Trump says of possible war with Iran ‘anything can happen,’ vows to leverage U.S. support for Ukraine for peace
President-elect Donald Trump isn’t ruling out the possibility of a war against Iran during his second term, saying in a recent interview that “anything can happen.”
Trump sat for a 65-minute interview with Time magazine, which has named him its person of the year, and was asked about the chances of a war with Iran under his new administration, eliciting the response after a pause, the magazine said.
The president-elect was targeted by Iranians in an assassination plot during the presidential campaign, the magazine noted, and the Iranian regime has been weakened by the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza and now the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s leadership in Syria.
Russia-Ukraine
While Trump didn’t take war with Iran off the table, he made clear that he wants the wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas to end. He told Time that the situation in the Middle East is “an easier problem to handle than what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”
“The numbers of dead young soldiers lying on fields all over the place are staggering. It’s crazy what’s taking place,” said Trump, who criticized Kyiv’s firing of U.S.-made missiles into Russian territory in November after President Joe Biden eased restrictions on their use.
“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that?” he said. “We’re just escalating this war and making it worse.”
According to Time, Trump said he would use U.S. support for Ukraine as leverage against Russia in trying to negotiate an end to the war.
“I want to reach an agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Pardoning Jan. 6 rioters
Trump repeated in the interview that one of his first acts as president in his second term will be to pardon most of the rioters who were charged or convicted in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“It’s going to start in the first hour,” he said. “Maybe the first nine minutes.”
Using the military in deportations
Trump told Time he’s willing to deploy the U.S. military to help round up and deport people who are in the country illegally. He said that the Posse Comitatus Act, which bans deploying the military against civilians, “doesn’t stop the military if it’s an invasion of our country.”
If the military refuses to carry out such orders, Trump said, “I’ll only do what the law allows, but I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows.”
Not ruling out family separation
Trump said in the interview that he doesn’t plan to revive his policy of separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border, but he also isn’t taking that off the table.
“I don’t believe we’ll have to, because we will send the whole family back,” Trump said. “I would much rather deport them together.”
Time reported that the president-elect’s pick for border czar, Tom Homan, said, “There is no deliberate policy being worked on to separate families,” but added, “You can’t say zero, it’s not going to happen.”
Trump supports the filibuster
Trump told Time that he supports preserving the legislative filibuster in the Senate, which requires 60 votes to advance bills to final passage. There has been a debate over killing the filibuster in recent years, with progressive lawmakers under Biden pushing for the move in the face of GOP obstruction.
Republican leaders in the Senate also have said they would maintain the filibuster, even if it becomes a hindrance to Trump’s agenda under Democratic opposition.
If the filibuster blocks Trump from enacting his proposals, he said, “If I have even a little bit of trouble, I go to an Executive Order because I can get it done.”
Trump backtracks on lowering grocery prices
While campaigning, Trump repeatedly promised to bring down the prices of goods and services, including groceries. But he told Time, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”
In a speech to voters in August laying out his vision for a return to the White House, Trump said, “Prices will come down. You just watch. They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.”
