President Donald Trump gave TIME magazine an extended interview as his second term's first year draws to a close, addressing a range of domestic and international topics during a period when his administration has had a pronounced influence on global affairs. During the question-and-answer session, Trump invoked phrases including "fake news" and "lunatic" judges, and raised former President Joe Biden on multiple occasions.
When the conversation turned to affordability pressures and the burden of medical costs, Trump's replies were measured. Toward the end of the interview, Trump asserted that he possessed "the highest of IQs," then directed an expletive at the interviewer — telling the journalist, when asked whether an ailing Senator Mitch McConnell ought to step down, that not a single positive question had been put to him.
Trump also raised his work on Washington, D.C.'s renovation before telling reporters he found news coverage of his administration difficult to understand. When a reporter asked the president to explain to the public why his construction work carries national weight, he described the White House as a representation of the country and its standing in the world, adding that building may be the area where his abilities are strongest and that he finds it straightforward.
He described the activity as something many people find frustrating, though for him it serves as a source of calm. When the topic of the Kennedy Center came up — a venue he has made multiple attempts to have renamed in his honor — he stated that no firm decision had been reached. The matter would be resolved through the judicial process, he indicated.
A federal court order handed down last month places the Kennedy Center under a notice requirement of at least 30 days before any physical work — up to and including full demolition — can proceed, with that condition taking effect after the venue's governing board approved a closure for repairs. Court filings submitted this week reveal that the Justice Department portrayed the building's physical infrastructure as having far outlasted its usable life, with its finances described in similarly strained terms. In a separate remark, the president expressed a desire to preserve the Oval Office, which he had fitted out with gold decorative features, from any demolition work.
In the TIME interview, Trump indicated he viewed the destruction of Iran as one possible path forward, a position that echoed remarks delivered at the United Nations General Assembly the previous month, where he posed the question of whether a negotiated arrangement might allow Iran to rebuild and prosper, or whether he would instead move to dismantle the country's governing structure before it could, in his words, inflict further harm on other nations and peoples. When asked by TIME whether he would make that choice — sending them into a situation with no prospect of survival and no path to future achievement or legacy — he replied that he would.
Trump put forward the view that neutralising Iran would serve as a pathway to broader global peace, and stated that he sees no other route to a durable resolution with that country. He paired those remarks with comments on military stockpiles, indicating that mid-tier inventories have drawn down while top-level supplies remain at their highest point — an assessment that diverges from the position taken by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other administration figures, who have characterised reporting on supply gaps as without foundation.
Unverified accounts held that the president first became aware of a shortfall in munitions stocks through television news coverage, at a point when the number of Patriot interceptors expended had already passed 1,200. According to reports, planners had looked at drawing down assets stationed in Asia and Europe to cover the gap — a move that carried the risk of reducing the country's defensive capabilities in those regions. Trump, upon being briefed on the proposal, directed a profanity-laden question at Hegseth expressing his strong displeasure, sources indicated.
According to a report grounded in findings from the Pentagon's own internal watchdog, the defense secretary conveyed to the president that the document's conclusions lacked credibility — a characterisation the watchdog's assessment does not support. The Pentagon had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
When asked about the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act or declaring a national emergency before the midterm elections, Trump left the options open, having previously pursued federal oversight of election administration through legislative and judicial channels without success. When asked about placing federal immigration agents at polling sites, he indicated the idea had not been on his mind, while adding that a state of emergency declaration would leave all options on the table. "I don't rule anything out or in," he said.
In the conversation with TIME, Trump responded to a question about the Insurrection Act by stating that he had not invoked it. Trump noted that many people had expressed the view that he ought to deploy it on occasion, then pointed to figures on crime rates.
Confronted with polling data described as the lowest of his career, Trump dismissed the figures as fabricated, and separately maintained that he would defeat any current opponent by a margin of 20 points. Questions about the integrity of polling operations have been raised, though no verified evidence of wrongdoing has been presented. Trump pushed back on the notion that his internal polling showed comparable numbers, then pointed to an uptick in manufacturing employment as evidence that the national economy had reached a period of strength.
When asked whether he bore responsibility for the country's declining affordability, Trump said he did not, pointing instead to the economic conditions he said he had taken over — including what he described as historically high inflation and steep price increases inherited from the previous administration. Separately, Trump voiced displeasure with the three justices he had appointed to the Supreme Court after the court ruled against his administration in several cases, among them legal challenges to his tariff policy and to his efforts to narrow the scope of birthright citizenship.
When asked whether he had any regrets about those nominations, he replied in the affirmative. He stated that the appointees had voted against his positions on multiple occasions, adding that he viewed the roles he had granted them as extraordinary opportunities and that he had been responsible for placing them in those positions.
