Takeaways From Trump’s First 1-On-1 Interview Since Taking Office
US President Donald Trump waits to speak in Emancipation Hall during inauguration ceremonies at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Greg Nash / POOL / AFP) (Photo by GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Abril Elfi 1:28 PM – Thursday, January 23, 2025
President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News host Sean Hannity for his first one-on-one interview since being back in office.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, Trump sat down with Hannity and answered questions related to his election win, Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, California’s catastrophic fires, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and former President Joe Biden’s pardons.
During his interview, Trump stated that in 2021, he had the opportunity to pardon himself — but chose to decline, as he did not believe that he had done anything wrong.
“I was given the option. They said, ‘Sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to pardon anybody. We didn’t do anything wrong,’” Trump said.
He then went on to suggest that Biden should have taken advantage of that opportunity himself.
“This guy went around giving everybody pardons,” Trump said. “And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it all had to do with him.”
“Joe Biden has very bad advisers. Somebody advised Joe Biden to give pardons to everybody but him,” Trump said.
Trump floated the suggestion that lawmakers should investigate Biden and his decision to preemptively pardon his family members.
Additionally, the president also discussed his plan to travel to both North Carolina and California in order to tour disaster recovery efforts on Friday.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday. It directed departments to “route more water” from Northern California to Southern California. However, Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.) later claimed that Trump’s executive order was a “blatant political ploy that does nothing to implement science-backed methods that would strengthen water supply or support firefighting capabilities.”
The president also spoke about his pardons of January 6th defendants.
“They were in there for three and a half years … [they were] treated like nobody’s ever been treated. So badly. Treated like the worst criminals in history,” Trump said of his decision to pardon roughly 1,500 of the defendants.
Additionally, Trump brushed off national security concerns regarding the TikTok app, which was at the center of a bipartisan law attempting to ban the platform as long as its Chinese owner, ByteDance, did not divest its ownership stake.
“You can say that about everything made in China,” Trump said when Hannity highlighted certain concerns pertaining to the app being utilized by Beijing to spy on American users. “We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention that?” Trump continued. “The interesting thing with TikTok, though, is you’re dealing with a lot of young people. Is it that important for China to be spying on young people? Young people watching crazy videos and things.”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew thanked President Trump for his efforts to keep the app alive despite the Supreme Court upholding the potential ban on Friday.
If Trump really can keep this app alive, he will gain support nationwide.
🚨 Breaking: In case you're like me and don't have cable, here is the Full Interview with President Donald Trump and Sean Hannity that aired on Fox News! 💪🏻 🇺🇲 ❤️pic.twitter.com/gWI0B30VX4
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
