Snippets from Trump interview with David Muir  on ABC News, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 … as always, my snarky comments are in blue italics:

DAVID MUIR: Let me ask you, has the magnitude of this job hit you yet?

TRUMP: It has periodically hit me. And it is a tremendous magnitude. And where you really see it is when you’re talking to the generals about problems in the world. And we do have problems in the world. Big problems. The bigness also hits because the — the size of it. The size. (Is ‘bigness’ another form of ‘bigly’? And note, not a mention of the word ‘responsibility’.  But then, that has 6 syllables.)

TRUMP: I wanna build the wall. We have to build the wall. We have to stop drugs from pouring in. We have to stop people from just pouring into our country. We have no idea where they’re from. And I campaigned on the wall. And it’s very important. But that wall will cost us nothing. (I thought he said they were coming from Mexico … and now he has no idea where they’re from?)  I’m just telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form. (Complicated form?)

DAVID MUIR: I wanna ask about undocumented immigrants who are here — in this country. Right now they’re protected as so-called dreamers — the children who were brought here, as you know, by their parents. Should they be worried — that they could be deported? And is there anything you can say to assure them right now that they’ll be allowed to stay?

TRUMP: They shouldn’t be very worried. They are here illegally. They shouldn’t be very worried. I do have a big heart. (COUGH, CHOKE, COUGH, GASP …)  We’re going to take care of everybody. We’re going to have a very strong border. We’re gonna have a very solid border.

DAVID MUIR: But Mr. President, will they be allowed to stay?

TRUMP: I’m gonna tell you over the next four weeks. But I will tell you, we’re looking at this, the whole immigration situation, we’re looking at it with great heart. Now we have criminals that are here. We have really bad people that are here. Those people have to be worried ’cause they’re getting out. We’re gonna get them out. We’re gonna get ’em out fast. (And what about the majority of criminals who are citizens, WASPs????  Where will you send them?)

DAVID MUIR: Senator Jeff Sessions, your pick for attorney general, as you know during his confirmation hearing said that ending DACA, this is President Obama’s policy protecting the dreamers (note that Muir feels the need to explain what DACA is to Trump) — that, “Ending it certainly would be constitutional.” That you could end the protection of these dreamers. Is that a possibility?

TRUMP: We’re gonna be talking with —[Jeff Sessions] attorney general. He will soon be the attorney general. He’s done fantastically well. We’re all very proud of him. I thought he was treated very, very unfairly. He’s a brilliant man and he’s a very good man. He’ll do a fantastic job. I’ll be speaking to him as soon as he’s affirmed. (Let’s call a spade a spade … he is a racist, plain and simple.  He is NOT wonderful. He will do a fantastic job in taking the country back 50 years or more.)

DAVID MUIR: I wanna ask you about something you said this week right here at the White House. You brought in congressional leaders to the White House. You spoke at length about the presidential election with them — telling them that you lost the popular vote because of millions of illegal votes, 3 to 5 million illegal votes. That would be the biggest electoral fraud in American history. Where is the evidence of that?

TRUMP: So, let me tell you first of all, it was so misrepresented. That was supposed to be a confidential meeting. And you weren’t supposed to go out and talk to the press as soon as you — but the Democrats viewed it not as a confidential meeting. But just so you — it was supposed to be a confidential meeting. They turned it into not a con …. And I said it strongly because what’s going on with voter fraud is horrible. That’s number one. Number two, I would’ve won the popular vote if I was campaigning for the popular vote. I would’ve gone to California where I didn’t go at all. I would’ve gone to New York where I didn’t campaign at all. And I would’ve won that much easier than winning the electoral college. But as you know, the electoral college is all that matters. It doesn’t make any difference. So, I would’ve won very, very easily. (That was 157 words to tell us how popular he is and how everybody loves him.  DUCT TAPE … we need duct tape for this “man’s” mouth! He actually went on for quite a bit longer on this topic, but I cut it short here in the interest of nausea.)

DAVID MUIR: You say you’re gonna launch an investigation.

TRUMP: Sure, done.

DAVID MUIR: What you have presented so far has been debunked. It’s been called …

(OVERTALK)

DAVID MUIR: … false.

TRUMP: No, it hasn’t. Take a look at the Pew reports.

DAVID MUIR: I called the author of the Pew report last night. And he told me that they found no evidence of voter …

(OVERTALK)

DAVID MUIR: … fraud.

TRUMP: Really? Then why did he write the report?

DAVID MUIR: He said no evidence of voter fraud.

TRUMP: Excuse me, then why did he write the report?

(OVERTALK)

TRUMP: According to Pew report, then he’s — then he’s groveling again. You know, I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they wanna write something that you wanna hear but not necessarily millions of people wanna hear or have to hear.

DAVID MUIR: So, you’ve launched an investigation?

TRUMP: We’re gonna launch an investigation to find out. And then the next time — and I will say this, of those votes cast, none of ’em come to me. None of ’em come to me. They would all be for the other side. None of ’em come to me. But when you look at the people that are registered: dead, illegal and two states and some cases maybe three states — we have a lot to look into.

(And now I would borrow an expression from some of my Brit friends “Oh Bloody Hell!”)

DAVID MUIR: House Speaker Paul Ryan has said, “I have seen no evidence. I have made this very, very clear.” Senator Lindsey Graham saying, “It’s the most inappropriate thing for a president to say without proof. He seems obsessed with the idea that he could not have possibly lost the popular vote without cheating and fraud.” I wanna ask you about something bigger here. Does it matter more now …

TRUMP: There’s nothing bigger. There’s nothing bigger.

DAVID MUIR: But it is important because …

TRUMP: Let me just tell you, you know what’s important, millions of people agree with me when I say that if you would’ve looked on one of the other networks and all of the people that were calling in they’re saying, “We agree with Mr. Trump. We agree.” They’re very smart people. The people that voted for me — lots of people are saying they saw things happen. I heard stories also. (Note that today the news is both Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, and son-in-law Jared, as well as Press Secretary Sean Spicer are all registered to vote in two states.  Oh, the irony!)

It goes on and on and on, ad nauseam in this vein, but let us move on from the red herring …

DAVID MUIR: Mr. President, I just have one more question on this. And it’s — it’s bigger picture. You took some heat after your visit to the CIA in front of that hallowed wall, 117 stars — of those lost at the CIA. You talked about other things. But you also talked about crowd size at the inauguration, about the size of your rallies, about covers on Time magazine. And I just wanna ask you when does all of that matter just a little less? When do you let it roll off your back now that you’re the president?

(Spot on, Mr. Muir!)

TRUMP: Okay, so I’m glad you asked. So, I went to the CIA, my first step. I have great respect for the people in intelligence and CIA. I’m — I don’t have a lot of respect for, in particular one of the leaders. But that’s okay. But I have a lot of respect for the people in the CIA. That speech was a home run. That speech, if you look at Fox, okay, I’ll mention you — we see what Fox said. They said it was one of the great speeches. They showed the people applauding and screaming and — and they were all CIA.

I got a standing ovation. In fact, they said it was the biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning had won the Super Bowl and they said it was equal. I got a standing ovation. It lasted for a long period of time. What you do is take — take out your tape — you probably ran it live. I know when I do good speeches. I know when I do bad speeches. That speech was a total home run. They loved it. I could’ve …

DAVID MUIR: You would give the same speech if you went back …

TRUMP: Absolutely.

DAVID MUIR: … in front of that wall?

TRUMP: People loved it. They loved it. They gave me a standing ovation for a long period of time. They never even sat down, most of them, during the speech. There was love in the room. You and other networks covered it very inaccurately. I hate to say this to you and you probably won’t put it on but turn on Fox and see how it was covered. And see how people respond to that speech.

That speech was a good speech. And you and a couple of other networks tried to downplay that speech. And it was very, very unfortunate that you did. The people of the CIA loved the speech. If I was going to take a vote in that room, there were, like, 300, 350 people, over 1,000 wanted to be there but they couldn’t.

The interview goes on, in much the same vein, but I shall leave you to read or watch it yourself, as I am out of both time and patience.  The gist of every topic was that Trump thinks he is great, wonderful, and people adore him.  Never mind that the people who applaud and cheer are, more often than not, paid to do so.  Never mind that more than half the nation see him as a narcissistic jerk and see him and his chosen advisors as the very antithesis to statesmen.  I yelled it from the rooftops that he was not fit, had not the temperament nor the intelligence, education nor experience to be president.  But now here we are, trying to figure out how this happened and how to fix it.