Donald Trump says his campaign will be a 'complete waste of time' if he doesn't become president

(Image credit: Twitter.com/realdonaldtrump)

Donald Trump admitted during an interview with Megyn Kelly that if he doesn't end up being elected president in November, he'll consider the past year "a total and complete waste of time, energy, and money."

Kelly grilled the presumptive Republican nominee during Tuesday night's Megyn Kelly Presents, her first prime-time special on the Fox broadcasting network. It was the pair's first one-on-one interview since the August Fox News Republican debate, when Trump claimed Kelly asked unfair questions regarding comments he previously made about women. Trump told Kelly that the spat possibly helped prepare him for the ensuing race. "In a certain way, what you did might have been a favor, because I felt so good about having gotten through — I said, 'If I could get through this debate, with those questions, you can get through anything,'" he said.

When asked if he regretted the comments he made about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) being captured during the Vietnam War and Carly Fiorina's face, Trump responded, "Uh, yeah, I guess so. You have to go forward. Make a mistake, you go forward and you, you know, you can correct a mistake. But to look back and say, 'Gee whiz, I wish I didn't do this or that,' I don't think that's good. In a certain way, I don't even think that's healthy." He defended his harsh tone throughout the campaign, saying, "If I were soft, if I were presidential … in a way, it's a bad word, because there's nothing wrong with being presidential, but if I had not fought back in the way I fought back, I don't think I would have been successful." He also claimed to never throw the first punch. "I respond pretty strongly, but in just about all cases, I've been responding to what they did to me," he said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.