KEY POINTS:
- Donald Trump says his first acts will include deportations, Jan. 6 pardons.
- Trump says Ukraine should not have been permitted to fire US made missiles into Russia.
- Trump claims “some very productive things” are taking place in the Middle East.
New York: US President-elect Donald Trump has said that he will use the opening hours of his presidency to pardon people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault, begin deportations of undocumented immigrants and increase oil production.
In a Time, magazine interview, Trump refused to answer a question regarding whether he had talked with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin since the November election but added Ukraine should not have been permitted to fire US made missiles into Russia.
Speaking of pardons in Jan. 6 cases, Donald Trump said: “We are going to do it very rapidly, and it’s going to start in the first hour that I get into office.”
He added the pardons would go to “nonviolent” people who were at the Capitol, which was overrun by Trump supporters following he lost the 2020 election.
“A vast majority should not be in prison, and they have suffered gravely,” he added.
The president-elect’s remarks came during a wide-ranging interview conducted on Nov. 25 as part of the magazine’s choice of Trump to be its person of the year.
Time Magazine on Thursday named US President-elect Donald Trump its “person of the year,” marking the second time he has won the accolade in acknowledgement of the mogul’s stunning political comeback.
Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election, adorns the magazine’s title cover sporting his distinctive red tie and striking a pensive pose.
“For marshalling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment, for reshaping the American presidency and altering America’s role in the world, Donald Trump is Time’s 2024 – Person of the Year.”
In the interview, the president-elect boasted that he had run a “flawless” campaign and that Democrats were out of touch with Americans.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
On foreign policy, he lashed out against Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use US made missiles against some targets in Russia, calling it an escalation of the fighting that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
He also signaled that the efforts to reach an end to the war might gain momentum once he is back in office.
Middle East
He declined to say whether he had received assurances from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would end the war in Gaza.
Trump claimed “some very productive things” were taking place in the Middle East, but declined to say what they were.
“I think that the Middle East is an easier issue to handle than what’s happening with Moscow and Kyiv. OK, I just want to say that up front. The Middle East is going to get solved,” he said, saying: “I think it’s more complicated than the Russia-Ukraine, but I think it’s, it’s, it’s easier to address.”
Earlier French magazine Paris Match reported that US president-elect Donald Trump said that solving the Ukraine crisis would be his top priority once he assumes office next month, describing the Middle East as a “less difficult situation.”
READ ALSO: Trump Opposes Ukraine’s Use of US Missiles for Attacks Deep into Russia
“I think we have to solve the Ukraine problem with Russia,” the US president-elect told French magazine Paris Match in an interview recorded on Saturday and released on Wednesday.
“Both those countries are losing numbers that nobody can believe. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are being killed,” Trump said, replying to a question about his top priority on the international stage.
“And the Middle East is of course a big priority. But I think that the Middle East is a less difficult situation than Ukraine with Russia,” Trump said.
“But those are the two situations that we have to solve and we have to solve them quickly. A lot of people are dying.”
Immigration
In the interview, Trump spent a significant amount of time on issue of immigration. Trump repeatedly stated that he would begin a crackdown on people who are in the US illegally. He said law does not prohibit the use of the military in that effort.
