It was an interview. I doubt he volunteered this in a vacuum. In fact, the story reads as though he was asked what he would do (if he had the power). Kind of like, "If you rubbed a lamp and a genie appeared, what wishes would you make?"
But if so they left out the part that would clarify that this was hypothetical, making it look like Trump is just huffing and puffing vainly. That makes the report itself kind of a lie.
Yes. And as part of running an actual US presidential campaign with a chance of defeating Hillary Clinton he might want to avoid the lamp questions that aren’t really pertinent to saving the nation.
Remember Ryan said he couldn't impose tariffs by himself. Well today he quoted the articles that not only said he could but named the Presidents that had done so. Teleprompter are handy for quoting little known facts correctly.