Confused Trump Told Author He Had to Deal With 'The Afghanistan' After Leaving Office

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Donald Trump continued to believe he had foreign policy authority even after leaving office, according to Variety Co-Editor-in-Chief Ramin Setoodeh who interviewed the disgraced ex-President several times for his Book, Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, after he left office.

Trump "seemed to think that he still had some foreign policy powers," Setoodeh told CNN's Kaitlin Collins on Tuesday. "There was one day, where he told me he needed to go upstairs to deal with Afghanistan even though he clearly didn't," Setoodeh continued.

"While you were interviewing him at Trump Tower, he told you he needed to go upstairs to deal with Afghanistan," Collins asked Setoodeh.

"With 'the Afghanistan' is how he referred to it," Setoodeh replied.

Setoodeh interviewed Trump six times after he left office in 2021, primarily about his experiences as the host the reality TV show The Apprentice. Setoodeh said Trump's memory issues were so bad he couldn't even remember that he was being interviewed from one session to the next.

Trump's campaign claimed in a statement he couldn't remember Setoodeh because he was "a nobody," despite Trump approaching Setoodeh to be interviewed when he learned the book was being written.

"There was some cognitive questions about where he was and what he was thinking and he would he would from time to time become confused," Setoodeh said.