None of the millions of people who voted illegally, he explained without evidence, voted for him—they all voted for his opponent, Hillary Clinton. “Believe me. Those were Hillary votes. And if you look at it they all voted for Hillary. They all voted for Hillary. They didn’t vote for me. I don’t believe I got one,” Trump said, seeming to build momentum as he turned the idea over in his head. “Okay, these are people that voted for Hillary Clinton. And if they didn’t vote, it would’ve been different in the popular.”

This alternate reality continued to shine through when the conversation turned to the wall Trump says he plans to build on the Mexican border. In this reality, it appears that Trump still believes that as president, he can get away with making huge promises without having a plan to back them up, as he did throughout the campaign. Now, of course, Trump isn’t offering mere campaign promises; he is actually able to effect change, and will be held accountable for doing so, or failing to do so. At the same time, Trump’s conversation with Muir suggested a third option: obfuscating his position to the point that he can never be held to account, no matter the outcome.

When Muir asked if the American taxpayer will pay for the wall at first, Trump’s response was that America will get reimbursed. Muir then pointed out that Mexico’s president has clearly stated that he won’t. “I think he has to say that. I’m just telling you there will be a payment. It will be a form, perhaps a complicated form.”

On the timing of the wall, Trump’s only clue was that it will happen “as soon as we can physically building….I would say in months, yeah.” And in explaining if people here illegally should worry about their future in the U.S., he offered a stunningly conflicting message. “They shouldn’t be worried. They are here illegally,” he said. But “they shouldn’t be worried. I have a big heart.”

He gave a series on non-answers when it came to the issue of torture. People have told him how effective it is, Trump said, and he believes you have to “fight fire with fire,” but if his top security officials don’t want to waterboard people, he will follow their lead. He claimed that his administration would release information about C.I.A. black sites within two hours of the interview. So far, no information has been released.

Equally as skewed was his continued fixation with his inauguration day crowd turnout. Muir gave him a chance to apologize for what has been called an inappropriate speech at C.I.A. headquarters on Saturday. Trump was there to seemingly make nice with the agency and offer his full support and appreciation. Instead, he spent the bulk of his speech talking about his presence on the cover of Time magazine and what he saw as an unfair assessment of his crowds by the media. In Trump’s mind, though, the speech was “a home run.”

He knew it was a homerun, he explained, based on the reaction from Fox News. “We see what Fox said,” Trump noted. “They said it was one of the great speeches. They showed the people applauding and screaming and they were all C.I.A. Somebody was asking Sean [Hannity], ‘Well, were they Trump people that were put? We don’t have Trump people. They were C.I.A. people.” He went on to add that he would give the same speech again, even knowing the outside reaction to it.

“People loved it,” Trump continued, though numerous reports from government officials who were present at the speech suggested it was poorly received, and likely made the president’s relationship with the intelligence community even worse. “They gave me a standing ovation for a very long time. They never even sat down during the speech. There was love in the room.” He told Muir to turn on Fox to see how they reacted in order to get a more accurate depiction.