This Donald Trump Interview With TIME Magazine Is Insane.

‘I Can’t Be Doing So Badly, Because I’m President, and You’re Not.’

President Donald Trump sat down with TIME magazine Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer to discuss “the way he has handled truth and falsehood in his career.” The interview was preparation for a TIME story, “Can President Trump Handle the Truth?” and TIME’s cover story by managing editor Nancy Gibbs, “When a President Can’t Be Taken at His Word.”

But TIME also published the raw transcript. It’s insane.

Not only does Trump lie, it’s the way he lies. Worse, look at the way he frames events so he always comes out the winner, and how he rambles and jumps around from topic to topic. Instead of admitting he is wrong, he claims his false statements are predictions of things that came to pass.

For example, Trump made an entirely false statement about a terror attack that never happened in Sweden, based on his misunderstanding of a Fox News segment. That, he now says, was a prediction. Or Brexit, which he didn’t even know what it was weeks before the vote, he now says he predicted.

I predicted a lot of things, Michael. Some things that came to you a little bit later. But, you know, we just rolled out a list. Sweden. I make the statement, everyone goes crazy. The next day they have a massive riot, and death, and problems. Huma [Abedin] and Anthony [Weiner], you know, what I tweeted about that whole deal, and then it turned out he had it, all of Hillary’s email on his thing. NATO, obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They fixed that, and I said that the allies must pay. Nobody knew that they weren’t paying. I did. I figured it. Brexit, I was totally right about that. You were over there I think, when I predicted that, right, the day before. Brussels, I said, Brussels is not Brussels. I mean many other things, the election’s rigged against Bernie Sanders. We have a lot of things. 

Then there’s Trump’s insistence that if a story is in a newspaper, even those he claims are “fake news,” it’s perfectly acceptable for him to cite it.

Bold type is TIME’s Michael Scherer:

But you would agree also that some of the things you have said haven’t been true. You say that Ted Cruz’s father was with Lee Harvey Oswald. 

Well that was in a newspaper. No, no, I like Ted Cruz, he’s a friend of mine. But that was in the newspaper. I wasn’t, I didn’t say that. I was referring to a newspaper. A Ted Cruz article referred to a newspaper story with, had a picture of Ted Cruz, his father, and Lee Harvey Oswald, having breakfast.

Trump continues:

I’m just quoting the newspaper, just like I quoted the judge the other day, Judge Napolitano, I quoted Judge Napolitano, just like I quoted Bret Baier, I mean Bret Baier mentioned the word wiretap. Now he can now deny it, or whatever he is doing, you know. But I watched Bret Baier, and he used that term. I have a lot of respect for Judge Napolitano, and he said that three sources have told him things that would make me right. I don’t know where he has gone with it since then. But I’m quoting highly respected people from highly respected television networks.

But traditionally people in your position in the Oval Office have not said things unless they can verify they are true.

Well, I’m not, well, I think, I’m not saying, I’m quoting, Michael, I’m quoting highly respected people and sources from major television networks.

I don’t even know what to say to this:

But isn’t there, it strikes me there is still an issue of credibility. If the intelligence community came out and said, we have determined that so and so is the leaker here, but you are saying to me now, that you don’t believe the intelligence community when they say your tweet was wrong. 

I’m not saying—no, I’m not blaming. First of all, I put Mike Pompeo in. I put Senator Dan Coats in. These are great people. I think they are great people and they are going to, I have a lot of confidence in them. So hopefully things will straighten out. But I inherited a mess, I inherited a mess in so many ways. I inherited a mess in the Middle East, and a mess with North Korea, I inherited a mess with jobs, despite the statistics, you know, my statistics are even better, but they are not the real statistics because you have millions of people that can’t get a job, ok. And I inherited a mess on trade. I mean we have many, you can go up and down the ladder. But that’s the story. Hey look, in the mean time, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not. You know. Say hello to everybody OK?

And let’s just end with this:

TIME magazine, which treats me horribly, but obviously I sell, I assume this is going to be a cover too, have I set the record? I guess, right? Covers, nobody’s had more covers.

I think Richard Nixon still has you beat. But he was in office for longer, so give yourself time.

Ok good. I’m sure I’ll win.

I’m sure you will “win” just like Richard Nixon, Mr. President. I’m sure you will.