During a wide-ranging interview at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday, Donald Trump suggested he had, in fact, talked to Vladimir Putin since leaving office, made false claims about Jan. 6 and called tariffs “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.”
“Can you say, yes or no, whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president?” asked Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait during his live sit-down with the former president.
“Well, I don’t comment on that,” Trump said. “But I will tell you that, if I did, it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
That’s a stark departure from the Trump campaign’s response to the original report that Trump had secret phone calls with Putin, which legendary reporter Bob Woodward reported in his new book, “War.” Steven Cheung, the communications director for the Trump campaign, said, “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true.”
Trump’s interview with Micklethwait also featured some testy exchanges. At one point, Micklethwait asked Trump about a peaceful transfer of power, which prompted Trump to make a number of false claims about Jan. 6, including an assertion that only “500 to 700” people went to the Capitol that day — the FBI estimates that between 2,000 and 2,500 people illegally entered the Capitol — a lie that “nobody had a gun” in the crowd (multiple people have been convicted of carrying guns that day, and one even shot his gun into the air on Capitol grounds) and a declaration that there was a peaceful transfer of power the last time he left office.
“You had a peaceful transfer of power compared with Venezuela,” Micklethwait said, prompting Trump to deflect, attack the media and ignore questions about whether he would accept the results of the upcoming election.
“Some people went to the Capitol, and a lot of strange things happened there,” he said. “People being waved into the Capitol by police.”
At another point, Micklethwait asked Trump if he would appoint a 78-year-old CEO to lead one of his businesses.
“It depends,” said Trump, who turned 78 in June. “People like Biden, who is in bad shape, I wouldn’t appoint him.”
When Micklethwait pointed out that Trump has seemed to pivot on the issue of age now that his opponent is nearly 20 years his junior, Trump falsely claimed that he “never attacked” Biden for his age. “I attacked him for his lack of competence,” Trump said.
Trump and Micklethwait also went back and forth over tariffs.
“It must be hard for you to, you know, spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong,” Trump said to Micklethwait.
When Micklethwait mentioned that some allies could give up on the dollar as a reserve currency if tariffs increased dramatically, Trump promised to raise tariffs on countries that did that. “I’ll say that’s OK, and you’re going to pay a 100% tariff on everything you sell into the United States,” he said.
Trump suggested that tariffs, like those he imposed on China and South Korea during his previous administration, should be expanded to other countries. He said such policies would prompt manufacturers to produce their products domestically. “Companies are going to make their product in the USA. We’re going to protect those companies with strong tariffs,” Trump said.
“I’m a believer in tariffs,” Trump continued. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,’ and it’s my favorite word — it needs a public relations firm.”
Micklethwait also asked Trump if he would remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the end of his term in 2026. In a classic Trumpian riff, the former president said being chair of the Federal Reserve was “the greatest job in government.”
“You show up to the office once a month, and you say, ‘Let’s see’ — flip a coin. And everybody talks about you like you’re a God,” Trump said.
While Trump didn’t clarify whether he would actually try to remove Powell, he mentioned that the president should “have the right to put in comments as to whether or not interest rates should go up or down.”
During the conversation, Micklethwait also asked the former president if he would carry out the recent Department of Justice decision to break up Alphabet — Google’s parent company — which was found to have a monopoly on search earlier this year.
“Google’s got a lot of power. They’re very bad to me. Very, very bad to me. I mean, I can speak from that standpoint,” Trump said. “Google’s rigged, just like our government is rigged.”
He continued that, while he would try to prevent technology companies from relocating to China, he would look to regulate tech companies and make them “more fair” toward him.
But if Trump is focused on people being nicer to him, Micklethwait’s line of questioning about the effects of Trump’s economic policies probably won’t win him any points with the former president.
The Bloomberg News editor-in-chief pointed out that Trump’s proposals — raise tariffs, cut taxes and deport millions of immigrants — are projected to add $7.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Micklethwait also pointed out the recent Wall Street Journal poll where 68% of experts surveyed said Trump’s policies would be more inflationary than Kamala Harris’ proposals.
“What does The Wall Street Journal know?” Trump said. “They’ve been wrong about everything.”
“So have you by the way,” Trump said to Micklethwait. “You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff.”
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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.