5 takeaways from Trump’s interview with Sean Hannity

On January 23, 2025By Littum

President Trump sat down Wednesday with Fox News host and ally Sean Hannity for his first one-on-one interview since returning to the White House for his second term.

Trump has taken questions from reporters on each of his first three days in office, including the Hannity interview.

In prime time with Hannity, the president fielded questions in the Oval Office about his 2024 election victory, natural disasters that have ravaged North Carolina and California, and President Biden’s use of preemptive pardons in his final hours in office.

Here are five takeaways from the interview.

Trump: Biden was ‘badly advised’ not to pardon himself

Trump told Hannity that on his way out of the White House in 2021, he was given the opportunity to pardon himself but declined because he believed he had done nothing wrong despite public efforts to overturn his election loss.

Trump then went on to suggest that it was a mistake that former President Biden did not exercise that power himself in his final hours, which culminated at noon on Monday.

“This guy went around absolving everybody,” Trump said. “And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is that he hasn’t given himself a pardon. And if you look at it, it was all about him.”

Trump later said Biden “was given very bad advice.”

“Joe Biden has very bad advisers. Someone advised Joe Biden to pardon everyone but him,” Trump said.

Trump told Hannity he would refer to Congress whether lawmakers should investigate Biden and his decision to preemptively pardon family members and Trump critics such as retired Gen. Mark Milley, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and members of the Representatives’ Representativeness Panel. who investigated the attack on the Capitol on January 6.

When Biden announced these pardons, he said he was concerned that these individuals would become the subject of politically motivated investigations.

Trump also revealed to Hannity that on his way out of the White House in his first term, he was given the opportunity to pardon himself, but declined.

“I was given the opportunity. They said sir, would you like to pardon everyone, including yourself?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to forgive anybody. We didn’t do anything wrong,'” Trump said.

Legal experts suggested at the end of Trump’s first term that it was unproven legal grounds for a president to try to preemptively pardon himself.

Trump slams FEMA, says disaster recovery should be left to states

The president was sharply critical of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), at one point suggesting that states should handle their own response to natural disasters but still have the federal government provide money.

“FEMA hasn’t done their job for the last four years … but unless you have certain types of leadership, it’s really going to get in the way,” Trump said. “And FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very soon because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.”

“I love Oklahoma,” Trump continued. “But you know what, if they get hit by a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it. And then the federal government can help them with the money.”

Trump repeatedly attacked the Biden administration and FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. A FEMA worker was fired last year after they told aid workers not to go to homes with Trump farm signs, further fueling GOP criticism of the response.

Trump previews trips to North Carolina, California

The president will make his first domestic trip away from Washington on Friday, when he travels to North Carolina and California to tour disaster relief efforts.

But it is unclear whether Trump will meet with Democratic state leaders there. The president told Hannity he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to meet with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a fierce political rival, or North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D), who just took office.

The president repeated his claims that he has made for days that California could better fight its fires in Los Angeles if it diverted water from the northern part of the state to the southern part of the state.

Trump signed an executive order Monday directing departments to “route more water” from Northern California to Southern California. But rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), who represents a district in Northern California, said The president’s order was an “obvious political ploy that does nothing to implement science-backed methods that would strengthen water supplies or support firefighting capabilities.”

Trump backtracks on TikTok’s privacy concerns

Trump brushed off national security concerns about the TikTok app, which was at the center of a bipartisan bill to ban the platform if its China-based owner did not divest its stake.

“You can say that about anything made in China,” Trump said as Hannity noted concerns that the app could be used by Beijing to spy on its users.

“We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention it?” Trump said. “The interesting thing about TikTok, though, is that you’re dealing with a lot of young people. Is it so important for China to spy on young people? Young people watch crazy videos and stuff.”

The president signed an executive order on Monday giving TikTok another 75 days before a law banning the popular video-sharing platform goes into effect. The move has been met with skepticism by some Republicans.

Trump signed an executive order in 2020, during his first term, that effectively banned TikTok due to data privacy concerns due to its parent company, ByteDance. Although the order was never passed after legal challenges, Trump has become an outspoken fan of TikTok in the past year, citing his popularity on the app during his campaign.

Trump calls Jan. 6 attacks on police ‘minor incidents’

For the second day in a row, Trump was asked about his decision to pardon defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol who committed violence against police.

On Wednesday, the president dismissed some of those clashes as “minor incidents.”

“They were in there for three and a half years…treated like nobody’s ever been treated. So bad. Treated like the worst criminals in history,” Trump said of his decision to pardon about 1,500 people.

“The other thing is this. Some of the people with the police, true. But they were very small incidents. They’re being built up by a couple of fake guys who are on CNN all the time,” Trump said.

His comments likely referred to people like former Washington, DC, police officer Michael Fanone, who has appeared on CNN to criticize Trump’s rhetoric and actions around Jan. 6, including the mass pardons.

Trump on Monday evening, in one of his first official acts as president, granted about 1,500 “full, complete and unconditional pardons” to rioters charged in connection with the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. There have been a total of 1,583 indicted accused.

About 600 defendants on January 6 were charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police, including those who used flagpoles and pepper spray to assault police officers protecting the capital on January 6. Ten defendants were convicted of sedition, the crown jewel of the Justice Department’s sprawling precinct. prosecution.

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