President Donald Trump says he plans to spend his next two years in office "vetoing a lot of things" after Democrats flipped control of both chambers of Congress in the midterms earlier this month.
"I'm going to be vetoing a lot of things that they're going to send me initially that are bad for the country," Trump told sports journalist and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith in a sit-down interview published Nov. 12. "And I think eventually they're going to call in. They're going to say, 'Let's make a deal,' and we'll be able to make deals on health care, on drug prices."
The interview comes less than a month after the president enjoyed a "great" dinner with Smith, comedian Bill Maher and Kid Rock, on Oct. 15.
Trump then said he brought down drug
prices in the United States from the highest in the world to the lowest by negotiating with companies and countries such as France and Germany.
"That is going to have a huge impact on healthcare and other things," Trump said during the interview with Smith. "And I'll work with the Democrats on that."
When Smith said Trump does not appear to be "budging one bit" and "it's going to be more chaos over the next two years," the president responded, "Or they may work with me because I think they want to see good healthcare."
On immigration reform, Trump said, "It's possible."
"There are things I'm not going to negotiate on now, but there are things that could be done with immigration that would be very positive," he said.
Trump blames GOP midterm losses on him not being on the ballot
Trump also discussed the historic blue wave that derailed Republicans during the midterms, which he blamed on him not being on the ballot.
"If you look at the numbers that I had just a short time before, they were a record," Trump told Smith. "Every one of them was a record number. I won Texas in a record. I won Florida. I won Alabama. I won virtually every state of the states we talk about by a record number."
Trump added that he still has the same pull he had during the 2024 presidential election, pointing to his packed rallies, but lamented that maybe voters "didn't believe in the candidates" on the ballot.
"I think my approval rating is good, but I wasn't on the ballot," Trump said. "When you're not on the ballot, you don't pull them in. Don't forget I was on the ballot three times and every time I was on the ballot we won."
Trump’s approval rating fell to a new low in recent Economist/YouGov polling, with fewer than one-third of Americans approving of his job performance. The poll, released Thursday, Nov. 12, found 32% approve of Trump's performance as president, down four percentage points from the previous week and below his previous second-term low of 33%, recorded in August.
Trump says high gas prices led to unpopularity of Iran war
Beyond that, Trump said, the ongoing war in Iran could also be a reason.
"The war was not unpopular as a war, but unpopular because of the fact that the gasoline prices were higher," Trump said. "I actually thought that that was something that people would be able to handle pretty well. Well, it's not a big price to pay for stopping the number one state sponsor of terror, which is the Islamic Republic of Iran, stopping them from having a nuclear weapon."
Claiming victory in disarming Iran, Trump said the war will "end soon." He added he could end the war immediately but "at the request of the nations that I'm looking to protect, we are doing it a little bit longer way, a little bit more civilly."
"I'm not sure I agree with it, but we've taken them (Iran) largely out," Trump said. "As you know, their Navy's gone. Their Air Force is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Everything is gone. Frankly, their leaders are gone for the most part. But that's the reason that's the reason we're still there."
Trump said many countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Bahrain are suffering financially due to the war and that the United States is looking to protect the Middle East, including Israel, because "we've had great relationships with them," and because "they're tremendous investors in our country." He added, "They spend trillions of dollars in our country."
"The people that we're here to protect would rather have me do it the way I'm doing it now," Trump said.
The president said he believes and hopes the war will "historically" be a "great decision."
"But short term, I guess it's tougher politically," Trump continued. "I knew that. I mean I had this thing going so perfectly, and it's still going."
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@usatodayco.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump to Stephen A. Smith: 'I'm going to be vetoing a lot of things'
