Asked Thursday what advice he would give his 25-year-old self, President Trump replied: “Don’t run for president.”
He was kidding, and got plenty of applause for the jest — though a new poll suggests that 53 percent of Americans might offer similar advice to 25 year old.
The 71-year-old president elaborated on his answer: “All my life, I’ve gotten really — you know, look, we all get every once in a while, a knock. But I got the greatest publicity. I was getting such great — until I ran for office… People really do get it. There is a lot of fake news out there. Nobody had any idea. And you know I’m actually proud of the fact that I exposed it to a large extent. Because we exposed it. It’s something — it’s an achievement.”
Trump added that he does respect some journalists. He imagined his advice to his 25-year-old self in a talk with Charlie Kirk, founder of the grassroots conservative youth group Turning Point USA.
When the president made the “don’t run for president joke,” Kirk quickly replied: “But we’re glad you did.”
Twenty-five was a good year for Trump: It was 1971, the year he inherited his father’s company, which he named The Trump Organization.