ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Donald Trump hasn’t been shy about sharing his thoughts since taking office, and he added a 20-minute Q&A with reporters aboard Air Force One to the mix Saturday night. He held forth on everything from the color of the presidential plane to the fate of TikTok, Greenland and Canada.
Trump popped in to the plane’s press cabin while flying from Las Vegas to Florida, where he was staying at his Doral golf club through Monday evening, though he insisted he’d be too busy to hit the links.
The new president scoffed at reporters getting “a bit more access” than under his predecessor, Joe Biden, and joked it was “like 5,000%” different — meaning he was willing to answer a lot more questions. Trump called Air Force One a “special plane” but observed that it hasn’t changed much from his last term. And, yes, he still wants to change the plane’s exterior colors.
“We want power blue, not baby blue,” Trump said. “Everything has its time and place. We’ll be changing the colors.”
Here are some highlights from the conversation:
Trump said he’s considering several possible investors who are looking to purchase TikTok, which faces the prospect of a U.S. ban if it isn’t sold by its Chinese parent company.
“Numerous people are talking to me,” he said. “Very substantial people.” He said he expects to decide what happens next “probably over the next 30 days.”
The president said he’d not been in contact with Oracle about buying TikTok, despite reports that he had, and that he’d not spoken to Oracle’s billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison, whom he called a friend. He noted Ellison lives “right down the road” from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
But he said there are many other potential buyers.
“We have a lot of interest in it, and the United States will be a big beneficiary,” Trump said of a potential sale. “I’d only do it if the United States benefits.”
He added that, “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok” because he felt like it improved his standing with young voters in November’s presidential election.
Asked about the series of executive orders he’s signed since taking office that have placed new rules on the federal workforce, Trump said he was opposed to work-from-home concessions that became more common during the coronavirus pandemic.
“You have to go to your office and you have to work,” he said. “Otherwise, you’re not going to have a job.”
Trump also said he’s not worried about existing federal employees leaving and the talent pool to find replacements being diminished: “We have very deep talent. We also have a lot of excess people.”
“This was a gimmick for Democrats, to a certain extent,” he said of existing federal worker rolls, which he suggested were too large.
Trump reiterated his desire to somehow purchase Greenland from Denmark, despite that country insisting it’s not for sale.
“I do believe Greenland, we’ll get because it really has to do with freedom of the world,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom.”
The president also made some of his most extensive comments about his recent suggestions that Canada could become part of the U.S.
“I love Canada,” he said. “I have so many friends up in Canada. And they like us, and they like me. But Canada’s been taking advantage of the United States for years, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
He suggested that the U.S. is losing hundreds of millions annually to Canada in trade deficits while Canada does “almost 90% of their business with the United States.”
“I don’t want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on supporting the country unless that country is a state. And, if it’s a state, the people of Canada will pay a much lower tax.”
He said Canadians would also “have no military problems, they’d be much more secure in every way, and I think it’s a great thing for Canada.”
“I view it as, honestly, a country that should be a state,” he said. “Then, they’ll get much better treatment, much better care and much lower taxes and they’ll be much more secure.”