Three days after the midterm wipeout, Trump sat down with Ross Douthat for 60 Minutes. It aired Sunday night. The full cut runs 52 minutes, and there's not much spin in it.
Say what you want about Trump, he doesn't hide the ball. In one sitting he admitted the war and gas prices cost us. He said his deportations were "too tough." He floated a deal to let illegal immigrants stay. He shrugged off his family's crypto money. He bragged about threatening an AI executive with jail. And he told Douthat he'll never forgive his enemies, not even to get into heaven.
We cut the best of it in our own style, straight from CBS's full interview. Here they are, with my take on each.
1. The war: "An emphatic yes"
After the election, JD Vance posted that the reason we lost is the war. Douthat read it to Trump. Trump said he doesn't disagree, then said he'd do it all again:
"My answer is an emphatic yes, because you can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. I think, historically, this will be a very good decision. Is it a good decision for today and tomorrow? Maybe not."
That's the whole election in two answers.
My take: I can defend the Iran war. Iran can't have a bomb. What I can't defend is the broken promise. Trump ran on no new wars, and voters remembered. Then it hit them at the pump. Earlier in the interview Trump said it himself: "They didn't like the war. They didn't like the fact that gasoline went up."
The polls back that up. Only 4% of voters named foreign policy as their top issue in the exit poll. But in the one survey that asked what's driving up costs, the Iran war came first, at 44% (Narrative Strategies/535 News). The war didn't beat us on its own. The gas bill did.
2. Amnesty: "Actually doable"
Trump. Endorses. Amnesty. Holy crap.
Watch the whole thing. First he says his deportation policy was "too tough" and that "ultimately, that hurt me." Then Douthat asks what a deal with Democrats would look like. Trump: "We would work something out ... that's something that's actually doable." Legal status for the landscapers, the hotel maids, the waitresses, people who've been here "10 and 15 years." His words: "Work a deal for them, okay?"
He says the hardliners who want everybody out work in his own administration. And Democrats? "People have already called me."
My take: Trump is right that the crackdown cost us. In the exit poll, 58% of voters said enforcement had gone too far. But immigration was also the issue Republican voters called crucial more than any other. They didn't sign up for a legalization deal. If Trump cuts one with Democrats, he'd better be ready to explain it to the people who elected him twice.
He's dead right about one thing: sanctuary cities that won't hand over known murderers. Democrats have no business lecturing anybody on immigration until they fix that.
3. Crypto: "I know nothing about it"
The swamp is swampy.
Douthat's question was fair. If Joe Biden co-owned a crypto company with money from investors tied to a foreign government, we'd all call it corrupt. So why is it different for Trump? "Because I know nothing about it." Then: "How do you divest from cash?" Then: every president has this problem, "going back to George Washington."
Douthat's comeback: "Every president has not owned a cryptocurrency company, however."
My take: We spent years hammering the Biden family's business deals, and we were right to. Same rule here. "I know nothing about it" is what every politician says. If it really doesn't matter to him, he can sell his stake.
4. Pardons: "Anybody within a thousand miles"
"I intend to issue tremendous numbers of pardons." Anybody "within a thousand miles of the Oval Office." A pardon for himself? "Not unreasonable." A pardon for Douthat? "I think I might have to."
My take: Funny line. Serious point. Democrats gave up the right to complain when Biden pardoned Hunter and pre-pardoned Fauci on his way out the door. But "anybody within a thousand miles" isn't a standard. It's a blank check.
5. AI: "Get ready to go to jail"
Douthat asked about the AI builders' own warnings that this stuff could wipe us out. Trump says the risk is "not nearly as real as they talk," and it's managed by the DOJ. Then the story. Someone was reported for "doing something bad with AI," so they got a call: "Get ready to go to jail. Please give your wife a kiss good night." Which company? "One of the big ones."
My take: I want Washington to take AI risk seriously. This isn't that. A call threatening jail isn't a safety policy, and he won't even say who got it. If AI is that dangerous, pass a law.
6. Heaven: "I always will"
Near the end, Douthat asked whether he thinks he's going to heaven. "I hope so. I don't want to go to hell." Then the follow-up: all you have to do to enter paradise is feel love and forgiveness for James Comey and Nancy Pelosi. Can you do it?
"Honestly, Ross ... I probably cannot do that, no, because I do hate some of my enemies and I always will."
So we imagined how that goes. Real interview audio. AI parody.
The takeaway
Trump told 60 Minutes exactly why we lost: the war, the gas prices and a crackdown that went too far. That's more honesty than you'll get from most politicians after a beating like this one. Now watch what he does with it.
Bottom line: he told you why we lost. Believe him.
Trump reminds me of a baseball pitcher with great velocity but no control. The way Trump exercises the authority of the office is so incredibly careless. It doesn't matter he has some good ideas. His bad ideas are so incredibly bad and the poor execution of his good ideas nullifies the benefits of them.
If Trump now thinks he should have been a magnanimous president on immigration he's a day late and a dollar short. He was handed the winning strategy in February 2025 - focus on the financial fraud of dead people and illegals voting and receiving public benefits. This was an argument Trump wins 95% to 5% with the American people. And instead, Trump shutdown DOGE and proceeded to enact the highly politically ineffective ICE gestapo.
The strategy Trump chose all but ensured political losses! He enraged the political Left and he lost the vote of independents and minorities. And, the strategy utterly failed to instill integrity in voting!! Just a complete whiff and one so bad it makes one wonder how the man succeeds at winning elections when he is so utterly blind to the consequences of his policies.