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"It
was a little surreal to say I'm the president of the United
States, but I think that's true with everybody," Trump told the
CBS television news program "60 Minutes."
"Even my friends, they don't call me Donald, they call me Mr.
President. And I say: 'Will you please loosen up?' I've learned
on the job. I have."
"Now I very much feel like POTUS," Trump added, using the
acronym for president of the United States.
The interview, in which Trump proved as eager as ever for verbal
jousting on a range of issues, showed no sign he had any
intention of abandoning his freewheeling, in-your-face persona
as president.
Trump would not say whether he intended to return to the
contentious policy of separating immigrant children from their
families at the border, but gave no ground on what he saw as the
need for tough policy.
"When you allow the parents to stay together, OK, when you allow
that, then what happens is people are going to pour into our
country," Trump said. "There have to be consequences ... for
coming into our country illegally."
The family separations and the detention of thousands of
children, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,
prompted widespread condemnation of Trump’s policy. About 2,500
children and parents were separated before Trump abandoned the
policy in June. Days later, a federal judge ordered the families
reunited, a process that is still incomplete.
After a political brawl in the Senate over sexual misconduct
allegations against his Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh, Trump
said his remarks at a Mississippi rally in which critics said he
mocked accuser Christine Blasey Ford were necessary to win the
confirmation fight.
"Had I not made that speech, we would not have won. I was just
saying she didn't seem to know anything," Trump said. "And
you're trying to destroy a life of a man who has been
extraordinary."
He denied making fun of her, saying instead that he had treated
her with respect.
"I'm not going to get into it because we won. It doesn't matter.
We won," Trump said. Kavanaugh was confirmed by a 50-48 vote in
the U.S. Senate earlier this month.
A New York businessman whose upset 2016 victory against Democrat
Hillary Clinton sent shock waves across the political world,
Trump said he had discovered that the Washington political scene
was even tougher than the business world.
"Washington, D.C. is a vicious, vicious place: the attacks, the
bad-mouthing, the speaking behind your back. But you know, and
in my way, I feel very comfortable here," the president told
CBS.
"I always used to say the toughest people are Manhattan real
estate guys and blah, blah. Now I say they're babies."
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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