US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration over the possibility that his Republican Party could lose control of the US House of Representatives or the US Senate in this year’s midterm elections.
In a Jan. 14 interview with Reuters from the Oval Office of the White House, the president made his point by pointing to past patterns in which the governing party typically loses seats during the second year of a presidency.
“It’s a deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump said. He boasted that he had accomplished so much that “when you think about it, we shouldn’t even have elections”.
In addition to the midterm elections, Trump has also addressed a number of other issues, such as the future of Greenland, the situation in Iran and his decision to deploy militarized officers to American cities even after an ICE agent fatally shot a man.
Military deployment to cities will continue
Last week, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good during a federal law enforcement operation.
Read also | Minneapolis shooting: ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good suffered internal bleeding
While Trump appeared to express some sympathy for her death, calling it a “very unfortunate incident,” he still made it clear that he stood by his decision to send militarized officers to American cities.
He added that he would continue to send armed agents into the cities and claimed that his actions had driven “thousands of murderers out of our country”, a claim for which there is no evidence.
Trump calls Reuters poll on Greenland takeover ‘fake’
Trump has repeatedly brushed aside the concerns of the public, businesses and even members of his own Republican Party about the future of Greenland.
When Trump was told that a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed limited support among Americans for taking control of Greenland, he dismissed the poll as “bogus.”
Read also | ‘Fundamental disagreements’ over Greenland, Denmark says after Vance-Rubio meeting
Trump has repeatedly asserted his desire to control Greenland at any cost, a demand that the Greenlandic government has flatly rejected. The US president has argued that Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, is strategically key to national security.
Trump on the Powell investigation
When asked about the pushback by some Senate Republicans against an investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Trump bluntly said, “I don’t care.” He also dismissed concerns about the potential damage that White House meddling in the Fed could cause.
Federal prosecutors in Washington DC have opened an investigation into Powell, focusing on the long-running renovation of the Fed’s headquarters and whether, according to multiple reports, he made misleading statements to Congress about the scope and cost of the project.
When asked about Americans’ concerns about high prices, Trump reiterated that the economy was the strongest “in history” and said he needed to do a better job promoting his achievements, referring to a specially edited thick binder listing his achievements in office.
What did Trump say about the situation in Iran?
Trump said he believed the crackdown on protesters in Iran was easing, though he did not say where the information came from. It was also unclear whether he was still considering ordering a US military strike on the ground.
Despite repeated threats against the Iranian regime, Trump did not commit to what outcome he wanted for Iran in the interview, refusing to call for the overthrow of the country’s rulers. He also refused to support the exiled Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, as a potential future leader.
“I don’t know how he would play in his own country, and we’re really not there yet,” Trump said. “We have to play it day in and day out.
Trump has previously said that Iranian opposition figure Pahlavi “seems very nice,” but expressed doubt that Pahlavi could garner enough support in Iran to come to power, Reuters reported.
