Trump talks Minneapolis, Joe Rogan, the Fed, AI and 2028 in a wide-ranging interview

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he hopes to push his immigration crackdown into five more cities, previewing an ongoing and growing footprint for federal agents around the country.

“We have five cities that we’re looking at very strongly, but we want to be invited,” Trump told “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas in an exclusive interview, signaling a reluctance to go into places where he would face resistance from local officials, as he has in Minnesota. He declined to name the cities.

At the same time, he said his experience with Minneapolis taught him that he may need “a softer touch” after federal agents shot and killed two American citizens last month.

In a wide-ranging Oval Office interview that lasted nearly an hour, Trump claimed credit for the state of the American economy — including the effects of the artificial intelligence revolution he has embraced — threatened that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should be “very worried” about possible U.S. attacks on his country and, with a knowing nod to the value of suspense, declined to rule out attempting to remain president beyond the end of his current term.

Tune in for even more of Tom Llamas’ interview with President Donald Trump on Super Bowl Sunday on NBC.

The president also questioned the independence of the Federal Reserve, offered assessments of two of his potential Republican successors — Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — and expounded on his plan to build an arch bigger than Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe.

Trump appeared relaxed throughout the sit-down interview, leaning forward in conversation with Llamas and later showing off historical portraits he’s hung in the Oval Office, along with a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Parts of the interview will air on NBC during its broadcast of the Super Bowl on Sunday, as Trump continues a tradition that was interrupted when President Joe Biden declined to participate in the final year of his lone term.

Trump’s timely remarks about the lessons from Minneapolis, where he recently reshuffled his leadership team, were his most expansive and reflective to date about an issue that has dominated headlines, divided Americans and, as voters recoiled from the violence, distracted attention from his success in shutting down illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough,” Trump said. “We’re dealing with really hard criminals.”

His fine-tuning reflects the underlying tension between a MAGA political base committed to the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants — regardless of whether they pose threats to the public — and more moderate Republicans, including some in his own administration, who prioritize apprehending violent criminals.

As the White House pressured the Department of Homeland Security to arrest more people over the first year of his term and DHS officials pushed their subordinates to meet the targets, the share of the total number of detainees with criminal records — those who had been convicted of crimes or faced charges — slumped.Major operations in big cities have led to a series of lawsuits against the Trump administration for violating the rights of citizens and both legal and undocumented immigrants, as well as a spate of federal court rulings restricting federal agents’ actions and reprimanding the administration for its tactics.

Still, Trump insisted Wednesday that his operations are highly targeted at what administration officials routinely call the “worst of the worst.”

“We are totally focused on criminals, really bad criminals. Now you could say that people who came in illegally are criminals, but I’m talking about murderers from different countries,” he said.

Trump said he was “not happy” with “two incidents”: when federal agents shot and killed American citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti on Jan. 7 and Jan. 24.

“He was not an angel and she was not an angel,” he said of the deceased before he noted that the killings were “very sad to me” and asserted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents share those sentiments.

“I think they were both sad,” he said. “And you know who feels worse about it than anybody? The people of ICE.”

Here are some of the top moments from Trump’s interview with NBC News.

The economy

Over the past year, Trump has been beset by the public perception that he has failed to fulfill his campaign promise to end inflation and turbocharge the economy. In November, high-profile Democratic candidates rode a message of “affordability” to victory in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City.

On Wednesday, he said again that he is still fixing what he describes as an economic mess Biden left, pointing to the revenue generated by tariffs and foreign investments that have been made and promised during his second term in office. He said he anticipates a slower rise in prices after costs spiked during the recovery from Covid.“I don’t expect them to be much higher,” he said. “Now there’s a natural inflation. Remember this, Tom — I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. It was through the roof.”

Rebate checks

Llamas asked Trump about relief for the American public in the form of $2,000 tariff rebate checks he has repeatedly floated — a plan that would require legislation from a politically divided Congress in an election year. Trump declined to promise that the checks would be coming.

“I’m looking at it very seriously. I’m the only one can do it,” Trump said. “I haven’t made the commitment yet, but I may make the commitment.”

The Fed

More broadly, he has been deeply frustrated by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s refusal to bend to his demands in lowering interest rates faster, a move Trump sees as a boon for the economy. He said he would not have tapped Kevin Warsh as his nominee to succeed Powell if he did not believe Warsh would take his cue.“If he came in and said, ‘I wanna raise ’em,’” Trump said of Warsh, “he would not have gotten the job.”

Pressed by Llamas about whether the Fed was an “independent body,” Trump replied, “I mean, in theory, it’s an independent body. But I think, you know, I’m a smart guy. I know the economy better than almost everybody.”

Joe Rogan

Trump praised Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for helping him close off the border and gently brushed aside criticism from podcaster Joe Rogan, a Trump supporter who recently compared the tactics of ICE agents to those of the Nazi Gestapo.

Trump called him a “great guy” and said the two had a “great conversation” three days ago. He told Llamas they talked “a little bit” about some of his criticisms.

“I think he’s a great guy, and I think he likes me, too,” Trump said, adding, “And, you know, liking me isn’t important. What happens is that — I think we do a phenomenal job, but I don’t think we’re good at public relations,” Trump said. He also argued that Noem is “not getting credit for the job that she does.”

Netflix

Trump punted to Attorney General Pam Bondi on the proposed sale of Warner Bros. Discovery to Netflix, which would create a behemoth media company and has been the subject of lobbying so fierce by proponents and opponents that it has reached his desk — or at least his phone.

“I’ve been called by both sides,” he said. “It’s the two sides, but I’ve decided I shouldn’t be involved. The Justice Department will handle it.”He simply noted that the two sides are “beating the hell out of each other” and “there’ll be a winner.”

Artificial intelligence

Trump has been bullish about promoting AI, and he predicted its benefits will far outweigh drawbacks, even as many people worry that they will lose jobs and pay higher energy prices because of the proliferation of data centers. He said he takes responsibility for endorsing AI and the effects that will have on the American economy over time.

“Everything’s on me as president,” he said. “It’ll be the greatest jobs producer, it’ll be the greatest military producer, it’ll be the greatest medical producer. There’ll be tremendous good, and there’ll be probably some bad, too.”

While there are no clear partisan divides over feelings about the future of AI, some Americans have started to push back on the development of power-hungry data centers in their backyards, while others fear the technology could soon make their jobs obsolete. In his interview with Trump, Llamas specifically cited job cuts Amazon announced last year. The company cited AI in an announcement explaining the layoffs.

“No, no, it’s not killing,” Trump said. “It’s going to make — it’s going to create a lot.”

“Mr. President, there’s widespread concern that AI is gonna wipe out a lotta jobs, manufacturing jobs,” Llamas said.

“They said the internet’s going to — robots are going to kill jobs, everything is going to kill jobs,” Trump replied. “And you end up, if you’re smart, doing great.”

The president acknowledged he hasn’t used popular AI interfaces such as ChatGPT and Claude.“I haven’t really,” he said, “but I know all about it.”

Iran

Trump, who ordered airstrikes against nuclear sites in Iran in June, left the door open to more U.S. military action against Iran.

Asked whether Iran’s supreme leader should be “worried,” the president said: “I would say he should be very worried. Yeah, he should be. As you know, they’re negotiating with us.”

U.S. and Iranian officials said Wednesday that high-level talks with Iran would be held Friday in Oman, discussions that are expected to include the country’s nuclear program and other issues.

Trump indicated the regime might be seeking to revive its nuclear project in the wake of U.S. and Israeli air raids last year.

When Llamas asked whether Iran was trying to restart the program, Trump said: “Well, I heard that they are,” without elaborating. He added that if Iran tried to renew its nuclear work, he would send U.S. bombers back to Iran to “do their job again.”

Nationalizing elections

Against the backdrop of National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard’s accompanying the FBI on a raid of a Georgia voting center last week, Trump began to walk back his recent call to “nationalize voting” and have Republicans “take over” the elections process. Trump has been trying to prove for five years, against all available evidence, that he won the 2020 election.

But Wednesday, after Republican lawmakers tried to couch his comments as an endorsement of legislation requiring voter ID nationally, Trump disavowed his own remarks.

“I didn’t say ‘national,’” he said. “I said there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt.”

He pointed specifically to Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit, the biggest cities in the three states that were pivotal in his 2020 defeat.

He then accused Democratic officials of trying to cheat because they oppose the federal voter ID bill, known as the SAVE Act.“If they don’t want voter ID, that means they want to cheat,” he said.

Before the next presidential election, voters will head to the polls in November for midterms, which will determine whether Republicans keep control of the House, the Senate or both for the final two years of Trump’s term. He said Democrats should not impeach him if they gain control of the House and expressed his sympathy for former President Bill Clinton, who was impeached and who has been subpoenaed to testify before Congress in its investigation into the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

Llamas also asked Trump about election conspiracy theories he has promoted on social media, including a baseless claim about Italian military satellites hacking into voting machines to help Biden.

“Do you believe that stuff?” Llamas asked.

“No, no. No. No. … I sometimes will… retruth” those claims, Trump replied.

Trump’s successor

Trump lit up when Llamas asked him to pick a favorite on the Republican side.

Trump, who has often promoted Vance and Rubio as a potential 2028 ticket, said he would “be inclined” to endorse a successor in the Republican presidential primaries. Llamas pressed Trump to clarify whom he would prefer at the top of the ticket.

“Well, I don’t want to get into this. We have three years to go. I don’t want to, you know, I have two people that are doing a great job. I don’t want to have an argument with, or I don’t want to use the word ‘fight’ — it wouldn’t be a fight. But look, JD is fantastic, and Marco is fantastic.”

Vance has said this year’s midterm elections will help clarify his political future, while Rubio has said he hopes Vance runs and believes he would be a great nominee.

Asked Wednesday to identify how Vance and Rubio differ, Trump wrestled with what he called Llamas’ “most interesting question.” He observed that both would be game to “do shows” like those hosted by Rogan, with whom Trump sat in the weeks before the 2024 election.

“I would say one is slightly more diplomatic than the other,” Trump said, without specifying which one, though diplomacy is Rubio’s job description. “I think they’re both of very high intelligence.”

“I think there’s a difference in style,” he added. “You know, you can see the style yourself. But they’re both very capable. I do think this: The combination of JD and Marco would be very hard to be beaten, I think. But you never know in politics, right?”

Third term?

Llamas also pressed Trump — who has occasionally suggested an interest in serving an unconstitutional third term — about whether he sees “any scenario” in which he’s still president on Jan. 21, 2029 — the day after a successor would be sworn into office. Trump’s response indicated that he enjoys stirring drama around the subject.

“I don’t know. It would be interesting,” he said. “But wouldn’t it be terrible if I agreed with you, if I gave you the answer that you’re looking for? It would make life so much less exciting. It would be so much less exciting. But I only do this for one reason: Make America great again, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Suing the IRS

In the interview, Trump said he would give any proceeds he receives from civil actions he has filed against the federal government to charity. Last month, in his capacity as a private citizen, Trump filed a $10 billion suit against the IRS and the Treasury Department over a former IRS employee who leaked his tax returns to news outlets.

Separately, in 2024, when he was out of office, he sought damages from the government over an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida for classified documents that he kept after his first term, among other issues.

“You can’t leak documents,” Trump said, referring to the IRS-Treasury suit. “Any money that I win I’ll give it to charity — 100% to charity. Charities that will be approved by government, or whatever.”

As president, Trump oversees the agencies from which he is seeking a payout.

Would Trump, as the boss, direct his administration officials to approve the payout? Llamas asked.

“What I would do, tell ‘em to pay me, but I’ll give 100% of the money to charity. I don’t want any of that money,” he replied.

Asked about taking as much as $10 billion in taxpayer money out of the system, Trump said: “No, no. I’m putting it back into the system. If I give money to American Cancer Society — I will give 100% of the money to charity. I don’t want any of it.”

The legacy arch

Trump offered fresh insights into his thinking behind some of the construction projects he has launched since he returned to office.

Apart from building a new ballroom for the White House, Trump plans to erect an arch that would stand at the entryway to Washington, D.C., from the Virginia suburbs.

Asked whether such monuments are meant to ensure he’s not forgotten, Trump said: “No, I think we need glamour brought back to our country. We need prestige. We need beauty.”

The new arch, he said, would outshine France’s famous Arc de Triomphe, which stands 164 feet tall.

“We’re doing one that will be more magnificent and larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris,” Trump said.