Trump says he's surprised by how hard it is to be president
As he approaches his 100th day in office, President Trump is feeling nostalgic, fondly remembering his days before having the nuclear codes, when he spent his time firing people on television and eating well done steaks in Manhattan restaurants.
"I loved my previous life," he told Reuters in an interview Thursday. "This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier." When he was just a New York businessman with a penchant for gold furnishings, he was used to not having any privacy, but he told Reuters he still isn't quite used to having Secret Service agents with him at all times. "You're really into your own little cocoon," he said, "because you have such massive protection that you really can't go anywhere." That includes getting behind the wheel. "I like to drive," he said. "I can't drive any more." There are a few things from his past life he still gets to do — play golf, tweet at all hours of the day, and visit his private club in Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, where he has spent half of his weekends as president.
Although Trump did take some time during the interview to rehash the election results — passing out a map to Reuters reporters that showed the areas he won in red — he also looked ahead. He's not going to attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner this weekend because he thinks the media has been treating him unfairly, but that won't stop him from attending it in 2018. "I would come next year," he said. "Absolutely."
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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.
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