The 34 must-see lines from Donald Trump's 'Meet the Press' interview

Whoa boy.

On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump gave his first formal interview since winning the White House last month.

He sat down with “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker. And, luckily for all of us, NBC posted the transcript of the interview online.

I went through it line by line — and pulled out the stuff from Trump that you really need to see.

This is one of a handful of posts I put behind the paywall. I do so because this sort of work takes a very long time to do. And, I am the only political journalist that I know of doing it! And I will continue to closely monitor what Trump says between now and the inauguration and then, obviously, once he is president too.

If that’s important to you, I hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber today. It’s $6 a month or $60 for the year.

To the lines!

1. “I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow.”

So true! Life is chaos! (Also: Trump was talking about whether tariffs will cause people to pay more for goods.) And away we go!

2. “But I can say that if you look at my – just pre-Covid, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country.”

[narrator voice] We did not.

3. “I'm a big believer in tariffs. I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they're beautiful.”

4. “And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field.”

This, relatedly, is the best field to play soccer on — fast and fair.

5. “And – they have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used. I don't say you use them like a madman. I say properly used.”

Ok, so don’t use tariffs “like a madman.” Got it!