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Trump, in Interview, Says He Prefers Talk to Military Action on Iran Trump’s Split-Screen Persona on Blaring Display in Britain Visit
(about 8 hours later)
LONDON — President Trump said in a British TV interview broadcast on Wednesday that there was “a chance” of military action against Iran, after months of threats and an apparent de-escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington. LONDON — He quoted Roosevelt and gently greeted frail veterans at a D-Day commemoration, hours after proclaiming Bette Midler a “psycho” and Chuck Schumer a “creep.” He exalted soldiers’ bravery while dismissing his avoidance of service in Vietnam, calling it a country “nobody heard of.” He toasted Britain’s queen at a Buckingham Palace banquet, after calling London’s mayor a loser.
Mr. Trump made the remarks on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” to Piers Morgan, the show’s co-host who was the winner of “The Celebrity Apprentice” in the United States in 2007-8 and someone Mr. Trump considers a friend. They were aired during the third and last day of his state visit to Britain. For President Trump, reconciling his impulses with the expectations for an American president has often posed a hurdle. And when he had idle time during his three-day trip to Britain, the gap between the two — which has come to define his presidency — was jarring.
[Read the latest about Mr. Trump’s visit in our live briefing.] Mr. Trump’s trip to Britain ended Wednesday much as it had begun: as a split screen of a president embracing regal respectability on one side and settling scores on the other.
When Mr. Morgan asked Mr. Trump whether he was considering military action against Iran, the president, who almost never rules anything out, said: “There is always a chance. Do I want to? No, I’d rather not. But there’s always a chance.” He added, “I’d much rather talk.” His host for the state visit was the royal family. With the exception of encouraging one state dinner guest to say nice things about him on television as Queen Elizabeth II stood nearby, Mr. Trump was well-behaved and well-received, according to British officials who had been concerned about possible missteps.
Mr. Trump has told his Pentagon chiefs that he does not want war with Iran, but he has also undercut his national security adviser, John R. Bolton, who has been more hawkish. Mr. Bolton asserted last month, without presenting evidence, that naval mines “almost certainly from Iran” were behind explosions that damaged oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. Yet from Monday to Wednesday, Mr. Trump used more familiar milieus — Twitter and friendly interviews — to attack critics and commandeer attention.
But on Sunday, in what appeared to be an easing of the United States’ hard-line policy toward Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Trump administration was ready to negotiate with Iran’s clerical leaders with “no preconditions.” In an interview broadcast Wednesday, Mr. Trump told a British television host that he was “never a fan” of the Vietnam War and was making up for having avoided the draft by becoming America’s commander in chief.
Mr. Trump’s state visit to Britain has been a whirlwind of ceremonial events with the royal family, including a state banquet on Monday; tea with Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; and political and business meetings on Tuesday with Mrs. May and other top officials in which he urged Britain to forge ahead with plans to quit the European Union, dangling the prospect of a “phenomenal” trade deal with the United States. A few hours later, Mr. Trump read from the address his World War II-era predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, delivered to the nation on the evening of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944.
[Read: Trump, Unloved in Britain, Still Tries to Play Kingmaker] Mr. Trump’s shifting persona was reflected in policy issues as well.
On Wednesday, the president joined Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Theresa May in Portsmouth, on the coast of southern England, at a ceremony to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II. The president arrived in Europe embracing a number of positions that are anathema to many of the people he encountered. But he pivoted abruptly when he found resistance, underscoring that his approach is less ideological than transactional and situational, and sowing confusion about what, exactly, is Mr. Trump’s bottom line.
The president spoke for less than two minutes, reading an excerpt from a prayer that President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered in a radio address on the evening of June 6, 1944, according to White House officials. It said in part: He insisted that Britain’s public health system needed to be part of any trade negotiation with the United States, but then swiftly took it off the table. He likened the idea of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, after Brexit, to his border wall with Mexico, but then agreed with Ireland’s leader, Leo Varadkar, that there should be no wall dividing north and south.
“Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. They will need Thy blessings. For the enemy is strong.” At heart, Mr. Trump’s instincts are contrary to the multilateral spirit of the European Union. But his salesman’s desire to please made him curiously solicitous of leaders whose views he might otherwise condemn.
And: “Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.” When Mr. Trump spoke on Wednesday at an event in Portsmouth, England, honoring the 75th anniversary of the invasion, he was a solemn head of state standing with traditional allies. He used soft, respectful tones to greet veterans of the war that saved Europe from the Nazis.
In his wide-ranging interview with Mr. Morgan, Mr. Trump was asked about his lack of military service during the Vietnam War, which Mr. Trump has claimed was because of bone spurs in his foot, a claim that has been met with skepticism. Only hours earlier, as most of London slept, the other Mr. Trump was awake at the United States ambassador’s residence, tweeting that Ms. Midler, the singer, was a “washed up psycho” and that Mr. Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, was a “creep.”
He said he was “never a fan” of that particular war, and insisted that Vietnam had been barely known of. “At that time, nobody ever heard of the country,” he said. (It was not lost on some Portsmouth spectators that Mr. Trump’s remarks there were followed by a performance of the iconic World War II song, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” one of Ms. Midler’s biggest retro hits.)
When asked if he would have joined the war effort if not for the bone spurs, Mr. Trump said, “I would not have minded that at all; I would have been honored.” Mr. Trump also falsely claimed on Twitter that the crowds of people who came out to greet him in London were all supporters — when, in fact, there were also many protesters. At a news conference with Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday, the president, who is often unsettled by protesters, dismissed the demonstrations as “fake news.”
“I think I make up for it now,” he added. His comments about Vietnam came in an exchange with Piers Morgan, the British television personality, former tabloid editor and a winner of the “Celebrity Apprentice,” the offshoot of Mr. Trump’s reality television show — and someone the president considers a friend.
In the interview, he also cast his ban on transgender people serving in the military as an economic decision and admitted using the word “nasty” in connection with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Against the backdrop of the D-Day commemorations honoring the bravery of troops, Mr. Morgan, host of “Good Morning Britain,” asked him about his military deferments during the Vietnam War for a claim of bone spurs in his heel.
The discussion with Mr. Morgan was aired amid a state visit that has been marked by a long-running feud with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and protests that brought thousands of people to the streets of London with new and old props, including the Trump baby balloon and one showing the president sitting on a golden toilet. Mr. Trump said he had never supported the war in Vietnam and insisted that back then, “nobody had ever heard of the country,” drawing a contrast with Nazi Germany.
Mr. Trump, who is often unsettled by reports of protests, sought to play down the demonstrations, calling them “fake news” in a news conference with Mrs. May on Tuesday and tweeting on Wednesday that there were actually “big crowds” supporting him. When asked if he would have served in Vietnam if not for the bone spurs, Mr. Trump said, “I would not have minded that at all; I would have been honored.”
Mr. Trump had set the stage for his second trip to Britain as president with other interviews, in The Sun and The Sunday Times, both Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers. Asked by The Sun’s reporter about criticisms that the former Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s wife, made about him in 2016, Mr. Trump replied, “I didn’t know she was nasty.” He later denied saying the word nasty, even though the exchange had been recorded. “I think I make up for it now,” he said.
On Wednesday, however, Mr. Trump acknowledged to Mr. Morgan: “They said some of the things that she said and, it’s actually on tape. And I said, ‘Well, I didn’t know she was nasty.’ I wasn’t referring to she’s nasty. I said she was nasty about me. And, essentially, I didn’t know she was nasty about me.” Mr. Trump appeared most presidential in his appearance at Portsmouth, on the coast of southern England, one of the key embarkation points for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.
Mr. Morgan was at his most adversarial when he asked why Mr. Trump claimed to support rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people, but was enforcing a ban on transgender people serving in the American military. The president spoke for less than two minutes, reading an excerpt from a prayer that Roosevelt delivered in a radio address on the evening of the invasion.
Mr. Trump repeatedly cast it as an economic decision, and suggested that transgender people were signing up for service as a way to have surgical costs covered. “Almighty God,” he read, “our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. They will need thy blessings. For the enemy is strong.”
“They take massive amounts of drugs. They have to,” he said, adding, “You’re in the military; you’re not allowed to take any drugs.” And: “Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, thy heroic servants, into thy kingdom.”
Mr. Morgan interjected: “The U.S. military spends a lot more money, for example, on giving Viagra to servicemen,” he said, “than it does on actual medical bills of transgender people. And so it just seems to me an unnecessary thing for a guy who wants to be supportive of L.G.B.T. rights and the community around the world that you’ve taken this action.” Mr. Trump’s three-day trip punctuated the vagaries of his stands on some issues. He reiterated the possibility of armed conflict with Iran, but expressed his previously stated desire to talk with Iranian leaders. And he muddied his well-known denial of climate change and the science behind it.
The president replied: “Well, it is what it is. Look, massive amounts — and also people going in and asking for the operation, you know the operation is $200,000, $250,000, and getting the operation, the recovery period is long and they have to take large amounts of drugs after that for whatever reason, but large amounts, and that’s not the way it is. I mean, you can’t do that.” The climate issue came up in a meeting with Prince Charles, which Mr. Trump said had turned into a 90-minute discussion. “He is really into climate change, and I think that’s great, I mean I want that, I like that,” Mr. Trump said in the interview with Mr. Morgan.
He also said that in his meeting with Prince Charles, a brief chat had turned into a 90-minute discussion. “He is really into climate change, and I think that’s great, I mean I want that, I like that,” Mr. Trump said. When Mr. Morgan pressed him on whether he believes in it, he said, “I believe that there’s a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways.”
The president has denied that climate change exists, and has questioned the science behind it. Mr. Trump also seemed impressed with what he described as the prince’s forward-looking thinking. “I’ll tell you what moved me is his passion for future generations,” he told Mr. Morgan. “He’s really not doing this for him.”
In the interview, Mr. Trump seemed impressed that the prince was concerned about the fate of future generations. “I’ll tell you what moved me is his passion for future generations; he’s really not doing this for him,” he told Mr. Morgan. “He’s doing this for future generations.” But Mr. Trump said he had dismissed the suggestion that the United States should do more. “Well, the United States right now has among the cleanest climates,” he said, adding incorrectly that pollution has lessened during his presidency.
But Mr. Trump said he had dismissed the suggestion that the United States should do more. “I did say,” he said, “ ‘Well, the United States right now has among the cleanest climates there are based on all statistics.’ And it’s even getting better.” In the interview, he also cast his ban on transgender people serving in the military as an economic decision — an assertion at odds with what administration officials defending the ban have said. Mr. Trump also admitted having used the word “nasty” in connection with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry’s wife.
He also called the reality of having control of the United States’ nuclear weapons a “terrible responsibility” for him, but one that he was prepared to handle. Mr. Trump had set the stage for his second trip to Britain as president with other interviews, in The Sun and The Sunday Times, which are owned by Rupert Murdoch. Asked by The Sun’s reporter about criticisms that the Duchess of Sussex had made about him in 2016, when she was Meghan Markle, an American actress, Mr. Trump said, “I didn’t know she was nasty.” He later denied saying “nasty,” although it had been recorded.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump acknowledged to Mr. Morgan he had said the word but sought to clarify the context: “I wasn’t referring to she’s nasty. I said she was nasty about me. And, essentially, I didn’t know she was nasty about me.”
Mr. Morgan was at his most adversarial when he asked why Mr. Trump claimed to support rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people, but was enforcing a ban on transgender military recruits.
Mr. Trump, who in his 2016 campaign included transgender people among those whose rights he would support, repeatedly cast the ban as an economic decision. Mr. Trump suggested that transgender people were enlisting as a way to cover medical costs. He also suggested, falsely, that they cannot use prescription drugs in the military. Drug abuse is prohibited, but not prescriptions.
“They take massive amounts of drugs,” he said. “They have to.”
When Mr. Morgan interjected that the American military spends more money on Viagra for servicemen than on transgender medical bills, Mr. Trump was unfazed.
“Well, it is what it is,” he said. “Look, massive amounts — and also people going in and asking for the operation — you know the operation is $200,000, $250,000 — and getting the operation. The recovery period is long and they have to take large amounts of drugs after that for whatever reason, but large amounts, and that’s not the way it is. I mean, you can’t do that.”