“He said, ‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not enjoying it.’ He said, ‘No, you act like you’re winning and you won. You’re actually enjoying it.’ I said, ‘I’m not enjoying it. I’m doing it because it’s very important what I'm doing,’” Trump told the assembled media, before criticizing former FBI officials including Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe and James Comey.

“I consider what I’ve done here with this whole witch hunt from day one — with the insurance policy, with the horrible statements made between Strzok and Page and McCabe and Comey, who lied to Congress and did so many other bad things. He lied and he leaked,” Trump said. “When I finish, I think that this is going to go down as one of the greatest things I’ve done for our country. These are bad, corrupt people. These are bad people, and very bad for our country.”

The president also insisted Wednesday that he would prefer for his Senate trial to “go the long way,” and for several current and former senior administration officials to be called as witnesses. But testimony from individuals such as former national security adviser John Bolton, Trump claimed, could have dangerous consequences and imperil America’s safety.

Bolton “knows some of my thoughts” and “knows what I think about leaders,” Trump said, warning of the repercussions of his former aide divulging sensitive information on world affairs.

“When he knows my thoughts on certain people and other governments, and we’re talking about massive trade deals and war and peace and all these different things that we talk about, that’s really a very important national security problem,” Trump said.

The president added that when Bolton left the administration in September, the two men “probably” did not part ways “on the best of terms,” and “you don’t like people testifying when they didn’t leave on good terms.”

Trump asserted that potential testimony by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Energy Secretary Rick Perry would raise similar national security issues, but said he would “love” for both Pompeo and Perry to serve as witnesses.