Donald Trump moderates views but defies conventions

President-elect Donald J Trump on Tuesday tempered some of his most extreme campaign promises, dropping his vow to jail Hillary Clinton, expressing doubt about the value of torturing terrorism suspects and pledging to have an open mind about climate change.

But in a wide-ranging hour long interview with reporters and editors at The New York Times — which was scheduled, cancelled and then reinstated after a dispute over the ground rules — Trump was unapologetic about flouting some of the traditional ethical and political conventions that have long shaped the American presidency.

He said he had no legal obligation to establish boundaries between his business empire and his White House, conceding that the Trump brand “is certainly a hotter brand than it was before.” Still, he said he would try to figure out a way to insulate himself from his businesses, which would be run by his children.

He defended Stephen K Bannon, his chief strategist, against charges of racism, calling him a “decent guy.” And he mocked Republicans who had failed to support him in his unorthodox presidential campaign. In the midday meeting in the 16th-floor boardroom of The Times’s publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr, Trump seemed confident even as he said he was awed by his new job. “It is a very overwhelming job, but I’m not overwhelmed by it,” he said.

He displayed a jumble of impulses, many of them conflicting. He was magnanimous toward Clinton, but boastful about his victory. He was open-minded about some of his positions, uncompromising about others. The interview demonstrated the volatility in Trump’s positions. He said he had no interest in pressing for Clinton’s prosecution over her use of a private email server or for financial acts committed by the Clinton Foundation. “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t,” he said.

On the issue of torture, Trump suggested he had changed his mind about the value of waterboarding after talking with James N Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, who headed the United States Central Command. “He said, ‘I’ve never found it to be useful,’” Trump said. He added that Mattis found more value in building trust and rewarding cooperation with terrorism suspects: “‘Give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and I’ll do better.’” “I was very impressed by that answer,” Trump said.
 

Torture, he said, is “not going to make the kind of a difference that a lot of people are thinking.”

Trump repeated that Mattis was being “seriously, seriously considered” to be secretary of defence. “I think it’s time, maybe, for a general,” he said. On climate change, Trump refused to repeat his promise to abandon the international climate accord reached last year in Paris, saying, “I’m looking at it very closely.”

Despite the recent appointment to his transition team of a fierce critic of the Paris accords, Trump said that “I have an open mind to it” and that clean air and “crystal clear water” were vitally important.

He held out assurances that he did not intend to embrace extremist positions in some areas.