President-elect Donald Trump has taken to heart intelligence briefings he once mocked, acknowledging that the U.S. has "some very big enemies," he told Axios in an interview published Wednesday.
"I've had a lot of briefings that are very … I don't want to say 'scary,' because I'll solve the problems," Trump told Axios. "But … we have some big enemies out there in this country and we have some … very big and, in some cases, strong enemies."
Back in December, Trump had derided the briefings as something he doesn't need to get every day.
"You know — I'm like a smart person — I don't have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years," Trump said then.
Perhaps now, scant hours from taking the oath of office, Trump sees the intel briefings for what they are — a means to an end.
"You also realize that you've got to get it right because a mistake would be very, very costly in so many different ways," Trump told Axios.
Trump also asserted to Axios that every world leader is the same in his eyes, from traditional allies to Trump's dalliance with Russia President Vladimir Putin.
"I give everybody an even start; that right now, as far as I'm concerned, everybody's got an even start," Trump told Axios.
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