Trump admits he ‘narrowly’ lost the 2020 election on Lex Fridman podcast

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Days after claiming he had “every right” to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump has admitted he lost “by a narrow margin.”

During a 45-minute interview with popular podcaster Lex Fridman, the former president repeated his false claims that the election was “rigged” but admitted that he had in fact lost.

Trump’s false and inflated claims about the election, spanning more than a decade, have fueled his 2024 ambitions; spurious legal challenges to the results; and legislation and Republican-led rules changes have attempted to accomplish what he failed to do in court.

His interview on Fridman’s podcast is the latest in a series of non-confrontational appearances on shows by popular YouTubers, right-wing influencers and streamers who appeal to young men and boys.

Trump recently appeared on streams hosted by Logan Paul, the Nelk Boys and Adin Ross — who gifted Trump a Rolex and a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in a photo of his assassination attempt — as well as comedian Theo Von.

Fridman, whose interview with the Republican presidential candidate was released Tuesday, was given a long-winded response when he asked Trump how he would approach his upcoming debate with Kamala Harris.

“So I’ve debated a lot, just as a politician. I’ve never debated. My first debate was the Rosie O’Donnell debate, right? The famous Rosie O’Donnell debate. The answer,” Trump said.

He was apparently referring to the August 2015 presidential primary debate, when moderator Megyn Kelly asked Trump a question: “You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, disgusting animals.” (Trump interrupted her to say, “Just Rosie O’Donnell.”)

“But I did well in debates,” Trump told Fridman. “I ran for president, and the second time I got millions more votes than the first time. I was told if I got 63 million … you’d win. You can’t not win. And I got millions more votes than that and lost by a hair, but — and look what happened to the world.”

He ended his meandering answer with a prediction of a Third World War.

Minutes later, when Fridman asked Trump about his message to independent voters who are “alarmed” by his false claims about widespread fraud and the “false election plan” aimed at overturning the results in states he lost to Joe Biden, Trump responded with even more false claims.

“I think the fraud was on the other side,” Trump said. “I think the election was a fraud, and a lot of people felt it was, and they wanted answers. And if you can’t contest an election, you should be able to contest it, or it gets worse, not better.”

Trump advocated exclusive use of paper ballots, mandatory identification, and same-day voting with proof of citizenship, falsely claiming that millions of immigrants who are not eligible to vote would still vote.

“They just came in and they’re loading up the payroll,” Trump said. “They’re loading up everything.”

He accused immigrants of “taking the places of people who are citizens of our country.”