An eight-minute excerpt of NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas‘ interview aired during the network’s Super Bowl pre-game, continuing a tradition of presidents doing sit downs with the host broadcaster.
What was perhaps most notable was the newsiest weekend topic that was not discussed: The president’s posting of a video on Thursday in which Barack and Michelle Obama were depicted as apes.
In introducing the excerpt that aired on Sunday, Llamas reminded viewers that his conversation with Trump took place “before the president’s social media account reposted that racist video of the Obamas, which was ultimately taken down.”
Only after Republicans called for it to be removed did the White House do so, blaming it on an unnamed aide. Yet Trump later said it was he who ordered it posted, and although he said he didn’t watch it all the way through, he also didn’t apologize for it.
In the interview portion that aired on Sunday, Trump declined to make a Super Bowl prediction, saying, “You get yourself in big trouble, but I think it’s going to be a great game.” Trump teased his non-prediction in a post on TikTok last week.
The rest of the excerpt featured discussions about the economy and immigration, with Llamas rather gently posing his questions to the president.
Llamas said, “Friends and families, just like you will be coming together on Super Bowl Sunday. People are shopping this week. They’re running the kids around. They’re trying to heat their homes with this brutal winter we’ve been having. In the last year, a lot of prices have come down, things like gas and eggs, but but others, since you took office, have come up, like natural gas and coffee. When can Americans expect those prices to come down?”
Trump answered, “Well, they’ve already come down. I think you’ve seen, Tom, when I took over, eggs, poultry, all these things were through the roof. In fact, the first question I got, what are you going to do about eggs? It was my second day in office, at a news conference, and they were screaming, what are you going to do about eggs? Eggs had gone up like four times. If you notice, over the last few days, the Democrats have gone to another subject. I think they’re probably saying dictator or something. They’ve got a new a new word. They don’t use the word ‘affordability’ anymore, because prices are way down. Gasoline is — I just left Iowa, $1.99 and even $1.85 per gallon, $1.85 a gallon. That’s in Iowa. Many states are cracking $2. Gasoline is way down. And honestly, everything is coming way down. Beef is coming down.”
Per AAA, gas prices are averaging $2.57 a gallon in Iowa and $2.90 nationwide.
Llamas followed up, “Yeah, but beef, coffee, natural gas is going…”
Trump answered, “Well, it’s already come down. I’ll tell you what. In the last four days, it’s only four days, the Democrats have not uttered the word affordability. They’re the ones that caused the problem. I took over a mess in every way. The border was a mess, that everybody admits. The border is great. Crime was a mess. Right now 125 years, it’s the lowest crime that we’ve had in 100, since 1900 … But the one thing that they don’t say anymore is affordability, because I fixed the problem that they created.”
Yet Democrats have already seized on Trump’s glowing comments about the economy, and chances are they will talk about “affordability” again, given polling that shows Americans are unhappy with costs. The issue helped boost Democrats in the off-year elections last year.
Llamas asked Trump, “You said you inherited a mess from President Biden when it comes to the economy. But at what point is it on you? And at what point are we in the Trump economy?”
Trump replied, “Oh, I’d say we’re there. Now I’m very proud of it,” as he touted GDP growth and promised that jobs would pick up.
Most of the interview aired on Wednesday on NBC News Now and excerpts on NBC Nightly News.
In a part of the interview that aired last week, Llamas asked Trump about polls showing that most Americans believe the economy is “not great.”
“They should be great,” Trump said.
“They should be, so why aren’t they?” Llamas asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Trump said. He also said during the interview, “I don’t think we’re good at public relations.”
Other portions of Llamas’ interview that aired last week did make some news, including on Trump’s statement that he would stay out of the DOJ review of a Netflix or Paramount deal for Warner Bros.
Llamas didn’t challenge Trump on certain claims — like his statement, made three times, that $18 trillion is being invested in the country. The NBC anchor at points appeared to want to keep the interview moving to a follow up question or on to another topic, rather than nail the president down with a fact check on some of his statements.
In the excerpt that aired on Sunday, after Trump made the $18 trillion claim, Llamas asked, “When will we see those jobs and those factories open? Because manufacturing has been down month over month?”
Trump said, “Well, you’re already seeing it in construction because they’re all building. You know, we have factories being built, car plants. They’re coming in from Canada, coming in from Mexico. They’re leaving Germany, Japan, they — they’re all coming into the United States.”
NBC News posted an extensive post interview fact check on its website, noting, “While a number of companies, such as tech firms, semiconductor companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers, have made public commitments to invest in the U.S., many of those commitments are either only slight increases from previous announcements or in line with previous plans. In addition, the commitments and investments touted by the White House on its own website total $9.6 trillion.”
The network also posted the full transcript of the interview.
