President Donald Trump sat down with Time magazine for a combative back-and-forth over his credibility, where he taunted his detractors by pointing out one single fact.

'Hey look, in the mean time, I guess, I can't be doing so badly, because I'm president, and you're not. You know,' Trump told Time's Washington bureau chief Michael Scherer. 'Say hello to everybody OK?'

This remark, which Trump seemed to direct at all his critics in the media, came after the president and Scherer volleyed over Trump's still-disputed wire-tapping claim and other statements the president has made, in which the facts can't quite back him up.

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President Donald Trump sat down with Time magazine yesterday at the White House and talked about whether his statements are hurting his credibility

Time's cover asks, 'Is truth dead?' and Trump started out the interview by ticking off a number of statements he's made where he's turned out to be 'right.'

'Sweden,' Trump said. 'I made the statement, everyone goes crazy. The next day they have a massive riot, and death, and problems.'

President Trump's interview appears in the new issue of Time, which asks, 'Is truth dead?'

Trump also contended that he was spot on about Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin, noting Weiner had 'all of Hillary's email on his thing.'

The FBI's late announcement that the bureau was again looking through Clinton's emails came from correspondence found on the disgraced congressman's computer, as part of another case.

'NATO, obsolete, because it doesn't cover terrorism,' Trump continued. 'They fixed that, and I said that the allies must pay. Nobody knew that they weren’t paying. I did. I figured it.'

The president said he was also correct about Brexit, Brussels – eluding to the March 2016 terror attack in the Belgian capital – and the election being 'rigged' against Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

'But there’s other things you said that haven’t panned out,' Scherer pointed out, most notably the wire-tapping claims the president first made in a tweet.

Scherer and Trump sat down yesterday around the same time as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes' White House press conference, so neither the journalist nor the president knew exactly the contents of what Nunes said.

But Trump pointed out that he hadn't meant 'wiretapping' literally when he tweeted his allegation against former President Obama, despite the fact that he included the word 'phone' in one of those original tweets.

'Now remember this. When I said wiretapping, it was in quotes. Because a wiretapping is, you know today it is different than wiretapping. It is just a good description. But wiretapping was in quotes. What I'm talking about is surveillance,' the president noted.

Scherer then asked Trump if he felt FBI Director James Comey's testimony on Monday affected the president's credibility on the matter.

Comey told members of Congress that he had 'no information' to back Trump's wiretapping claim.

'No, I have, look. I have articles saying it happened,' Trump continued. He pointed to a story in the New York Times, which in print was headlined 'Wiretapped data used in inquiry of Trump aides.'

The New York Times pushed back on Trump using this tidbit as an explanation in a fact-check piece that came out last week.

'The Times article Mr. Trump referred to did use the word "wiretap" but it did not assert that Mr. Obama had ordered surveillance of Mr. Trump, nor did it even mention Mr. Obama,' the Times' article read. 'Rather, the story referred to intercepted information collected overseas.'

During the sit-down with Time, Trump pointed to Nunes' press conference.

At the White House yesterday, Nunes warned that some members of the president's transition team, including possibly the president himself, may have had their conversations 'incidentally collected.'

Nunes' statements, however, did nothing to give credence to Trump's wiretapping claims.

'One of my ideas here is that throughout the campaign and now as president, you have used disputed statements, this is one of them that is disputed, the claim that three million undocumented people voted in the election,' Scherer brought up.

Trump had suggested he would have won the popular vote, which he lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton, had three million or so people not voted 'illegally.'

'Well I think I will be proved right about that too,' Trump replied.

Scherer pointed to Trump saying that Muslims in New York had celebrated on 9/11.

'Well if you look at the reporter, he wrote the story in the Washington Post,' Trump said.

Scherer wondered if the fact that these stories are disputed, actually made them better message vehicles, because Trump's supporters would get excited about them.

At that, Trump moved back to the topic of voter fraud, suggesting that most of these people simply registered wrong.

But there was no evidence to suggest 3 million people voted illegally, Scherer pointed out.

'We’ll see after the committee. I have people say it was more than that. We will see after we have,' Trump said, calling it a 'serious problem.'

Scherer then asked the president if there was anything wrong with making 'predictions,' without having factual evidence to back it up.

'I’m a very instinctual person, but my instinct turns out to be right,' Trump said, going into how he thought he would win the election, but other people – including ABC News' George Stephanopoulos – laughed and doubted.

He tied that in with Brexit too.

'I said, no Brexit is going to happen, and everybody laughed, and Brexit happened. Many many things. They turn out to be right,' Trump said.

'And now today, Devin Nunes, just had a news conference,' the president stated.

Scherer pointed out that 'incidental collection,' which was what Nunes was concerned about, would not mean wiretapping of Trump, but of someone else.

The journalist also pointed to Nunes' statement, which said he still had no evidence to back Trump's wiretapping claim.

'Well, he just got this information. This was new information. That was just got,' Trump replied.

'Members, of, let’s see, were under surveillance during the Obama Administration following November’s election. Wow. This just came out. So, ah, just came out,' Trump continued, reading a Politico story about the presser.

The Time magazine journalist tried to get Trump to explain why the president has said other things that weren't true, including a conspiracy theory candidate Trump pedaled, suggesting Sen. Ted Cruz's father had something to do with President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

'Well that was in a newspaper,' Trump said. 'No, no, I like Ted Cruz, he’s a friend of mine. But that was in the newspaper ... A Ted Cruz article referred to a newspaper story with, had a picture of Ted Cruz, his father, and Lee Harvey Oswald, having breakfast.'

The newspaper Trump was referring to was the National Enquirer.

'Why do you say that I have to apologize?' Trump asked.

Scherer pointed to the Wall Street Journal op-ed, which smacked the president for his 'falsehoods,' suggesting his comments were eroding public trust.

'I thought it was, I thought it was a disgrace that they could write that,' Trump said.

The Time reporter outlined a similar situation in which the president had to articulate to the American people that some serious national security event has happened.

During his latest interview with Time, President Trump asked if he had the record for appearing on the magazine's cover. President Nixon still holds the record

Trump suggested it was silly to think that he wouldn't be believed.

'The country believes me. Hey. I went to Kentucky two nights ago, we had 25,000 people in a massive basketball arena. There wasn’t a seat, they had to send away people,' the president explained. 'I went to Tennessee four nights ago. We had a packed house, they had to send away thousands of people.'

'The country’s not buying it, it is fake media. And the Wall Street Journal is a part of it,' the president added.

When Scherer then suggested that Trump must not be concerned about his credibility, the president again launched into a laundry list of areas where he believed he was right.

On the point of Sweden, which Trump again brought up, Scherer pointed out that the president very specifically pointed to an incident that happened on a Friday night.

Now when Trump speaks of Sweden, he brings up a riot that happened several days later.

'No I am saying I was right. I am talking about Sweden. I’m talking about what Sweden has done to themselves is very sad, that is what I am talking about,' Trump contended.

He then brought up how he was an 'instinctual person' before bopping the media on the head.

'And the New York and CNN and all of them, they did these polls, which were extremely bad and they turned out to be totally wrong, and my polls showed I was going to win,' Trump said.

'And then Time magazine, which treats me horribly, but obviously I sell, I assume this is going to be a cover too, have I set the record?' he asked Scherer. 'I guess, right? Covers, nobody’s had more covers.'

Scherer said President Nixon still had Trump beat, but pointed out that Nixon was in office longer.

'OK good. I’m sure I’ll win,' Trump said.

The Time journalist then backtracked to Comey's testimony, noting how the FBI director and the Department of Justice had no evidence to support the president's wire-tapping claim, nor did they have evidence that British spies were involved, which was a claim made by Fox News personality Judge Andrew Napolitano that the president parroted as well.

Trump, again, tried to use the New York Times headline as cover, but then pivoted and pointed a finger at 'the leakers' who released Gen. Michael Flynn's name.

'But the real story here is, who released General Flynn’s name? Who released, who released my conversations with Australia, and who released my conversation with Mexico?' Trump said, pointing to early instances of leaking during his administration.

'To me, Michael, that’s the story, these leakers, they are disgusting,' Trump said.

Trying to take the conversation full circle, Scherer pointed out that Trump may have a credibility problem if the intelligence community comes out and identifies the leaker, but Trump has previously discredited the intelligence community.

'I’m not saying—no, I’m not blaming,' Trump replied. 'First of all, I put Mike Pompeo in. I put Senator Dan Coats in. These are great people.'

'I think they are great people and they are going to, I have a lot of confidence in them. So hopefully things will straighten out,' he continued.

'But I inherited a mess, I inherited a mess in so many ways. I inherited a mess in the Middle East, and a mess with North Korea, I inherited a mess with jobs ... And I inherited a mess on trade.'

'I mean we have many, you can go up and down the ladder,' he said.

Trump then boasted about the fact that he was president and concluded the interview.



