Trump appeared to believe he still had ‘foreign policy powers’ after leaving White House: Author

Former President Trump appeared to believe he still had “foreign policy powers” after leaving the White House, according to author Ramin Setoodeh, who interviewed the former president at length for a new book.

Setoodeh described on CNN’s “The Source” what it was like sitting down with the former president to interview him, telling host Kaitlan Collins that Trump was the “happiest” when he was talking about “The Apprentice.” He said Trump’s mood would shift when he began talking about the White House.

“And then he would talk about what he did at the White House, and he would become gloomy, and resentful, and unhappy, and refer to Afghanistan and Joe Biden. But he also seemed to think that he still had some foreign policy powers,” he said Tuesday.

“And there was one day, where he told me he needed to go upstairs to deal with Afghanistan, even though he clearly didn’t,” he said.

The author also noted that Trump referred to it as “the Afghanistan.”

Setoodeh, the co-editor-in-chief for Variety, interviewed Trump six times for his book, “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass,” which was released Tuesday.

Earlier in his CNN appearance, Setoodeh described Trump as appearing “deflated” and “conflicted” during the half-dozen interviews, which he said took place starting in May 2021.

Trump left office at the end of January 2021, after spending months baselessly claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

“He was angry about the way in which the press had treated him. He still believed that he won the election. And he was happiest, when he talked to me about hosting ‘The Apprentice,’” Setoodeh said.
 
“It was the thing that brought him the most joy. We watched clips of the show, together. We watched the theme song. And he really lit up,” he added.

Steven Cheung, communications director for Trump’s campaign, criticized Setoodeh’s recent comments in a statement to The Hill. 

“After recognizing the importance of The Apprentice, its significant cultural impact on a global scale, and President Trump’s remarkable role in forever changing the landscape of entertainment, this ‘writer’ has now chosen to allow Trump Derangement Syndrome to rot his brain like so many other losers whose entire existence revolves around President Trump,” Cheung said.

Updated at 11:36 a.m. EDT