Biden blames ‘Barack’ and ‘Pelosi’ for defeat, says Trump in Spectator interview

In a wide-ranging conversation at the White House this evening, Donald Trump was in the mood to talk about everything under the Sun — from the speedy success his second administration has had putting fear into the hearts of bureaucrats and Eurocrats, to why he believes there is a path to a balanced budget and his thoughts on the NFL’s debate about the potential ban on the “tush push.” He spoke to The Spectator for the first magazine interview of his second term, following a major day of international politics with the greeting of UK prime minister Keir Starmer.

One of his most interesting comments concerned a conversation with President Joe Biden, in the aftermath of the 2024 election, on the question of whom he blamed for being pushed out of his role. Trump told me in the interview:

I went to the White House a few months before this all happened. I guess I had won… [Biden] asked for a meeting, and I went and we talked for a little while… and I asked him, I said, “So who do you blame?” Because he was very angry, you know — he’s a very angry guy, actually. And he said, “I blame Barack”… And he said, “and I also blame Nancy Pelosi.” I said, “What about the vice president?” He said, “No, I don’ t blame her.” Which was interesting. He didn’t blame her.

Asked about the war in Ukraine, in anticipation of a meeting tomorrow with Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a much-touted rare earths mineral deal, the president turned to a mournful tone:

The hardest part for me is to think that all of these kids are dying. This week, they’ re going to lose 2,000 guys. Now, they’re Ukrainian, they’re Russian, Ukrainian, Russian. But you hate to see that, it’ s human beings, right? And it’s such, it’s such a bad war and it’s such a vicious, it’s such a vicious war. It’s really a bad one. You know, it’s a drone war. It’s a whole new form of warfare that’s taking place. It’s actually a terrible and sort of amazing. People are studying it. You know, the Koreans went in because they wanted to learn. They learned the hard way — this was not good. They have suffered tremendous casualties.

In response to a question about the difference between his first cabinet and his second, which held its first full meeting this week, the president expressed particular pride in the younger generation of leaders he’s promoted from within his coalition. In lieu of the headlining boardroom generals in his first term, Trump has focused on naming a series of Generation X and elder millennials who fought on the battlefield instead:

It’s very interesting. So I was able to get people that were great, like, I’d see Pete, I’d be interviewed by him. And what he wanted to talk about was the military. In fact, whenever he called me, it was always to get somebody that was in trouble because he was too aggressive militarily out of a jail. You know, I got numerous soldiers out of jails because they did what they were trained to do. The liberals within the military put them in jails. They teach him to be a soldier. They teach him to kill bad people, and when they kill bad people, they want to put them in jail for thirty years.

But I mean, honestly, Ben, it was just the fact that I’ve been here for four years under great pressure. But one of the big things is that if you think about it, when I was first elected, I had two jobs: to run the country and to survive. And it was vicious.

Trump also discussed the billionaires who have been much more welcoming to him in his second term:

BD: A lot of the people who played a significant role in that election, and particularly on the tech side of things, have come around to support you.

DJT: Unbelievable. I had dinner with Jeff Bezos last night.

BD: How much do you trust someone like Jeff Bezos? One of these billionaires to be truly, in that—

DJT: Who do I trust? I mean, who do you trust? Do you trust anybody? These are very smart guys. And I always say to them, we have dinners together, usually started by them. I’m so busy with all of this. Between China, Russia, Ukraine, I’ve got more things happening. But I always love to just sort of look at them and said, “hi, where do you come from?” “I came from Hawaii to have dinner.” That was good. I said, “would you have been here if I lost,” you know? “Would you have been here if I lost it?” They never answer that question. Actually, they just sort of shy away from it… So, um, I like them. I tell you what, I like these guys, but I have to. So when you ask about the difference. So the first time, these guys were bitter enemies. I never even understood it. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know Zuckerberg. I didn’t know Jeff, I didn’t. When you look at the inauguration, it was a who’s who of every single one of them. Every single guy was there.

BD: Their priorities though, and the kind of populist priorities of your voters, don’t necessarily align on everything.

DJT: Probably.

BD: Are you going to have to tell them no on some of the things that they’re going to ask of you?

DJT: Sure. I just do what’s right. You know, I have a lot of money. I don’t need money. I don’t need anything.

The full transcript will be available shortly — and the interview will feature in the April edition of The Spectator.