Former President Donald Trump stated that he was able to help avert a “nuclear holocaust” during his time as president, according to an April deposition that was released this week in a New York civil case.
“So you were too busy for the company?” At one point, Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the Democratic attorney general, asked the former president: “So you were too busy for the company?”
In response, President Trump said that when he was campaigning and during his time as president, he was “very busy” and called being commander-in-chief the “most important job in the world, saving millions of lives.”
“I think you would have nuclear holocaust, if I didn’t deal with North Korea,” the former president told the attorney general’s team. “I think you would have a nuclear war, if I weren’t elected. And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth.”
Elaborating, President Trump said he “was interested in solving the problem with North Korea, which was ready to blow up, and solving the problems we had with China, who was just ripping us off left and right, and making sure that Russia never went into Ukraine.”
“There were a lot of things that were happening in the world, as you probably know,” said President Trump, who polls show is the leading GOP candidate for president. “And I did a very good job. I got rid of those problems. Today those problems are very prevalent.”
Those comments were made in response to the New York attorney general’s claims that over the past 10 years or so, his New York-based real estate firm allegedly misstated the value of its assets to save money on taxes, insurance, and loans. The former president and his children have denied those allegations.
In the transcript of his deposition, President Trump said that he had essentially no role in the Trump Organization’s dealings since 2015 as he was running for president and ultimately won the presidency. “My son Eric is much more involved with it than I am,” he testified.
“I’ve been doing other things. And I guess you could say on something major, whatever,” he said. “But I’ve been much less involved in it than—over the last five years, five or six years than ever before.”
“Is he involved in the, you know, in the day-to-day operations of the organization? He might be involved in something that he cares about,” Eric Trump said, adding that the former commander-in-chief is primarily interested in his golf courses. But he has instead allowed his two sons and others to run the Trump Organization, he continued.
Ms. James—who during her campaign for attorney general promised to take action against President Trump—filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization last year as well as President Trump, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and two other top executives. Her office is asking for a summary judgment in advance of a scheduled Oct. 2 trial.
Also in the deposition, the former president appeared to criticize President Joe Biden for what he said were attempts to do business while holding political office. “If you look at Biden, he certainly does business and politics at the same time. But I felt I wanted to be a legitimate president,” he said.
Earlier this year, the former Trump Organization chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, was sentenced to five months in jail for his role in an alleged tax fraud scheme. He had pleaded guilty in August 2022 to multiple felonies as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
And last year, the Trump Organization was convicted for alleged tax fraud as well. That case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat who later charged President Trump with allegedly falsifying business statements during his 2016 campaign, and it was overseen by Judge Juan Merchan, who the former president has said has a vendetta against him.
Regarding his comments on North Korea, President Trump became the first U.S. president to set foot in North Korea, meeting in person with dictator Kim Jong Un. The former president had sought to broker a deal to prevent the isolated, communist regime to stop performing nuclear testing as well as test-firing missiles.
“Would you like me to step across?” President Trump asked Mr. Kim as they shook hands in 2019. “I am OK with it.”
But since then, the country has continued to carry out both missile and nuclear tests, which is a breach of United Nations’ resolutions.
