Donald Trump made wild statements and false claims in his first interview since returning to the White House as US President.
In a wide-ranging and rambling sit down in the White House’s Oval Office, Mr Trump spoke about TikTok, immigration, prisons, and disaster funds. He attacked his predecessor Joe Biden, defended pardoning criminals involved in the January 6 Capitol riots and raised fears about withdrawing support from California as it struggles to battle ongoing wildfires.
The interview with controversial Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has long been embroiled in conspiracy theory rows, marks a new chapter for the US as Mr Trump returned to office after Monday’s inauguration. On his first day he signed around 200 executive orders including action to honour his campaign promises on mass deportations, altering landmark geography names, and dismantling birthright citizenship.
His first days in office saw him pardon 1,500 of his supporters who took part in the attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021. They include thugs who assaulted police officers and leaders of far-right groups – with as many as 418 people were convicted of violent offences. He also pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Treaty and the World Health Organisation.
Here’s a quick look at some of the wild statements and false claims Mr Trump made in his first interview since returning to office.
1. TikTok going to ‘stay around’
In a free-flowing interview, Mr Trump addressed the issue of TikTok. The social media app was blocked in the US over the weekend after the Supreme Court upheld a decision that it should be banned. But after returning to the White House, Mr Trump signed an executive order giving TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law banning the app if it is not sold.
When the subject came up, Mr Trump suggested concerns about TikTok didn’t matter because the app is used by young kids watching “crazy videos”, saying simply: “I think TikTok’s going to stay around.” Pressed about concerns that the app is being used by the Chinese government to spy on US citizens, the US President replied: “You can say that about everything made in China… but they make your telephones, they make your computers… isn’t that a bigger threat?”
The Republican politician suggested the concerns were less important because TikTok is predominantly used by youngsters. He asked: “Is it that important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids, watching crazy videos?” It comes after Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, was seated next to incoming Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at Mr Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
2. Youth vote claim debunked
When he was talking about TikTok, Mr Trump suggested the app helped him “win” the youth vote. “I won youth by 36 points,” he said. “Now maybe that’s because I went on TikTok. I don’t know.” But this claim, which he has repeatedly made, has been widely questioned by journalists and experts. The US President has not explained how he is defining youth vote, but current categories and measurements show that this claim is false.
Polling shows Mr Trump did not win the youth vote by 36 points in 2024 – in fact it shows he did not win it at all. According to CNN exit poll data, Vice President Kamala Harris beat Trump 54% to 43% among voters ages 18-24, 53% to 45% among voters ages 25-29, and 51% to 45% among voters ages 30-39. Mr Trump did better among young people in 2024 than in 2020 but by no means did he “win the youth vote”. Votes in US elections are cast by private ballot so there is no official source of information on who different groups back in an election. But polling is considered a well-respected means of looking at voting trends across the world.
3. False claim about Capitol riot ‘destroyed’ info
According to CNN’s Fact Check of the interview, Mr Trump repeated his false claim that the House select committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol “deleted and destroyed all of the information that they collected.” He made the claim again later in the interview, saying the committee “destroyed all of the work that took place over two years”.
The US news website says the claim that “all” information collected by the committee was deleted “is not even close to true”. While there has been a long-running dispute about archiving certain pieces of information, the committee preserved a large volume of evidence.
As FactCheck.org reported, the committee released not only a final report that was more than 800 pages long, but also transcripts of interviews with more than 140 witnesses. The committee’s staff are also said to have worked with the National Archives and Records Administration and other government bodies “in preparing the Select Committee’s more than 1 million records for publication and archiving.”
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4. Biden could face ‘four years of hell’
Mr Trump suggested Mr Biden should have pardoned himself – in a rambling attack on the former US President. The Republican politician targeted Mr Biden over last-minute pardons for his family and members of the House committee investigating the January 6 riot. Mr Trump said Mr Biden took “bad advice” by not pardoning himself and hinted that he could be investigated himself.
The US President suggested Mr Biden should have to undergo the same legal battles he has faced since leaving the White House. Mr Trump said: “I went through four years of hell by this scum that we had to deal with. I went through four years of hell. I spent millions of dollars in legal fees, and I won. But I did it the hard way. It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it also. It is very hard to say it.” He added that he would leave it up to Congress to decide whether to investigate Mr Trump.
Elsewhere in the interview Mr Trump defended pardoning 1,500 Capitol Hill rioters as he said they were “treated like the worst criminals in history.” He told Mr Hannity: “I said I was gonna release them, and probably very quickly. And they voted for me. And I won in a landslide.”
5. Fears over California wildfire response
Mr Trump attacked Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, over his handling of the ongoing wildfires in the US. He called him “Gavin Newscum” and ordered him to “release the water that comes from the north.” He appeared to threaten abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency as he said he thinks state governments should be in charge of responding to “their own problems”. The agency was set up in 1979 to coordinate disaster responses across the country to help overwhelmed local and state authorities.
“I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” Mr Trump said. “I love Oklahoma. But you know what, if they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it. And then the federal government can help them out with the money. FEMA is getting in the way of everything, and the Democrats actually used FEMA not to help North Carolina.” He added that the agency should “be a whole big discussion very shortly”.
During his first term as President, Mr Trump proposed that water be redirected from the north of California down to the central and southern parts of the state. But he and Mr Newsom clashed over the idea with the governor arguing that it wouldn’t help wildfires. Officials and environmentalists challenged the plan, saying it would endanger wildlife in the area.
6. Unevidenced prisons claim repeated
CNN’s Fact Checker also flagged Mr Trump’s unevidenced claim that foreign countries have “emptied their jails” to bring prisoners into the United States. He said: “Why would somebody say that open borders are good, when jails and mental institutions from other countries and gang members right off the streets of the toughest cities in the world are being brought to the United States of America and emptied out into our country?”
Mr Trump offered no further evidence for his claim – and none has been found to back it up. US news websites report that Mr Trump’s own presidential campaign was unable to provide evidence that it was true. Meanwhile, experts in Venezuela – one of the countries the US President has singled out – have also they have seen no such evidence. Roberto Briceño-León, founder and director of the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, told CNN in June: “We have no evidence that the Venezuelan government is emptying its prisons or mental health institutions to send them outside the country, in other words, to the U.S. or any other country.”
