President Trump’s Advice to Younger Self: ‘Don’t Run for President’

If President Donald Trump could go back in time and meet his younger self, he would tell himself not to run for president.

During the Generation Next White House forum with millennials on Thursday, the president was asked what advice he would give his younger self.

“Don’t run for president,” he said as the audience laughed and applauded. Even his daughter, Ivanka Trump, laughed, reports CNN.

“Look, we all get – every once in a while – a knock, but I got the greatest publicity. I was getting such great… until I ran for office,” the president continued.

“People really do get it,” Trump added. “There is a lot of fake news out there. Nobody had any idea. I’m actually proud of the fact that I exposed it, to a large extent. Because we exposed it. It’s an achievement. When I say fake, I don’t mean everybody. Not every one of those people back there. I just say we have shown something that a lot of people really didn’t understand.”

Trump has famously bemoaned the difficulties he faces as president in the past. After his first 100 days, Trump told Reuters he missed his previous life.

“I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” Trump, who never held elective office before becoming president, told Reuters in April 2017. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”

Trump said he missed being able to drive himself, and was surprised at how little privacy he had now.

“You’re really into your own little cocoon, because you have such massive protection that you really can’t go anywhere,” Trump said at the time.

Trump has had difficulty keeping a consistent group of advisors inside that cocoon. Hours after he appeared at the Generation Next forum Thursday, he announced the departure of his second National Security Advisor, General H.R. McMaster. Trump replaced him with John Bolton, a former U.S. Ambassador to the UN during President George W. Bush’ administration and a Fox News pundit.

Trump confirmed on Twitter that Bolton will take office on April 9. McMaster was already Trump’s second National Security Advisor, having been picked after Retired General Michael T. Flynn resigned after it was revealed he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about communications with Russian officials before Trump took office.

Another major departure last week came when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired through a tweet, and CIA Director Mike Pompeo was nominated to be his successor.