An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

EXCLUSIVE: An hour in the Oval Office with the CEO-in-Chief, President Trump

In a wide-ranging interview, Trump explains how the Iran war could delay his interest-rate plans, why he regrets asking for only 10% of Intel, and what will happen to America’s dealmaking empire when his term is over.

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President Trump can’t believe Jensen Huang doesn’t own his own plane. Hours before he departs for his highly anticipated China summit, the president has been arranging for the billionaire cofounder of Nvidia to join the who’s who of Fortune 500 CEOs preparing to travel to Beijing. Also in the group are Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, arguably the most powerful woman in finance, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who recently gave the president an honorary (if slightly tongue-in-cheek) “Salesman of the Year” award for helping the jetmaker sell hundreds of planes. Huang is a late but welcome addition to the party. For one of America’s most successful CEOs and the man whose company’s chips power the AI boom, the president is happy to make room, and Huang winds up hitching a ride aboard Air Force One, sharing the jet with Elon Musk, among others. The only reason Huang wasn’t included earlier is because he didn’t call to ask. As I sit across the Resolute Desk from the president in the Oval Office while we talk about his upcoming trip, it’s clear that arrangements like this are exactly the kind of deal the president likes to make—quick, informal, and one in which he can declare himself a clear winner. He prides himself on his ability to get anyone on the phone and achieve measurable results, whether he’s talking with a world leader or an American company he wants to help.

In a wide-ranging conversation that spanned an hour—and covered topics from tariffs to AI data centers to the war in Iran—the president outlined the broader, top-down dealmaking mentality he’s using to try to reinvigorate the American economy. (A small group of Fortune Media executives joined us in Trump’s office; they did not take part in the interview.)

With the help of Wall Street–savvy cabinet members like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Trump has turned old economic norms on their head. The president has been an evangelist for a healthy mix of new revenue streams generated by global tariffs and strategic equity investments, alongside trade megadeals designed to lure foreign investment back into the U.S. Trump’s twin goals: ending the trade imbalances that he argues have weakened America, and offsetting the ever-rising national debt. 

Past presidents and Congresses, stuck in partisan gridlock, haven’t been able to deliver on these fronts. Trump’s response has been, essentially, to either steamroll or outright ignore the politicos and regulators. It’s a fast-paced one-man show that thrills his fans and makes his detractors sound the alarm on the ethics and the legality of it all. 

“I make one of those deals every day that no normal person would make,” Trump says, while telling me about a possible railroad merger that he would want the government to have equity in. Musing on stakes his administration has claimed in companies like Intel and U.S. Steel, he continues, “Some people actually think it’s un-American, what I do. They say, ‘You’re taking their company away.’ ” Those critics aren’t seeing the big picture, he implies; after all, “We have $38 trillion in debt.” 

Where the chips fall as a result of all this unorthodoxy—including the long-term, geopolitical reshuffling of alliances and partnerships it’s invoking—is still very much in question. There are enough proof points to suggest that the strategy has some merit, at least under a leader as forceful as Trump. U.S. stocks and corporate profits are showing surprising resiliency, reaching new highs this year—despite the inflation-driving Iran war “detour,” as President Trump likes to call it. The broader public is less convinced:  Consumer confidence hit an all-time low in April, and approval of Trump’s management of the economy has plummeted in polls. Even the bulls, however, have to grapple with some questions about the future. As any executive knows, no sturdy business can be built on the........

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