Trump Grades Himself: 'A+ ... Can I Go Higher Than That?'

President tells Fox 'I don't want to hear' Khashoggi tape
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 18, 2018 9:48 AM CST
Trump Grades Himself: 'A+ ... Can I Go Higher Than That?'
President Trump speaks with Fox News' Chris Wallace.   (Fox News)

President Trump sat down with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday for an interview that ranged from CNN reporter Jim Acosta to the midterms and his own job performance. With regard to the latter, "I think I’m doing a great job. We have the best economy we’ve ever had. We’re doing really well. We would have been at war with North Korea if, let’s say, that administration continued forward." As for how he'd grade himself, Trump responded, "Look, I hate to do it, but I will do it, I would give myself an A+, is that enough? Can I go higher than that?" Other highlights from the interview:

  • On Jamal Khashoggi, via the AP: "I don't want to hear the tape, no reason for me to hear the tape." Trump calls it "a suffering tape" and says he knows "everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it." Khashoggi's death was "very violent, very vicious and terrible."
  • On Acosta: Saying his administration is putting together "rules and regulations" for reporters, Trump said that "I think one of the things we’ll do is maybe turn the camera off that faces them because then they don’t have any air time, although I’ll probably be sued for that and maybe, you know, win or lose it, who knows?" Further, "if he misbehaves, we’ll throw him out or we’ll stop the news conference."

  • On the midterms in Georgia: "I won against President Obama and Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. And it was all stacked against Brian [Kemp], and I was the one that went for Brian, and Brian won."
  • And the midterms in Florida: "I went down to Florida. [GOP Senate candidate] Rick Scott won, and he won by a lot. I don’t know what happened to all those votes that disappeared at the very end. And if I didn’t put a spotlight on that election before it got down to the 12,500 votes, he would have lost that election, OK?"
  • On Acting AG Matthew Whitaker's criticism of Robert Mueller: "I did not know that. I did not know he took views on the Mueller investigation as such."
  • On Pakistan: "They don't do a damn thing for us."
(More President Trump stories.)

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