--- title: Donald Trump: Rodrigo Duterte Comparison Didn't Bother Him description: President Trump decision to extend a White House invitation this weekend to President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is drawing condemnation from rights groups and... canonical: https://time.com/4761595/donald-trump-rodrigo-duterte-white-house-invitiation/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-01T15:45:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T08:48:19.994Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Didn't Shy Away From Comparison to Philippine President og:description: In a 2016 interview with TIME. og:url: https://time.com/4761595/donald-trump-rodrigo-duterte-white-house-invitiation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4233a6a09f16526/6988cb63656a3fe62ebcfc90/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: President Donald Trump during an event for the Independent Community Bankers Association in the Kennedy Garden of the the White House on May 1, 2017 in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Didn't Shy Away From Comparison to Philippine President twitter:description: In a 2016 interview with TIME. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4233a6a09f16526/6988cb63656a3fe62ebcfc90/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Didn't Shy Away From Comparison to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=912ef673-fe86-4616-992f-d26b0ba52d40&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q0tBuF3M.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2016-12-07. The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 1, 2017 3:45 PM UTC The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 1, 2017 3:45 PM UTC President Trump decision to [extend a White House invitation](http://time.com/4760798/donald-trump-rodrigo-duterte-white-house-visit/) this weekend to President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is [drawing condemnation](http://time.com/4761274/donald-trump-rodrigo-duterte-invitation-criticism/) from rights groups and doubts within the Administration. But the President—who pushed a tough-on-crime message in his campaign for the White House—has hardly tried to place distance between himself and controversial leader before. The White House announced Saturday that Trump invited Duterte “to discuss the importance of the the United States-Philippines alliance, which is now heading in a very positive direction.” But Duterte has encouraged a [deadly extrajudicial crackdown](http://time.com/philippines-drug-war/) on drug users and dealers in his country, in which vigilantes have killed thousands. In an interview with TIME on Nov. 29, Trump sounded the alarm about drug gangs in the U.S., and when pressed about whether his rhetoric sounded similar to Duterte’s, he didn’t shy away from the comparison. “Well, hey, look, this is bad stuff,” he said about U.S. gangs, in an interview for TIME’s [2016 Person of the Year](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump-choice/) issue. “They slice them up, they carve their initials in the girl’s forehead, O.K. What are we supposed to do? Be nice about it?” “And this is part of the reason I won,” Trump added. ## Transcript MUSIC ] Every year we choose the Person of the Year who is the individual who has had the most influence on events for better or worse. The Tod argue that anyone had no influence that Donald Trump over the events of this year. [ MUSIC ] I didn't get Beyonce and Jay Z and Goose Bernstein to get crowds, I had just me. And ideas that people wanted to hear. But there is a profound argument about whether his influence was for the better or for the worse. And that really is the challenge that faces the country came through this election season more divided conspicuously publicly than at any time through any election cycle that most of us Can remember. [ MUSIC ] We're gonna have a lot of jobs put back. I think we're gonna have a lot of fuel companies leaving our country. I believed we will be successful with defeating ISIS or bringing them down to a level where it's almost the same thing. And I hope I'm judged from the time of the election as opposed to from January 20th because the stock market has had a tremendous bounce and people are seeing very good things for business in this country. [ MUSIC ] One of the things that was remarkable in going to see him, to interview him, is to be in that Penthouse which is the most austiontacious, imaginable marble and mirrors, and gold. And see him in the suit and the diamond cuff links. There is a kind of distance that repressed him about, of how is it that the billionaire is the tribune of the working man? He said, he thought that it had to do With that he wasn't a phony, that there have certainly been wealthy politicians before. Doing some cases would bend over backwards to make themselves appear like the common man, or do anything that they could, eating the corn dog at the Iowa State Fair, wearing a flannel shirt in New Hampshire. I think he had a very strong instinct that his wealth and that flamboyant display of his wealth Was not a liability that it was actually an asset. [ MUSIC ] Donal Trump is very comfortable sitting down and answering questions, although he very frequently does not remotely answer the question that you asked. In one sense it feels very undisciplined and in another sense maybe it's very disciplined in that He knows what he will and will not talk about and is unabashed in completely changing the subject. Do you feel changed by your election, and how you do think, if I play this tape back in four or eight years, the office will have changed here? Well, it's a It's a very humbling experience, I can tell you, as somebody that loves this country, it's a very large country, but it's also an even more powerful country than the numbers, because, if you look at China, and India, and you have others with more people, but, when you look at what we do in this country, it's The most incredible place on earth. [ MUSIC ] A lot of people think that Person of the Year just because the nature of the name is an honor. And certainly there have been years where we have recognized people's whose influence has been altogether, unassailably worthy. Normally, that's not the case. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with so much of what Donald Trump said and are very apprehensive about what his presidency means for them and for the country. I think I would challenge them to suggest that someone else this year had more influence than a way greater Surprise than what he did in 2016. 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