In a wide-ranging interview on Fox News’ My View, President Donald Trump gave a strikingly personal account of his return to the White House, explaining how a four-year “horror show” under Joe Biden set the stage for his resurgence—and how he hopes history will remember him.

Trump credited both experience and talent for his second-term successes, but said the experience of seeing America brought to its knees between 2021 and 2025 also made his achievements stand out. “It was very bad for the country,” he told host Lara Trump, “but it also helped to have four years of horror. What went before me was horror.”

He slammed the Biden administration for allowing “millions and millions of people to come into our country that shouldn’t be here,” accusing them of trying to “kill our country.”

He then pivoted to touting what he’s done since returning to office, from stabilizing the economy to restoring leadership on the world stage. Citing recent praise from leaders in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, Trump said, “They actually thought [America] was dead and it felt dead. We had not only no leadership, we had negative leadership.”

Trump also revealed what kept him motivated during the darkest days after the 2020 election loss. “They were destroying our country,” he said, citing the flood of criminals, gang members, and mental health cases allowed to cross the southern border under Biden. “No checking, no vetting, no anything,” he emphasized.

The former president said his mission now includes removing criminals who entered under Biden. “It’s a big job getting hundreds of thousands of criminals out of our country,” he said, noting that nearly 12,000 murderers had slipped through. “Many of those people have killed more than one person.”

He blamed the collapse on Biden’s inner circle: “It wasn’t him so much as the people surrounding the beautiful Resolute Desk—and I know them all—and they’re not good. They’re smart in a different way, but evil intention.”

Describing Biden as “the worst president in the history of our country,” Trump argued his administration is moving fast to clean up the mess, lowering energy prices and curbing inflation.

But the most poignant part of the interview came when Trump answered a simple question: What does he want his legacy to be?

“I really would like to be known as the man that saved our country,” he said, pausing for effect. “I really believe our country was going down for the fall. I don’t know if it ever could’ve come back—it was very close to the edge.”

For Trump, the damage done by Biden isn’t just policy—it’s existential. And in his telling, he’s not just a comeback president. He’s a man on a mission to rescue a nation on the brink.