Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump provided an uncharacteristically reflective account of his relationship with his late brother Fred Trump Jr. in a new interview with The Washington Post, again citing his deceased brother's struggle with alcoholism as a driving force behind his administration's war on the opioid crisis.

"I guess you could say now I'm the chief of trying to solve it," Trump told the Post in an interview published Thursday. "I don't know that I'd be working, devoting the kind of time and energy and even the money we are allocating to (the opioid crisis) ... I don't know that I'd be doing that had I not had the experience with Fred."

Fred Trump Jr. struggled with alcoholism for much of his life and died in 1981 at age 42. President Trump, who rarely admits mistakes and seldomly speaks in such personal terms, has previously cited his brother's addiction when pushing for tougher drug enforcement and awareness, but he provided new insights to the Post about his relationship with his late brother and the regrets he holds from placing career pressure on him.

Trump told the paper that he once told his brother that he was "wasting his time" with his aspirations of becoming a pilot instead of joining the family's real estate business and said, "I do regret having put pressure on him."

"It was just not his thing ... I think the mistake that we made was we assumed that everybody would like it," he told the Post, referring to the family's business. "That would be the biggest mistake ... There was sort of a double pressure put on him," he told the paper, referring to himself and his father, Fred Trump Sr.

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