President Donald Trump said he would “probably” not run for president again after his second term in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.
The remark came in response to a question from the hosts of “Squawk Box” about whether he would run for a third term, which the Constitution forbids, to which Trump replied: “No. Probably not. I’d like to run. I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had. You know why? Because people love the tariffs.”
Trump was immediately fact-checked by host Joe Kernen, who pushed back that Trump has the best poll numbers among Republicans, not the general public. Trump responded that he had “a lot of fake polls.”
In late July, TIME reported that Trump’s poll numbers had hit new lows, with a Gallup poll showing his approval ratings at 37% among U.S. adults. His support has dropped significantly among Independents, who cited the budget, Ukraine and foreign trade. His standing with Republicans had remained in the high 80s, though, steady throughout his second term.
Trump’s comments come after he has teased running for a third term throughout the first six months of his second. In some interviews, he has refused to rule out the possibility of running again, despite the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution only allowing presidents to serve two terms in office.
“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said in a March interview with NBC News. He added that “there are methods which you could do it.”
Many of Trump’s supporters have been encouraged by the idea and have taken to chanting “four more years” at his events. In April, the Trump Organization began selling “Trump 2028” caps on its merchandising website, as well as t-shirts that say “Trump 2028 (Rewrite the Rules),”
In other interviews, however, Trump has denied he would seek a third term. In an April 22 interview with TIME, Trump said: “I’d rather not discuss that now, but as you know, there are some loopholes that have been discussed that are well known. But I don’t believe in loopholes.” In a May NBC interview, he added that he would rather look to other leaders in the party, including his Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The phone interview with CNBC covered Trump’s tariffs, import taxes, Trump’s decision to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and the recent jobs report that led to Trump firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Threats of 250% pharma tariffs
Trump said that in addition to his plans to roll out tariffs on semiconductors and chips—the announcement of which he said will come “within the next week or so”—he also wants to eventually roll out a massive tariff on pharmaceuticals to boost domestic production.
“On pharmaceuticals, we’ll be putting an initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year, one and a half years, maximum, it’s going to go to 150% and then it’s going to go to 250% because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country,” Trump said, threatening the highest rate thus far on the product.
This news comes after a May Executive Order from Trump that directed the U.S. Department of Health and Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug prices, which he doubled down on in late July after he sent letters to 17 drugmakers calling on them to commit to steps to lower U.S. drug prices by Sept. 29.
Leaders in the pharmaceutical industry have warned, though, that these large levies will drive up drug prices.
NATO leaders ‘do whatever I want’
Trump told CNBC hosts that the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “do whatever I want.”
Tensions have risen as NATO attempts to work towards a ceasefire in Russia and Ukraine, telling NBC in July that the U.S. would work through the organization to help give weapons to Ukraine.
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In the same interview, Trump threatened the European Union with 35% tariffs if it failed to live up to a pledge to invest some $600 billion in the U.S., and also threatened India with higher tariffs, citing their buying of Russian oil. India, he says, has “not been a good trading partner.”
Trump had criticized India’s buying of Russian oil on Truth Social on Monday, claiming he would “substantially” raise tariffs as a result.
“They’re fueling the war machine. And if they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy,” Trump said of India in the CNBC interview Tuesday.
Jobs report was ‘rigged’
Last week, Trump directed his Administration to fire Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, following a report that showed that the U.S. added fewer jobs in July than many economists had expected, which indicated to economists that job growth stalled in the aftermath of several of Trump’s controversial economic policies, including his volatile tariff policies.
“It’s a highly political situation. It’s totally rigged. Smart people know it. People with common sense know it,” Trump told CNBC, though host Kernan pushed back, telling Trump that this was a “big leap” to call the report “rigged.”
“Critics are going to say, ‘Hey, he’s picking a guy or a gal that’s going to give him the numbers that he wants.’ So it undermines confidence in the system to some extent,” Kernan told the President.
Still, Trump defended his move.
“She’s a very nice woman, but when they say that nobody was involved, that it wasn’t political, give me a break.”