In an exclusive phone interview with Donald Trump on Wednesday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt grilled the President-elect on his use of Twitter, fretting: “I have not seen you backing off fights on Twitter. In the time since you were elected, you’ve targeted the cast of Hamilton, The New York Times, China, Boeing, the media, and SNL. Is this proving to be a habit that you're finding a difficult time breaking?”

Trump pushed back: “No, I think I am very restrained and I talk about important things....And frankly, it's a modern day form of communication....Between Facebook and Twitter, I have, I guess, more than 40 million people.” While praising the social media platform, he worked in a jab at the liberal media: “I get it out much faster than a press release. I get it out much more honestly than dealing with dishonest reporters because so many reporters are dishonest.”

Lauer began the exchange by asking about Trump being selected as Time magazine’s Person of the Year: “...as [Time magazine editor-in-chief] Nancy Gibbs has said this year and in the past, the magazine has always been willing to say it was a person who influenced events for better or for worse. So just confirming, you see this as a compliment, not some kind of condemnation?”

Referencing the publication’s cover story labeling him the “President of the Divided States of America,” Trump replied:

Well, as an example, when you say ‘Divided States of America,’ I didn't divide them. They're divided now. I mean, there's a lot of division. And we're going to put it back together and we’re going to have a country that's very well healed....But to be on the cover Time magazine as the Person of the Year is a tremendous honor.

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Lauer revisited the topic near the end of the interview: “I mentioned to you that it says ‘Person of the Year,’ it’s got your picture, and then sub-headline is, ‘President of the Divided States of America.’ You referenced that a little while ago. What would you have written as a sub-headline?” Trump reiterated: “Well, I think putting ‘divided’ is snarky. But again, it’s divided – I'm not president yet. So I didn't do anything to divide.”

Promoting the magazine’s latest issue in a segment just prior to Trump’s call-in, Time’s Gibbs justified the negative headline: “You know, the Person of the Year, as we always remind people, is the person who has had the greatest influence on events for better or worse. And the fascinating thing this year is I've never seen so much agreement over who had the most influence or the most disagreement over whether it was for better or worse.”

Lauer followed-up: “Do you take a stand whether it was for better or worse as a magazine?” Gibbs dodged: “The voters took their stand and are continuing to argue about it and I think will be arguing going forward....We find ourselves in a particularly unusual place as a country this year in the way this election unfolded.”

In sharp contrast, in 2008, Time unequivocally gushed over President-elect Barack Obama being named Person of the Year.

In addition to scolding Trump for tweeting, Lauer lectured him on criticizing Boeing’s $4 billion contract to build a new fleet of presidential aircraft: “You picked a fight 24 hours ago with Boeing about the new Air Force One project and the cost of that project...shortly after you made those comments, the market value of Boeing dropped about a billion dollars in a matter of minutes before rebounding later in the day....After you criticized Boeing, The Washington Post has a headline today saying ‘Corporations are unnerved in this country.’”

Trump dismissed the Post article: “I think that's just The Washington Post. Because no matter what you do, they'll never say good. And what happens is they're so unnerved that the stock market has hit an all-time record since I've been elected....So I don't know how somebody says that, you know, people are unnerved. It's just the opposite.”

One amusing moment came later in the exchange, when Lauer rushed to the defense of NBC’s Saturday Night Live and it’s Trump-bashing:

LAUER: But on a lighter note, can we agree, President-elect Trump, that at this stage it would be better for you to simply stop watching SNL, as opposed to watching it and then complaining about it? TRUMP: Well, I hosted SNL when it was a good show, but it's not a good show anymore. First of all, nothing to do with me. There's nothing funny about it. The skits are terrible. LAUER: So why do you keep watching it? TRUMP: I like Alec [Baldwin], but his imitation of me is really mean-spirited and not very good. I don’t think it’s good. And I do like him, I like him as an actor, but I don't think that his imitation of me gets me at all, and it’s meant to be very mean-spirited, which is very biased and I don't like it, so I can tweet that out. LAUER: But you can't bring yourself to stop watching it? TRUMP: No, look, frankly, the way the show is going now, and you look at the kind of work they're doing, who knows how long that show’s going to be on? It's a terrible show. LAUER: I think it’s gonna do okay.

Here is a full transcript of Lauer’s questions to Trump in the December 7 interview: