U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday stepped up his campaign promises to impose trade tariffs and carry out mass deportations, while hinting that the U.S. could withdraw from NATO when he takes office next month.
In his first official television interview since the election and just six weeks before his inauguration, Trump again signaled that US support for Ukraine would be reduced, saying he would "probably" cut aid to Kiev to repel a Russian invasion.
He also said he would "very quickly" consider pardons for supporters jailed for attacking the US Capitol after his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
The NBC interview was taped on Friday but aired on Sunday, after Trump's meetings with the presidents of France and Ukraine over the weekend.
Trump repeated his threat to leave NATO, a cornerstone of security in Europe since World War II, saying America's allies are not paying enough for defense.
"If they pay their bills and if I think they treat us fairly, the answer is absolutely that I would stay in NATO," Trump said.
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But, he added, there is "absolutely" the possibility of the US leaving NATO.
Trump also stressed that his campaign promises of massive tariffs, including on major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China, would be implemented.
"We subsidize Mexico and we subsidize Canada and we subsidize many countries around the world," he said.
Promising that "properly used" tariffs are "a very powerful tool", Trump added that he will use them not only economically, "but also to get other things outside of the economy".
On his first day in office in January, he vowed to impose 25 percent tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada unless those countries satisfactorily halt illegal immigration and the flow of drugs like fentanyl into the US. He also threatened tariffs on China to curb the country's fentanyl production.
When asked if Americans would see higher prices as a result of the tariffs, Trump said he could not guarantee anything.
He also said he would continue mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, which economists say could disrupt the economy.
"I think you have to do it, and it's hard – very hard to do," he said.
He also said he would try to end the "ridiculous" constitutional right to US citizenship for anyone born in the country.
Still, he offered the possibility that some undocumented migrants — a key source of labor for much of the U.S. economy — would be allowed to stay.
Trump said he would "work with Democrats" on so-called "dreamers" – people who grew up in the US after entering the country illegally as young children.
However, Trump suggested that even US citizens could be deported if they have family members who are in the country illegally, a legally dubious move.
"The only way you don't break up a family is to keep them together and you have to bring them all back together," he said.
Trump again refused to admit he had lost the 2020 election and said members of Congress investigating him over the January 6, 2021 uprising by his supporters "should go to jail."
He said he would not personally order law enforcement to prosecute his political enemies, but said officials could make their own decisions about that.
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