Trump and Biden News: 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Live Updates

Former President Donald J. Trump told Time magazine in an interview published Tuesday morning that if elected in November, he would deploy the U.S. military to detain and deport migrants and permit states to decide whether to prosecute those who violate abortion bans, while hedging on the possibility of political violence after the 2024 election.

Mr. Trump has rarely given lengthy interviews with mainstream news outlets, particularly since leaving the White House. His conversations with Time — a sit-down at the former president’s residence in Palm Beach, Fla., and a follow-up phone call — offered a revealing glimpse of how he would wield presidential power, challenge democratic norms, and reshape the country if he won back the White House in November.

At one point, Mr. Trump told Time that he would be willing to deploy the military as part of an extreme deportation operation he has said he plans to conduct if elected, and that he would be willing to bypass a law that prohibits using U.S. troops against civilians.

“Well, these aren’t civilians,” Mr. Trump said. “These are people that aren’t legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country.”

Mr. Trump also brushed aside questions about political violence in November by suggesting that his victory was inevitable. But when pressed about what might happen should he again lose the election, he did not dismiss the possibility outright and did not proactively say anything to deter supporters from again resorting to it.

“I think we’re going to win,” he said. “And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”

A Biden campaign spokesman, James Singer, argued that Mr. Trump’s stated plans were unconstitutional and anti-democratic. “Trump is willing to throw away the very idea of America to put himself in power,” Mr. Singer said in a statement.

Mr. Trump and his allies have already laid the groundwork to advance their ideological agenda, and many of their preparations have been reported by The New York Times and other outlets.

Still the Time interview, which includes transcripts, offered a rare chance to hear Mr. Trump describe his policy views in his own words.

As he entered a Manhattan courthouse after the Time interview published, along with a fact check, Mr. Trump described Time’s cover story as “very nice” and “at least 60 percent correct, which is about all I can ask for.”

Here are five takeaways.

He would use the military to deport migrants.

Mr. Trump reaffirmed his goal to expand his first-term efforts to crack down on immigration with a widespread effort to detain and deport migrants who cross the border illegally.

But he told Time that he would be willing to involve both the National Guard and U.S. troops to do it, both at the border and within the country, though he presented the use of U.S. soldiers as a last resort.

“I think the National Guard would be able to do that. If they weren’t able to, then I’d use the military,” he said, after describing the surge of migrants across the border as an “invasion,” language he uses frequently during campaign stops and interviews.

Mr. Trump said he had not ruled out building new camps to hold undocumented migrants, a plan reported by The Times last year. And he told Time that his efforts would include giving the police immunity from prosecution, something he has mentioned recently on the campaign trail, too.

“We have to give the police back the power and respect that they deserve,” said Mr. Trump, who faces dozens of felony charges in four criminal cases. “Now, there will be some mistakes, and there are certain bad people and that’s a terrible thing.”

He again avoided taking firm positions on abortion-related issues.

Though Mr. Trump stated a number of plans for a second term, he declined to offer specific views on abortion, a searing and politically sensitive issue that has been central to elections since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Mr. Trump cleared the way for the court’s decision by appointing three conservative justices, and he has celebrated his role in the ruling.

In the Time interview, Mr. Trump reaffirmed his statement made earlier this month that abortion should be left up to the states. But he did not commit to vetoing bills with federal restrictions on abortion if they passed Congress, a goal of some of his Republican allies.

“I don’t have to do anything about vetoes, because we now have it back in the states,” he said.

Mr. Trump did not answer a question about how he would vote on a Florida referendum that would overturn a six-week abortion ban that he has previously criticized.

And Mr. Trump did not express objections to the idea of states’ monitoring pregnancies or prosecuting women who violated abortion bans. “It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not,” he said. “It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.”

Mr. Trump would also not take a position on whether women should have access to mifepristone, a widely used abortion medication at the center of a Supreme Court case.

He similarly deferred on taking a position on whether his administration would enforce the Comstock Act, a long-dormant law that would prohibit sending abortion pills through the mail.

In both cases, Mr. Trump promised statements in the coming weeks.

He is weighing widespread pardons over Jan. 6.

Mr. Trump said he would “absolutely” consider pardoning every person who had been convicted on, or pleaded guilty to, charges related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

He noted that “if somebody was evil and bad, I would look at that differently,” but he did not say where he would draw the line.

And even as Mr. Trump said he did not anticipate political violence this year, he predicated that answer on his winning in November. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump has consistently made false and debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him by Democrats, and he has primed his supporters to believe that the only fair election is one that he wins — something he repeated in the interview.

“I don’t believe they’ll be able to do the things that they did the last time,” Mr. Trump said of Democrats to Time. “I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with it.”

He criticized Netanyahu but would help Israel fight Iran.

Even as he promoted himself as the most pro-Israel president in history, Mr. Trump once more criticized the nation’s “public relations” failures over seven months of war in Gaza.

“I think that Israel has done one thing very badly: public relations,” he said, pointing to the country’s decision to share photos and videos of its military campaign.

And he said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, once a strong ally, deserved some blame for the attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, that incited the recent conflict.

“Bibi Netanyahu rightfully has been criticized for what took place on Oct. 7,” Mr. Trump told Time.

In the wake of Iran’s launching a direct attack on Israel, Mr. Trump also said that the United States should get involved if war broke out between Israel and Iran. “If they attack Israel, yes, we would be there,” he said.

Mr. Trump did not suggest how he might bring the continuing conflict in Gaza to a close, but he said he believed the two-state solution — in which Israelis and Palestinians exist side by side in separate nations — was “going to be very, very tough.”

He would not rule out using the Justice Department as a political tool.

After previously pledging to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” President Biden and his family, Mr. Trump told Time he “wouldn’t want to hurt Biden.”

Yet he also suggested that any action might be conditioned on an upcoming Supreme Court ruling on whether presidents have any immunity from criminal prosecution.

“If they said that a president doesn’t get immunity, then Biden, I am sure, will be prosecuted for all of his crimes,” Mr. Trump said. Mr. Biden has not been charged with any crimes, and an impeachment inquiry by House Republicans has not produced any solid evidence of wrongdoing.

“So when you asked me that question,” he said later, “it depends on what the Supreme Court does.”

Mr. Trump also said he would be open to firing federal prosecutors who refused his orders to prosecute someone, something that would violate a longstanding norm of Justice Department independence.

“It depends on the situation, honestly,” he said.

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