Ukraine, Canada, Signalgate, second term… Donald Trump in the text

This week's cover of the weekly magazine is an edifying document: the astonishing interview given by the American president to three journalists from the monthly magazine The Atlantic, a publication that is hostile to him and which he never fails to criticize.

An unusual format for Courrier international, including The almost complete translation can be found below, and we felt it was significant enough to dedicate our front page to it. Explanations.

On Monday, April 28, on the eve of Donald Trump's 100 days in the White House, The Atlantic magazine published on its website a very long investigation by Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer , two former writers for the Washington Post, on the incredible comeback of the Republican billionaire after his defeat (which he never acknowledged) against Joe Biden in 2020: "We wanted to know in his own words, " they write, " how he had achieved one of the most remarkable comebacks in political history and what lessons, if any, he had learned from it." It is also about establishing an initial assessment of his second term and "the radical transformation of the country and the world" that he is currently driving. But then, the two journalists were refused a proper interview to inform their article: they will have to make do with a few scattered responses over the phone.

But at the end of April, a dramatic turn of events occurred: the White House finally agreed to the principle of an interview and also invited the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, the president's bête noire, the man who revealed the Signalgate scandal*. On the very day of the interview, Donald Trump accused the journalist on his own social network of spreading false information: "Believe it or not, but I'm meeting today with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, the man who wrote so much fiction about me," he boasted on Truth Social as a prelude to the interview. The atmosphere was lively.

On Thursday, April 24, Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, and Jeffrey Goldberg finally interviewed Donald Trump at length in the Oval Office. This isn't the only interview the American president has given recently, but this one stands out. This is due to the circumstances of the interview, the history between the White House and the magazine, but also its tone and the surprising cordiality displayed between the protagonists. Donald Trump talks about the decoration of the Oval Office ( "People love it" ), his second term ( "This presidency is different" ), Ukraine ("I'm saving this country" ) and Canada ( "We don't need anything they have" ), his political career ( "No one has been pilloried more than me" ) and his successes ( "One of the things I'm perhaps most proud of is international relations" ).

The Atlantic chose to publish this interview on the same day as the very long investigation into Trump's comeback. Upon reading it, we immediately wondered how best to share it with our readers: should we simply summarize the content? Launch into a translation? How quickly, given that the weekly was once again closing well ahead of schedule due to the May bank holidays? Wasn't there a risk of saturation?

We finally decided on a translation (by one of our translators) of the interview. Because it basically says a lot of things that we sometimes perceive from afar or through the words or writings of others. Everyone will be the sole judge of the American president's words and logic. These are not sentences reported or taken out of context, nor are they interpretations: it's Donald Trump in the text (or in his head), and, in the long run, it's very instructive. "The first time, I was fighting for my survival and to lead this country. This time, I'm fighting to help my country and help the world," he says. A must-read to the end.

* In a story published in late March, Jeffrey Goldberg explained how the Trump administration sent him its war plans against Houthi militants in Yemen on the Signal app by mistakenly including him in a group created on the messaging app by then-national security adviser Mike Waltz.