President Trump on Wednesday called in to NewsNation for a town hall program marking the first 100-day milestone of his second term in the Oval Office.
Rounding out a media blitz to celebrate the benchmark, Trump brushed off concerns about his polling and policies as he talked with moderators Chris Cuomo, Bill O’Reilly and Stephen A. Smith.
After Trump appeared for a little under half an hour, other guests, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former White House adviser Steve Bannon, appeared during the two-hour program.
Here are five takeaways:
Trump brushes off concerns about his policies
Trump swatted away concerns about some of the moves that have stoked controversy throughout his first 100-day stretch.
Asked to name the biggest mistake he’s made so far, Trump said he didn’t think he’d made any.
“I’ll tell you, that’s the toughest question I can have because I don’t really believe I’ve made mistakes,” he said, arguing that the country is in a “transition period” and will see “tremendous economic victories” ahead.
And as his dramatic tariff moves heighten economic anxieties, Trump contended that he knows his stuff “perfectly.”
“We have to have fair trade. We’re losing billions and billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars. And it’s not fair, and it’s time for the American people to be properly protected by somebody that knows what he’s doing,” Trump said.
“And I know what I’m doing perfectly,” he asserted. He added that “it’s a little complicated subject” and “I’ve got to explain it.”
The president has been celebrating his 100-day mark amid sagging approval numbers, but he brushed those off, too, lambasting “fake polls” and touting his November win as a sign of his enduring success.
Trump, Stephen A. Smith share kind words for each other
Trump and Smith were cordial to each other and shared kind words even as Smith has been critical of many of Trump’s policies.
Their first interaction during the event came after Smith began to ask Trump a question and Trump remarked that he remembered Smith from a “very long time ago,” sparking laughter from the audience members. Smith became known while working in New York sports talk radio as Trump became one of the city’s top businessmen.
One notable moment came later in Trump’s discussion with the moderators in which he said he’d “love” to see Smith run for president.
Smith has received attention as a possible 2028 presidential candidate amid criticism of the Democratic Party following former Vice President Harris’s loss in the November election. He’s pointed to possible candidates he hopes will run but has left the door open to getting in the race if he’s dissatisfied with the field.
Trump said he doesn’t have any advice for Smith but called him a “good” and “smart” guy. He added that he loves watching Smith, whom he called entertaining.
“I’ve been pretty good at picking people and picking candidates, and I will tell you, I’d love to see him run,” Trump said, to applause from some members of the audience.
At another point, Smith also acknowledged Trump’s efforts to bolster Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Trump declines to say when trade deals will be announced
Trump declined to say when his trade moves will pay off and didn’t share details on when new trade deals will be announced.
“When do you think, though, it’s going to turn around economically so that people aren’t frightened? Do you have a timeline on it?” O’Reilly asked the president.
The president acknowledged the “very fair question,” but charged forward to tout that companies are building plants in the U.S.
He later said that many countries “are calling us, like, morning, noon and night dying to make a deal” and said “we’re in a great position of strength.”
When pressed on when he might announce agreements with countries like South Korea, Japan and India, Trump clarified that “well, we have potential deals with them.”
“I’ll tell you this: I’m in less of a hurry than you are. We are sitting on the catbird seat. They want us. We don’t need them,” he said.
Trump also noted during the town hall that there’s “a very good chance” the U.S. will make a deal with China amid the ongoing standoff between the two world powers.
“Now, will we make a deal? There’s a very good chance we’re going to make a deal, but we’re going to make it on our terms,” Trump said, after calling China “the king of ripping off the United States.”
Trump upped tariffs on China to 145 percent total earlier this month, despite offering a 90-day reprieve to other nations – prompting China to hit back with 125 percent tariffs.
O’Reilly brought up to Trump that if his trade policies haven’t been proven right by this time next year, it could cause Democrats to win in the midterm elections.
“It is true, and I just think I’ll be able to convince people how good this is,” Trump responded.
O’Reilly tries to draw answers from Trump on tough questions
O’Reilly on multiple occasions pressed Trump on various issues, trying to get him to answer on issues like his tariff policy and the possible political impacts of his presidency.
O’Reilly, a personal friend of Trump for years, said before Wednesday’s town hall that his vision for the event was one that would be more “personal” than other interviews and media appearances during his Trump’s first 100 days.
“You’re never going to get him to admit he made a mistake,” O’Reilly predicted of Trump during the town hall’s pre-show.
O’Reilly also debated fellow moderator Smith as well as guests like James Carville during the two-hour forum that also featured questions from a live studio audience and viewers who submitted questions via social media.
RFK Jr. defends handling of measles outbreak
Kennedy briefly called into the town hall during the second hour, defending his handling of the measles outbreak in Texas amid criticism of his past statements about vaccines and job performance.
Kennedy argued that the country is “doing better at managing the measles epidemic in the country than probably any other country in the world.” He said the U.S. has about 842 cases of measles, while Canada has roughly the same amount with a smaller population and Europe has “10 times that number.”
“Our numbers have plateaued,” he said.
The Canadian government reported as of mid-April that about 1,000 measles cases have been diagnosed this year, while the World Health Organization reported that Europe had its highest number of measles cases last year in more than 25 years.
Kennedy has faced criticism over his past anti-vaccine advocacy, stirring doubts about the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine in particular. Some critics have blamed the arguments Kennedy has advanced for increasing hesitancy to get vaccines and allowing the disease to spread to its current outbreak, causing the first deaths from the disease since 2015.
Kennedy said some groups of people in the country have religious objections to vaccines, surfacing false claims about the vaccines containing “aborted fetuses,” and the country should be able to take care of them through other ways.
“That’s one of the things that [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has not done,” he said. “CDC has said the only thing that we have is vaccination. There’s all kinds of treatments for when people do get sick, and those people should be treated with compassion.”
Dominick Mastrangelo contributed.