President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants to "bring our country back from a tremendous divisiveness" that began in the Clinton era.
In excerpts released by the White House, Trump told TV news anchors during a pre-State of the Union lunch that "you govern with all of the instincts of a businessperson, but you have to add much more heart and soul into your decisions than you would ever have even thought of before."
"I would consider it a great achievement if we could make our country united, if I could unite the country," Trump told the anchors, Axios reported.
"That's not an easy thing to do because the views are so divergent."
Trump added that he once asked a Senate veteran who "happened to be a Democrat, 'Is this the worse [most divided] you've ever sent it? He said, 'Absolutely not. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton was much worse than this.'"
Trump also told the anchors that issues like immigration would be "so simple" to solve if they were pure business matters, but he realizes "millions and millions of people" are affected by his actions.
He adds that "it's much different, in that way, than I thought it would be."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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