with Stone about WikiLeaks. When asked about Mueller’s probe into Russian interference, Trump told the newspaper outgoing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had assured him he was not a “target”—but said he did not know if that assurance extended to a separate investigation by federal prosecutors in New York.
Trump also reportedly called his position as president a financial “loser.” “I lost massive amounts of money doing this job,” he said. “This is not the money... But they’ll say that somebody from some country stayed at a hotel. And I’ll say, ‘Yeah.’ But I lose, I mean, the numbers are incredible.” When asked about 2020, Trump told the Times he loved his job—despite the profit cuts—and didn’t “see” having to face a Republican challenger as a possibility. As for the Democrats, the president said he personally saw the “best opening” act to be for Kamala Harris—whose name he is said to have pronounced as “Kameela.”