Donald Trump Latest Interview: President-Elect Addresses Clinton, Obama, Abortion, Gay Marriage & More [VIDEO]
Donald Trump appeared on 60 Minutes for his first interview since being elected president of the United States.
President-elect Trump spoke with 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl on Sunday night's episode, speaking on the nasty campaign, his plans for a variety of social and economic issues and his own general feelings on winning.
While this election season was fraught with mudslinging, with Trump eventually suggesting that he would hire a special prosecutor to look into opponent Hillary Clinton, his feelings were much more civil in the interview.
The president-elect spoke on how Clinton called him to concede the election on that fateful Tuesday night/Wednesday morning as he complimented her strength as an opponent.
"She couldn't have been nicer. She just said, 'Congratulations, Donald, well done.' And I said, 'I want to thank you very much, you were a great competitor.' She is very strong and very smart," Trump stated.
Trump had similarly nice things to say about other leaders he criticized during the campaign, including President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton. Trump's meeting with Obama went well based on the former's comments, saying, "I found him to be terrific. I found him to be-- very smart and very nice. Great sense of humor, as much as you can have a sense of humor talking about tough subjects, but we were talking about some pretty tough subjects."
Of course, Stahl pressed Trump on a number of policy issues, including abortion, gay marriage, the economy, immigration and ISIS.
Trump said that he was "pro-life" when asked about his stance on abortion and whether he would appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. He suggested that the abortion issue should be decided by the state and if a woman is in a state where it is illegal, "they'll have to go to another state."
On the topic of ISIS, Trump did not divulge any strategy for moving forward, and reaffirmed his belief that he knew more about the terrorist organization than U.S. generals, because, simply, "look at the job they've done. They haven't done the job."
One issue Trump seemingly intends to leave alone is gay marriage. It's no secret that the Republican side of the aisle has not been as welcoming to the LGBT community and with a GOP-led House, Senate and Executive Branch (plus Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who supported religious liberty laws and funding for conversion therapy), those in the community are worried.
However, Trump wants to leave the issue of marriage equality alone, even if his team might have differing views.
"It's done. It-- you have-- these cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They've been settled. And, I'm fine with that," he said.
The 60 Minutes interview concluded with an acknowledgment that while Trump's brand in the hotel business may have been affected during the campaign, what he is facing is so much greater than that.
"This is big league stuff. This is-- this is our country. Our country is going bad. We're going to save our country. I don't care about hotel occupancy. It's peanuts compared to what we're doing. Health care, making people better. It's unfair what's happened to the people of our country and we're going to change it," he said.
"As simple as that."
