President-elect Donald Trump met with NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker for his first televised broadcast network interview since his win in the November presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris.
As the U.S. and the rest of the world prepares for Trump’s return to the White House in January, there is much discussion about what the President-elect plans to do once he takes office alongside his Vice President, J.D. Vance.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]In the sit-down interview, which took place on Friday, Dec. 6 and aired on Sunday, Dec. 8, Trump covered a range of high-profile topics, including his plans related to abortion, immigration, tariffs, and his controversial Administration selections. He also spoke about his foreign policy plans.
Here are some of the key topics Trump spoke out about in his televised interview as he prepares for his second presidency.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Trump has often applauded himself for the ruling. Throughout the 2024 election, abortion played a large role as the Trump-Vance ticket went head-to-head with Harris and her VP pick, Tim Walz. Trump argued he would not sign a federal ban on abortion when elected, while the Harris-Walz ticket argued that Trump would further restrict abortion rights if re-elected.
When asked whether he would restrict abortion pill access, Trump told Welker: “I’ll probably stay with exactly what I’ve been saying for the last two years. And the answer is no.”
This comes after Vance tried to seem more moderate on abortion in the vice presidential debate, in contrast to his previous comments. Standing on the podium, Vance said that the Republican party needs “to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don’t trust us.”
Welker asked Trump, who was convicted during a high-profile hush-money trial earlier this year, whether he plans to pardon Jan. 6 rioters when in office. Trump stated that he will give “first day” consideration of whether he will pardon people convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“We’re going to look at individual cases, but I’m going to be acting very quickly,” he said, adding that he’ll be looking at this his “first day” as the “people have been in there [jail] for years.”
Amid reports that Biden may seek to pre-emptively pardon political figures who could be in Trump’s crosshairs, the President-elect spoke out once again against the Jan. 6 committee, including Liz Cheney, saying: “For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.”
Read More: What Donald Trump’s Win Means for Abortion
Trump defended his controversial pick of Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, a selection that has been marked by a series of allegations and concerns.
“He’s a very smart guy,” Trump told Welker, saying he had confidence Hegseth would be confirmed by the Senate. “I’ve had a lot of senators call me up to say he’s fantastic.”
He also defended his pick of Kash Patel as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), who has been deeply critical of the FBI in the past. In an interview last year with former White House Chief Strategist and right-wing agitator Steve Bannon (conducted before Bannon’s incarceration), Patel said he “will go out to find the conspirators not just in government but in the media.”
When asked by Welker if he will fire current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who still has three years remaining in his 10-year term, in order for Patel to take charge, Trump said he is “not happy with him.”
“It would sort of seem pretty obvious that if Kash gets in, he’s going to be taking someone’s place,” Trump continued.
Trump continued to defer to Patel and his pick for Attorney General, Pam Bondi, when pushed by Welker to say whether he will go after his political opponents, including investigator Jack Smith, saying he wants Bondi to do “what she wants to do.”
Trump was also asked if he has plans to direct Patel to go after President Joe Biden, to which the President-elect said, “I’m really looking to make our country successful; I’m not looking to go back into the past… Retribution will be through success.”
He stated that he would not appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Biden, something he proposed on Truth Social in June, “unless I find something that I think is reasonable.”
He also called out Biden’s recent choice to pardon his son Hunter Biden after previously stating that he would not, saying: “I always knew he was going to give him a pardon.”
Trump will be the oldest U.S. President by the end of his term—and age was a big discussion throughout the election, particularly when it was Biden going head-to-head with Trump. When Harris took over the race from Biden, she released her medical report to the public, in which her physician said she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.” The Harris campaign called on Trump to be equally transparent about sharing his medical records, but he did not do so during the election.
Read More: The Controversy Over Donald Trump’s Absent Medical Records, Explained
The most recent medical report publicly shared by Trump was featured in a Nov. 20, 2023, Truth Social post, which included a screenshot of a letter from Dr. Bruce Aronwald, sharing little detail but saying the former President was in “excellent health.”
Welker asked Trump if he plans on releasing his full medical records, rather than just a letter.
“I would and I think anybody should,” he said, before adding: “Sure, I have no problem with it.”
On wider matters of health care, Trump continued to express his dissatisfaction with Obamacare, but did not elaborate on a moment in his September debate with Harris, in which when Trump was asked whether he had a plan for health care reform, his answer was: “I have concepts of a plan.”
“Obamacare stinks,” he said on Meet the Press. “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.”
Trump has caused much discussion with his proposed tariffs on all products imported from America’s trading partners: Mexico, Canada, and China. When Welker pointed out that experts have said such tariffs could impact the prices of a range of imported goods, from cars to electronics, Trump defended his idea.
“I’m a big believer in tariffs. I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they’re beautiful. It’s going to make us rich,” he said.
Read More: How Trump’s Tariffs Could Impact Top Imports From Mexico, Canada, and China
When asked if he could guarantee the tariffs would not impact pricing for the average American he said: “I can’t guarantee anything, I can’t guarantee tomorrow.”
Trump emphasized that immigration will be one of the first things he will begin working on when he returns to the White House. Throughout the campaign, Trump promised a slew of new policies regarding immigration, including mass deportations, ending birthright citizenship, and reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
Read More: What Donald Trump’s Win Means For Immigration
Trump doubled down on some of these policies, arguing that he will be focused on deporting migrants who came to America illegally and have criminal records first, but that eventually the aim would be for all illegal immigrants to be deported.
“Well, I think you have to do it… it’s a very tough thing to do. But you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally,” he said. “The people who have been treated very unfairly are the people who have been online for 10 years [waiting] to come into the country.”
When asked by Welker about mixed immigration families—some whereby the parents might be in the U.S. illegally but the children are there legally—and if the plan is to deport the families together, 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.”
On the topic of Dreamers—undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents—Trump said he was willing to work with Democrats on a plan, and that he wants to see them remain in the country.
“We’re talking many years ago, they were brought into this country many years ago, some of them are no longer young people, and in many cases, they become successful,” he said. “We’re going to have to do something with them.”
