Back in the comparatively innocent time of mid-2016, Cracked ran a sketch that posited Donald Trump’s presidential run as an elaborate prank, cooked up by smug comedy writers, that slowly gets out of control. The Trump campaign gains momentum despite the “hilarious” things they have him say, and the sketch concludes with a sobbing Trump calling the pair — now morphed into his baffled, suit-wearing campaign managers — to protest that he doesn’t want to be president. “I know you don’t, sir, nobody does,” one soothingly replies.
Earlier that year, Stephen Colbert — back when we thought satire might influence things one way or another — recast Trump’s infamous claim that he could publicly shoot someone and not lose a vote from a brag to a cold sweat realisation: he was trapped in his campaign. Colbert similarly concluded that “Donald Trump can’t really want to be president.”
So does Trump actually want any of this? We have a look at the evidence that suggests he might not have enjoyed much of the last eight years.
November 2016: ‘As if he’d seen a ghost’
Though one is inclined to take any individual claim from author Michael Wolff with a packing box size grain of salt, a reasonable cross-section of his admirers and critics concluded that he just about got to the reality of the early days of the Trump White House with his book Fire and Fury. This includes the following account of the election night response to Trump’s win:
Even though the numbers in a few key states had appeared to be changing to Trump’s advantage, neither [Trump campaign manager Kellyanne] Conway nor Trump himself nor his son-in-law, Jared Kushner — the effective head of the campaign — wavered in their certainty: their unexpected adventure would soon be over. Not only would Trump not be president, almost everyone in the campaign agreed, he should probably not be …
… Trump himself was sanguine. His ultimate goal, after all, had never been to win. ‘I can be the most famous man in the world,’ he had told his aide Sam Nunberg at the outset of the race … [He] was floating rumours about a Trump network. It was a great future.
Then came his shock win, which Wolff reported left him looking “as if he’d seen a ghost”. During the transition, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump seemed surprised by how much the president has to do: “[Barack] Obama walked his successor through the duties of running the country, and Trump seemed surprised by the scope.”
Also that November, NBC News reported Trump had told former House speaker Newt Gingrich “This is really a bigger job than I thought.”
February 2017: ‘I’m working long hours’
In his interview with then Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, Trump again expressed surprise at how “big” the job was, and talked about the long hours he was now working:
O’REILLY: How many hours a day you’re working?
TRUMP: I’m working long hours. Long hours. Right up until 12, 1 in the morning.
O’REILLY: What time do you get up?
TRUMP: Five o’clock.
That month, he also told a meeting of state governors “nobody knew health care could be so complicated”.
April 2017: ‘I do miss my old life’
Probably the most thorough illumination Trump gave about his time in the White House was in his interview with Reuters in April 2017.
“I love my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life,” Trump said. “I thought it would be easier. I thought it was more of a … I’m a details-oriented person. I think you’d say that, but I do miss my old life. I like to work so that’s not a problem but this is actually more work.”
“You’re really into your own little cocoon, because you have such massive protection that you really can’t go anywhere … I like to drive. I can’t drive anymore.”
Another realisation dawned on him that month, after discussing the Korean peninsula with Chinese President Xi Jinping for “10 minutes” he “realised it’s not so easy”.
November 2018: ‘The president is very depressed’
Towards the end of 2018, Trump was reportedly worried that his son Donald Jr might soon be indicted by special prosecutor Robert Mueller for his 2016 meeting with a “Kremlin-backed” lawyer who was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton. “The president is very depressed,” a source “close to Don Jr” told Vanity Fair (this was denied by Jr’s lawyer, Alan Futerfas.) He needn’t have worried in the end — Mueller’s final report revealed that he couldn’t ultimately prove Jr understood what he was doing was wrong.
February 2019: ‘I probably work more hours than almost any past President…’
In February 2019 Axios received a leaked copy of Trump’s schedule for the prior three months, revealing he spent around 60% of his scheduled time over that period in unstructured “Executive Time” — which they were informed mainly meant Trump was retreating to watch TV and Tweet. He responded by again emphasising how much work he had to do:
“The media was able to get my work schedule, something very easy to do, but it should have been reported as a positive, not negative. When the term Executive Time is used, I am generally working, not relaxing. In fact, I probably work more hours than almost any past president…”
2024: ‘I have no days off’
Trump, who spent the early part of the year appearing to snooze in his court case regarding falsified business records and hush money paid to an adult film star, has again been dropping hints that he’d rather not be doing this. In the infamous debate with President Joe Biden, Trump’s contention that “I wish he was a great president, because I wouldn’t be here right now”, flew a little under the radar. He confirmed in September that if he lost we would not run again.
Around the same time, a fixation with the beach drifted into his interviews. In September 2024 he told an event that he “could be, right now, in the most beautiful ocean, on the sand, exposing my really beautiful body to the sun and surf… or I could be in Detroit with you, and I’d rather be in Detroit with you”.
He told Wisconsin voters the same thing.
This week, he held a press conference in Swannanoa, a town in western North Carolina ravaged by Hurricane Helene. He again said he “didn’t have to be” there to “work” that day, and that he “could have been on a beautiful beach” instead.
“I have no days off”, he told reporters, “so I’ll be going into the 60s or 70s in terms of no days off”.
Trump then added, as though reminding himself, “I don’t want a day off. We have to win. We have to win, we have to save our country. We have to just make America great again.”
Do you think Donald really wants to rule? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
