TIME's Donald Trump interview is the scariest thing we’ve read since he got elected

There are many things we would call Donald Trump, but ‘Person Of The Year’ wouldn’t be one of them.

Except that’s exactly what TIME just announced him as.

Admittedly, the magazine has stressed that the title isn’t necessarily a positive one, it merely infers that the person has had the biggest influence that year. Hear them out:

More upsetting than the title though are Trump’s comments throughout the interview.

His acceptance speech may have fooled those who are hopeful that he was likely to swing to the centre, but the past seven days more than any has shown that the President-elect is still as unpredictable and dangerous with his radical opinions and way of conducting himself as ever.

After pissing off India, dissing China and having a go at SNL, what he says in his TIME interview shows that he hasn’t moved far from his controversial stances on topics he covered in his campaign at all.

Here are the most worrying things he said:

On unfounded claims he’s made:

Regarding his claim that there were millions of illegal votes during the election, he still didn’t provide any evidence.

“I’ve seen many, many complaints,” he says. “Tremendous numbers of complaints.”

On Hispanics:

In reference to a headline on a copy of Newsday, a Long Island tabloid which reads “EXTREMELY VIOLENT” GANG FACTION: “They come from Central America. They’re tougher than any people you’ve ever met. They’re killing and raping everybody out there. They’re illegal. And they are finished.”

In response to criticism of his extreme view, he says “Well, hey, look, this is bad stuff. They slice them up, they carve their initials in the girl’s forehead, O.K. What are we supposed to do? Be nice about it?”

On ‘saving jobs’:

Last week, Trump struck a deal with United Technologies (the 45^th largest company in the States) to keep almost 1000 jobs in Indiana instead of moving the Carrier manufacturer to Mexico. TIME says the deal was “thanks to a mixture of $7m in state tax breaks, presidential threats and promises of tax and regulatory reform. But it was still a secret.” The deal wasn’t discussed and was basically done on a whim.

TIME reports: “So the other night, I’m watching the news,” Trump began. NBC’s Lester Holt had introduced a segment on the Carrier plant featuring a union representative and a plant worker talking in a bar. The man looked at the camera and spoke to Trump, saying, “We want you to do what you said you were going to do.” Trump claimed this shocked him: “I said, I never said they weren’t going to move, to myself.”

But of course he had, as the news segment demonstrated. So Trump says he had no choice. He had to listen to his people. “He energized me, that man,” the President-elect explained. “And I called up the head of United Technologies.”

On peacocking:

“Hey, Reince, I want to get a list of companies that have announced they’re leaving. I can call them myself. Five minutes apiece. They won’t be leaving. O.K.?”

On nationalism:

“People are proud of their countries, and I think you will see nationalism,” he says, before describing the growing backlash against Muslim migration in France, Belgium and Germany. “A lot of people reject some of the ideas that are being forced on them. And that’s certainly one of the reasons you had this vote, having to do not with the European Union but the same thing.”

On conspiracy:

In relation to US intelligence concluding that Russia was responsible for stealing the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign emails released on WikiLeaks: “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered.”

Asked if he thought the conclusion of America’s spies was politically driven, Trump says, “I think so.”

On his insane campaign:

“I mean, I’ve had some bad moments in the campaign.”

But then he notes that his poll numbers seemed to rise after several of them, including his insults of Arizona Senator John McCain’s war service.

On making sense:

“Well, sometimes you have to prime the pump. So sometimes in order to get jobs going and the country going, because, look, we’re at 1 per cent growth.” 

On pharmaceuticals:

“I’m going to bring down drug prices. I don’t like what has happened with drug prices.”

On immigrants:

“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud. They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

On the drama:  

“It’s a very exciting time. It’s really been an amazing time. Hopefully we can take some of the drama out.”

Erm, not while you’ve still got free reign on Twitter and maniacal policies.

Read the full interview here.