Trump Revisits Past Claims on Jan. 6, IRS Settlement and Iran

Donald Trump has long shown a knack for repeating the same points until they take hold with his supporters.

He has described the Jan. 6 rioters as patriots even though they attacked police officers, entered lawmakers’ offices and called for Mike Pence to be hanged. Many Republicans condemned the events at the time, but Trump kept saying the episode was not a major incident.

The latest controversy centers on a $1.7 billion fund created as part of a settlement with the IRS. The money is intended to benefit Jan. 6 protesters, including some who were convicted of serious crimes.

Trump has also returned to the first impeachment, which stemmed from a July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A transcript shows Trump pressed Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter after the U.S. had frozen nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine.

“I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair,” Trump said on the call. “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that.”

Trump has continued to call the conversation a “perfect phone call.” The Senate did not convict him on the House charges.

On Iran, Trump has alternated between tough warnings and pauses in the resumed bombing campaign. He said a whole civilization could die in one night, then extended deadlines and agreed to a brief halt at the request of three Middle East leaders.

Trump has said repeatedly that the U.S. military crushed Iran’s defenses and that the war is effectively over. He posted on Truth Social that even if Iranian troops surrendered in the streets of Tehran, some in the press would still call it a victory for Iran.

A reporter asked whether financial concerns at home were pushing Trump toward a deal. “Not even a little bit,” Trump replied. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”

Trump later told Fox’s Bret Baier that the statement was perfect and that he would say it again.

The president has also directed aides to hold secret talks with Greenland about expanding the U.S. role on the island, according to the New York Times. Greenland’s leaders have expressed concern about the approach.