Interview and Analysis

WASHINGTON — Presidents usually choose their words carefully, the result of personal discipline and careful vetting by White House staff.

President Trump is an exception. In an interview with Time magazine, published on Thursday, Mr. Trump veers from topic to topic, praising himself and dismissing his critics in language that sometimes is hard to follow.

For a detailed fact-check into Mr. Trump’s assertions in this interview, see this New York Times article by Linda Qiu.

Here are several passages from the interview, and analysis on what they show about how Mr. Trump thinks.

An ‘Instinctual Person’

I’m a very instinctual person, but my instinct turns out to be right. When everyone said I wasn’t going to win the election, I said well I think I would. You know it is interesting, somebody came up to me and said the other day, gee whiz, The New York Times and other people, you know other groups, had you down at 1 percent. Well, I said, “No, I think I am going to win,” and people smiled, George Stephanopoulos laughed, you remember. He thought it was very cute, and very funny. Other people smiled. And some people, the smart people or the people that know me, didn’t laugh at all. There are people that know me, like Carl Icahn and many others, that didn’t laugh at all. They thought I was going to win, because they understand how I, they understand me. They get it. — President Trump

If there’s one thing that Mr. Trump hates, it is being laughed at. That is clear from this response in the Time magazine interview, when the president dismissed the critics who found humor in his pursuit of the White House.

It is also worth remembering how flustered and angry Mr. Trump appeared to be when President Barack Obama made fun of him — and made a roomful of people laugh — during the 2011 White House correspondent’s dinner. Mr. Trump has said he will not attend this year’s dinner.

No matter if the facts currently contradict him, Mr. Trump appears to have convinced himself that he will be proved correct — always — in the future.

Just Quoting

Why do you say that I have to apologize? I’m just quoting the newspaper, just like I quoted the judge the other day, Judge Napolitano. I quoted Judge Napolitano, just like I quoted Bret Baier. I mean Bret Baier mentioned the word wiretap. Now he can now deny it, or whatever he is doing, you know. But I watched Bret Baier, and he used that term. I have a lot of respect for Judge Napolitano, and he said that three sources have told him things that would make me right. I don’t know where he has gone with it since then. But I’m quoting highly respected people from highly respected television networks. — President Trump

Among Mr. Trump’s more bizarre assertions in recent days — and repeated in the Time interview — is the idea that he should not be held accountable for merely quoting someone who makes a controversial, even unproven, claim or allegation.

That idea flies in the face of the longstanding expectation that everything a president says matters. Previous presidents have been careful, for example, not to say anything that could move financial markets. Mr. Trump (along with Sean Spicer, his spokesman, who similarly quoted Andrew Napolitano during a briefing) appears to believe that quoting someone else shields him from that expectation.

* BONUS: Mr. Trump asserts in this passage that Mr. Napolitano had “three sources” for a claim about British intelligence conducting surveillance on Trump Tower. That is particularly ironic, given Mr. Trump’s attacks on the news media for using anonymous sources.

‘Very Sad’ About Sweden

I am talking about Sweden. I’m talking about what Sweden has done to themselves is very sad, that is what I am talking about. That is what I am talking about. You can phrase it any way you want. A day later they had a horrible, horrible riot in Sweden and you saw what happened. I talked about Brussels. I was on the front page of The New York Times for my quote. I said Brussels is not what it used to be, very sad what has happened to Brussels. I was absolutely lambasted. A short time later they had the major attack in Brussels. One year ago today. Exactly one year ago today. And then people said, “You know, Trump was right.” — President Trump

One of the staples of Mr. Trump’s rhetorical repertoire is trying to rewrite what he said in the past to fit a new set of facts that has since been revealed. This passage in the Time interview is a classic example: His comments about Sweden during a rally referred to some alleged situation the previous night. Now, in the interview, he makes it seem as though he had been prescient, anticipating a riot that happened several days later.

Mr. Trump uses this tactic a lot. But he may find it more difficult now that he is in the White House, since by tradition just about every word a president utters is transcribed.

How Life Works

I happen to be a person that knows how life works. I said I was going to win the election, I won the election. In fact, I was number one the entire route, in the primaries. From the day I announced, I was number one. And The New York Times and CNN and all of them, they did these polls, which were extremely bad and they turned out to be totally wrong, and my polls showed I was going to win. We thought we were going to win the night of the election. — President Trump

Central to Mr. Trump’s self-image is his belief that he is smarter than the people around him. Throughout his campaign, he often bragged that he knew better than the doubters, who he predicted eventually would be proven wrong.

In addition to contradicting some of his previous assertions (in which he acknowledged that he had not known whether he would win), this passage in the interview underscores the extent to which Mr. Trump rarely allows any self-doubt to creep into his thinking.

‘I’m President, and You’re Not’

I inherited a mess with jobs. Despite the statistics, you know, my statistics are even better, but they are not the real statistics because you have millions of people that can’t get a job, O.K. And I inherited a mess on trade. I mean we have many, you can go up and down the ladder. But that’s the story. Hey look, in the meantime, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not. You know. Say hello to everybody, O.K.? — President Trump

All presidents want to know how they are doing after moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And many denigrate the job of their predecessor; Mr. Obama often criticized the economy and the foreign policy he inherited from President George W. Bush.

Mr. Trump is no exception, and this passage shows his willingness to rely on the same positive jobs numbers that he frequently dismissed as a candidate.

But his response at the end of this interview also shows how Mr. Trump’s mind works: His victory in November is the last word in the success of his administration.

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