Donald Trump fired his embattled campaign manager Monday morning, but by Monday afternoon the Republican presidential nominee was magnanimous about the man who once described him as a prized race horse.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, Trump described Corey Lewandowski with more than a few superlative adjectives — “terrific,” “good" and “talented" among them — and said that together, they ran “a small, beautiful, unified campaign” during the primaries.
But, Trump added, “we’re going to go a little bit of a different route from this point forward. A little different style.”
When O’Reilly asked Trump if he believed there was “a personal component inside the president’s personality that sympathizes with the Muslim world,” he said:
“I don’t believe anything. I see things.” Between the Iran deal and Obama’s refusal to utter the words “radical Islam,” Trump said, it wasn’t a question of what he thinks.
“This isn’t thinking,” he said. “This is facts.”
Related: Donald Trump Takes a Conspiracy Turn After Orlando
When O’Reilly asked Trump about one of his most merciless critics, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the presidential nominee described her as “very poor senator.” Did he regret calling her “Pocahontas?”
“I do,” he said, repeating a line he used earlier this month. “I do regret calling her Pocahontas because I think it’s a tremendous insult to Pocahontas. So, to Pocahontas, I would like to apologize to you.”
Without providing details, Trump said he "absolutely" wanted to prohibit people on a government terror watch list from buying guns. But he doesn't support banning weapons “that can fire a lot of rounds” — “they mostly use them for recreation,” he said — nor does he favor registering serial numbers with the FBI.
Trump was happy to exult in his endorsement from America’s largest gun lobby. Noting that the National Rifle Association had never before supported a presidential nominee so early in a contest, he said that top NRA officials “get a bad rap.”
“They are great Americans,” he said. “They love our country.”