Non-Sycophantic Interview Questions for Donald Trump about 2024 and a Possible Second Administration

If conservative media feels like doing their jobs for a change, here's a place to start.

Interviews with Donald Trump tend to come in only two varieties: hostility from the left and sycophancy from the right. The former badger the former president with tired smears (Racism! Insurrection! Denying a free and fair election!) that only impress those who would never vote for him anyway, while the latter shower the 2024 candidate with softballs (“will [your opponents] all get nicknames?”) geared toward validating and entertaining his preexisting fans. Both offer precious little of value to anyone who might be genuinely curious about how well Trump would serve their priorities in a second term.

To that end, allow your humble correspondent to offer some practical, results-oriented questions for Mr. Trump, which any interviewer is hereby invited to use as their own, on the off chance they tire of generating content that merely indulges their audiences’ preexisting feelings about the man and would rather take a stab at some actual journalism that might help uncertain Republican primary voters feel better—or worse—about his potential nomination and/or return to the White House.

1) Mr. President, you insist that “millions” of votes were “switched” from you to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, robbing you of rightful victory. If that’s the case, then how do you intend to prevent another such “robbery” in 2024? Does your campaign plan on using the same lawyers it relied on last time, or has it sought out new representation with a better track record? Have you identified any weaknesses in their legal strategies that resulted in the defeat or dismissal of all 64 election suits you filed, and what would you do differently next time? Why should anyone who wants to take back the White House from Democrats not be deeply alarmed when they hear you say things like “don’t worry about voting”?

2) Since launching your 2024 campaign, you have issued several substantive conservative policy plans. But you offered a strong legislative vision in 2016, as well, and it bore little resemblance to what you ultimately did in office—see, for instance, the contrast between your free-market healthcare plan and you attacking the House Freedom Caucus for resisting an Obamacare replacement draft that fell far short of what you promised; or your support of the First Step Act, which released violent criminals back onto the streets, despite your campaigning as a law-and-order candidate. What guarantee can you give voters that your actions would more closely match your promises in a second term?

3) Microsoft chief Bill Gates, who was initially a strong promoter of your Covid-19 vaccines, admitted last year that they aren’t long-lasting and fail to prevent transmission. Mounting evidence links them to serious health problems such as myocarditis. Yet you have repeatedly brushed off these concerns and insisted that the shots “saved 100 million lives.” Given that your administration’s role in Operation Warp Speed gives you a deep personal investment in the Covid vaccines’ public image as a success, how could a second Trump administration possibly be trusted to investigate them for safety and effectiveness, or render an honest verdict on the findings?

4) You have been sharply critical of your Vice President Mike Pence, Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Security Advisors Michael Flynn and John Bolton, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, White House strategist Steve Bannon, United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and other administration alumni. How is it that you hired so many officials you came to regret after famously promising to hire “the best people,” and how will you reassure potential supporters that you—and more importantly, they—will be happier with your personnel judgment next time?

5) On a related note, you say you told Haley, to “follow her heart” and run for president when she first called to seek your blessing. Yet within days of her campaign launch you began impugning her “honor” and labeling her a “born loser.” More recently, you have taken to calling her “birdbrain.” Given your utter lack of magnanimity in how you treat even those who faithfully served your first administration, how do you expect to attract and retain loyal, effective personnel in a second one? And how do you expect to deal with the likelihood that quality future hires will be wary of joining you in light of several of your former personnel having had to accept plea deals to mitigate legal jeopardy incurred in connection with their association with you?

6) Through much of your presidency, you were on friendly terms with congressional GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. You ultimately soured on both, but remained chummy with Ryan’s successor, Kevin McCarthy, as well as Republican National Committee chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, helping both retain their leadership positions despite your base’s widespread distrust of the former and the latter’s record of failure. This looks like protecting the swamp, not draining it. Why shouldn’t Americans fear that your closeness to the Republican establishment would translate to another squandered four years, as your elite friends supplant your voters’ agenda for their own?

7) You have a history of celebrating the general-election defeats of Republican candidates you perceived as having either insulted or insufficiently supported you, even when their races were critical to overall Republican success and to your constituents’ interests, including Senate candidate Joe O’Dea in Colorado and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Daniel Kelly. You also spent more than $2 million (that really could have helped the GOP elsewhere last fall) to unsuccessfully primary Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in retaliation for not delivering his state to you in 2020, and spent months harshly attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, since long before he ever said a critical word about you as a primary opponent. How do you expect to effectively unite and lead a party you have so often divided, whose best interests you have repeatedly placed below your personal feelings and desires?

8) You have admitted that the numerous politically-motivated prosecutions of you are “getting the Trump Campaign to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees, thereby having less to spend on ads showing that Crooked Joe is the WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY,” and “forcing me nevertheless to spend time and money away from the campaign trail in order to fight bogus made-up accusations and charges.” Given the millions of dollars in campaign donations the charges have eaten up already, the fact that they aren’t going away anytime soon, and evidence that the charges have significantly impacted independent voters’ view of you, how can you possibly justify making America’s future dependent on a candidate with such liabilities? Why is you being the nominee more important that a Democrat not being president?