President Donald Trump sat down with host Kristen Welker for a full length interview on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” — and throughout the conversation, he often paused to challenge the mainstream media narratives and the framing Welker chose for her questions.

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

Trump’s repeated jabs at Welker during the interview reflect the tone that most associated with his second administration have taken with members of the press — and the tone that Trump himself exhibited in a previous wide-ranging interview with ABC News anchor Terry Moran — making his interview the perfect summary of a week in legacy media narratives.

Welker began the interview with questions about the economy, asking Trump whether he deserved credit  — or blame — for the general direction the economy has taken during the first 100 days of his administration. The president threaded the needle a bit on that question, noting that some policy changes impact the economy more quickly than others — meaning that some of the current economic numbers were still a direct result of policies implemented by former President Joe Biden.

To Welker, who asked whether the economy was truly a Trump economy, the president replied, “I think certain aspects of it are. Costs are. I was able to get down the costs, but even that, it takes awhile to get them down but we got them down good. … We lost $5-6 billion a day [on trade] with Biden — $5-6 billion. And I’ve got that down to a great number right now in a record time.”

NBC News, true to form, published that same clip under a headline suggesting that Trump was passing off the less positive economic numbers on Biden — without noting that the president was right when he said that some policies took longer to show results than others might.

Welker pressed the president on the tariffs, arguing that there were some small businesses hurt by the initial impact — but Trump immediately challenged her framing of the issue.

“You pick a couple of little businesses. What about the car business? They’re going to make a fortune because of the tariffs … the head of the union who was no fan of mine … now he’s saying… ‘We’ve been waiting 40 years for somebody to do what Trump is doing.’”

When the topic turned to illegal immigration, Trump referenced what Attorney General Pam Bondi has labeled the “real constitutional crisis” — the fact that Democrats and a number of carefully-shopped district court judges have attempted to overwhelm the system by forcing the Trump administration to adjudicate every illegal immigrant’s individual case prior to ordering deportation.

“The big emergency right now is that we have thousands of people that we want to take out — and we have some judges that want everybody to go to court,” Trump said, arguing that based on the numbers, it would take hundreds of years to process every illegal immigrant through the court system. “We have millions of people. We’re going to have millions of court cases?”

Welker pressed Trump on whether or not he believed everyone in the United States — whether citizen or not — was entitled to due process and the right to plead their case before a judge, and Trump’s reply was simple: “I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”

“We have thousands of people … some of the worst, most dangerous on earth — and I was elected to get them the hell out of here and the courts are holding me from doing it,” Trump added.

NBC’s interpretation of that exchange was slightly different: “Trump, asked if he has to ‘uphold the Constitution,’ says, ‘I don’t know’.”

Welker went on to challenge Trump’s actions regarding certain political adversaries – in particular those who were directly involved in prosecuting the legal cases against him — asking whether he was making matters worse by stripping their security clearances.

“You said you wanted to unify the country. Does going after political foes undercut that goal?” she asked.

Trump, who has often said that the cases against him were entirely political in nature, said no — the goal was to make sure that the people filling such roles were “honest people.”

“What do you say to those who believe you are taking the country down an authoritarian path?” Welker asked, provoking an immediate reaction from Trump.

“There you go again. Why don’t you ask in a different way? Many people want to come into our country. Many people love Trump … I won the popular vote,” Trump said. “They had their chance at the election, and they lost big.”

Welker even asked Trump about rumors that he was actively considering running for a third term as president — rumors that the president quickly laughed off.

“I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody — ideally a great Republican, a great Republican — to carry it forward,” Trump said. “Four years is plenty of time to do something really spectacular.”

When asked directly, Trump named Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential successors.

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President Donald Trump sat down with host Kristen Welker for a full length interview on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” — and throughout the conversation, he often paused to challenge the mainstream media narratives and the framing Welker chose for her questions.

For those who don’t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week’s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.

Trump’s repeated jabs at Welker during the interview reflect the tone that most associated with his second administration have taken with members of the press — and the tone that Trump himself exhibited in a previous wide-ranging interview with ABC News anchor Terry Moran — making his interview the perfect summary of a week in legacy media narratives.

Welker began the interview with questions about the economy, asking Trump whether he deserved credit  — or blame — for the general direction the economy has taken during the first 100 days of his administration. The president threaded the needle a bit on that question, noting that some policy changes impact the economy more quickly than others — meaning that some of the current economic numbers were still a direct result of policies implemented by former President Joe Biden.

To Welker, who asked whether the economy was truly a Trump economy, the president replied, “I think certain aspects of it are. Costs are. I was able to get down the costs, but even that, it takes awhile to get them down but we got them down good. … We lost $5-6 billion a day [on trade] with Biden — $5-6 billion. And I’ve got that down to a great number right now in a record time.”

NBC News, true to form, published that same clip under a headline suggesting that Trump was passing off the less positive economic numbers on Biden — without noting that the president was right when he said that some policies took longer to show results than others might.

Welker pressed the president on the tariffs, arguing that there were some small businesses hurt by the initial impact — but Trump immediately challenged her framing of the issue.

“You pick a couple of little businesses. What about the car business? They’re going to make a fortune because of the tariffs … the head of the union who was no fan of mine … now he’s saying… ‘We’ve been waiting 40 years for somebody to do what Trump is doing.’”

When the topic turned to illegal immigration, Trump referenced what Attorney General Pam Bondi has labeled the “real constitutional crisis” — the fact that Democrats and a number of carefully-shopped district court judges have attempted to overwhelm the system by forcing the Trump administration to adjudicate every illegal immigrant’s individual case prior to ordering deportation.

“The big emergency right now is that we have thousands of people that we want to take out — and we have some judges that want everybody to go to court,” Trump said, arguing that based on the numbers, it would take hundreds of years to process every illegal immigrant through the court system. “We have millions of people. We’re going to have millions of court cases?”

Welker pressed Trump on whether or not he believed everyone in the United States — whether citizen or not — was entitled to due process and the right to plead their case before a judge, and Trump’s reply was simple: “I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”

“We have thousands of people … some of the worst, most dangerous on earth — and I was elected to get them the hell out of here and the courts are holding me from doing it,” Trump added.

NBC’s interpretation of that exchange was slightly different: “Trump, asked if he has to ‘uphold the Constitution,’ says, ‘I don’t know’.”

Welker went on to challenge Trump’s actions regarding certain political adversaries – in particular those who were directly involved in prosecuting the legal cases against him — asking whether he was making matters worse by stripping their security clearances.

“You said you wanted to unify the country. Does going after political foes undercut that goal?” she asked.

Trump, who has often said that the cases against him were entirely political in nature, said no — the goal was to make sure that the people filling such roles were “honest people.”

“What do you say to those who believe you are taking the country down an authoritarian path?” Welker asked, provoking an immediate reaction from Trump.

“There you go again. Why don’t you ask in a different way? Many people want to come into our country. Many people love Trump … I won the popular vote,” Trump said. “They had their chance at the election, and they lost big.”

Welker even asked Trump about rumors that he was actively considering running for a third term as president — rumors that the president quickly laughed off.

“I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody — ideally a great Republican, a great Republican — to carry it forward,” Trump said. “Four years is plenty of time to do something really spectacular.”

When asked directly, Trump named Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential successors.

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