Highlights of Trump s Time magazine interview

Following are key quotes from an interview that US President Donald Trump gave Time magazine on April 22, which was published on April 25:

On expanding the power of the US presidency

“Well, I don’t feel I’m expanding it. I think I’m using it as it was meant to be used. I feel that we’ve had a very successful presidency in 100 days.”

On inflation

“The prices of groceries have gone down. The only price that hasn’t gone down is the price of energy. The cost of energy. I’m sorry, well, energy has gone down, excuse me ...

“And interest rates have essentially stayed the same. But almost every other thing.”

On US economic contraction

“If you look at all of the years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve been right on things. You’re gonna – you’re gonna have the wealthiest country we’ve ever had, and you’re gonna have an explosion upward in the not-too-distant future.”

Why are recent sizeable job losses acceptable?

“Because we have to have an efficient country. And when the country gets down to bare knuckles... you’re going to see something the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

How can US companies plan amid tariff uncertainty?

“I’ll turn it around. How can they make long-term investments if our country is losing US$2 trillion (S$2.63 trillion) a year on trade?

“I had the head of Walmart. I had the head of Home Depot and the head of Target in my office. And I’ll tell you what they think, they think what I’m doing is exactly right.”

On suspending tariffs after US bond prices fell

“I’m doing that until we come up with the numbers that I want to come up with... The bond market was getting the yips, but I wasn’t.”

On trade row