If early signs are any indication, Donald Trump has not been changed by the presidency.
The 45th President of the United States gave his first interview since taking office with ABC News David Muir.
To start, Muir asked if the job had affected him.
Credit: ABC News
I dont want to change too much.
I can be the most presidential person ever, other than possibly the great Abe Lincoln, Trump replied.
But I may not be able to do the job nearly as well if I do that.
(A claim that has been widely debunked.)
He mentioned earlier this week there were 3-to-5 million illegal votes cast none for him.
Were gonna launch an investigation to find out.
None of em come to me.
They would all be for the other side.
None of em come to me.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million votes.
Trump believes torture is effective
The topic of torture and waterboarding came up about halfway into Muirs sitdown.
Trump claimed intelligence officials in the last 24 hours had expressed to him that waterboarding worked.
In the face of ISIS-led killings, Trump said, We have to fight fire with fire.
And if they dont want to do, thats fine, Trump said.
If they do want to do, then I will work toward that end.
Absolutely I feel it works.
Trump called former President Obamas letter beautiful … so well-written, so thoughtful.
I doubt too many of them were written in this manner, Trump continued.
During the interview, Trump said both he and Vice President Mike Pence paid respect to the fallen agents.
That speech was a home run.
That speech, if you look at Fox see what Fox said.
You and other networks covered it very inaccurately.
That speech was a good speech.
You and a couple of other networks tried to downplay that speech.
It was very, very unfortunate that you did.
(It wasnt.)
This goes all the way down here, all the way down,he shows Muir.
You dont see that in the pictures.
Videoand afull transcriptof the interview are available at ABC.com.
