Trump seemed to think he still had presidential powers — even after election loss: author

After he lost the 2020 election, a defeated Donald Trump still acted as if he was president.

That's according to Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, who appeared on CNN's "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" on Tuesday night, claiming that in at least one of his conversations with the 45th president — post-2020 election defeat at Trump Tower in New York City — he curiously acted as if he was still doing the job during the interview. Setoodeh was plugging his book Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass.

"We watched clips of the show together," Setoodeh explained of one interview he conducted where they watched episodes of Trump's hit TV show "The Apprentice." "We watched the theme song, he really lit up. He watched firing — the first firing of Omarosa [Manigault Newman]."

Trump, he said, became crestfallen when the subject of the presidency came up.

"And then he would talk about what he did at the White House and he would become gloomy and resentful and unhappy and refer to Afghanistan and Joe Biden," he said.

Setoodeh said Trump then appeared to believe he was still in power — despite being relegated to a civilian.

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"He also seemed to think that he still had some foreign policy powers," said Setoodeh. "And there's one day where he told me he needed to go upstairs to deal with 'the Afghanistan' – even though he clearly didn't."

Collins was stunned.

"He told you that ... while you were interviewing him at Trump Tower, he told you he needed to go upstairs to deal with Afghanistan," she asked, as if to make sure she correctly heard what he said.

"With quote, 'the Afghanistan' is how we referred to it," Setoodeh replied.

Setoodeh chatted with the former president at length in 2021 and 2023 for his book.

The book has already drawn scorn from the Trump campaign.

"President Trump was aware of who this individual was throughout the interview process, but this ‘writer’ is a nobody and insignificant so of course he never made an impression," Trump 2024 communications director Steven Cheung stated. "After recognizing the importance of The Apprentice and its significant cultural impact on a global scale, this ‘writer’ has now chosen to allow Trump Derangement Syndrome to rot his brain like so many other losers whose entire existence revolves around President Trump."

Watch the clip below or at this link.