President-elect Donald Trump held a wide-ranging press conference on Monday. The main points are:
MICHELLE MARTIN, HOST:
President-elect Donald Trump is holding court from his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Steve Inkeep, host:
Business leaders are coming to the US, including technology company CEOs, pharmaceutical company CEOs and, yesterday, the CEO of a Japanese investment bank who pledged to spend $100 billion in the US. The president-elect spoke about this in his first press conference since the election.
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DONALD TRUMP: I think this is one of the big differences between the two that we talked about earlier. One of the major differences from the first season. In the first semester, everyone was fighting against me. This season, everyone wants to be my friend.
INSKEEP: Actually, last time there were people who wanted to be his friend, but there’s a difference. People who don’t like this say that the wealthy are bending their knees, but what do business owners think?
MARTIN: NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson was paying attention, and she’s with us now. Good morning, Mara.
Mara Liesson, Signed: Good morning.
MARTIN: So the president-elect says he’s trying to make everyone his friend. Isn’t that so?
Liasson: Yes, that’s right. Part of that is the usual expectations and enthusiasm that the business community (billionaires and Wall Street) would have for a new Republican president who cuts taxes and limits regulation. Part of the reason is that Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party is complete. Romney, Flake, and Cheney are no longer around. And part of the reason is that he is seen as a more legitimate president this time around because he won the popular vote.
But much of it is just a change in the approach of foreign leaders, business leaders, and the Democratic Party. They are resisting Trump in a different way than they did during his first term. They are choosing their own battles rather than all-out resistance. They believe things like TikTok, which he now thinks will help him, and cryptocurrencies can change his mind since his family is in the crypto business. So I think it’s a different kind of resistance.
MARTIN: He talked about various dinners he had with CEOs. What impressed you there?
LIASSON: Well, he described a dinner with two CEOs of pharmaceutical companies and their industry lobbying groups. They are concerned about the selection of anti-vaccination activist Robert F. Kennedy to the Department of Health and Human Services. President Trump praised RFK Jr.
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TRUMP: No, I don’t think he’s as radical as you think. I think he has a very open mind, otherwise I wouldn’t have put him there. He won’t be so radical.
LIASSON: So he was asked his opinion on vaccines, and he said he fully supported the polio vaccine. He said it’s not going anywhere. However, President Trump has left the door open to those who believe vaccines are linked to autism, something that has been widely denied. He said, “We’re going to figure it out.” He was also unclear about his position on vaccine mandates. When asked if vaccinations should be made compulsory in schools, I said I’m not the kind of person who would make vaccinations compulsory. But he also gave pharmaceutical executives what they wanted. He took a very hard line against pharmacy benefits managers, who hold drug companies responsible for price gouging. He despised them and called them intermediaries.
MARTIN: And he invited reporters to his house for a press conference. I think this is the first time since the election. Please tell me more about it. How was it?
LIASSON: Well, it was like all of his rallies during the campaign condensed into an hour and 10 minutes. He covered much of the same ground. He said that when he was president, everything was almost perfect. There was no war, no inflation. Now that he is president again, he said things will be great again. There’s a lot of hyperbole, like he won the youth vote by 34% or he lowered the price of insulin to $35 or whatever he did about it, but it was Biden who lowered it to $35. And there were still many complaints. He talked about how he plans to sue the Pulitzer Prize Board and the Des Moines Register for publishing polls showing him losing. It looks a lot like old playing cards.
MARTIN: NPR’s Mara Liasson. Thank you, Mara.
Liesson: You’re welcome.
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