First TV conversation: soft interview and Trump’s strange ideas

The Republican was interviewed two days after taking office by Sean Hannity, a well-known anchor on his home channel Fox News. The interview seemed more like a conversation between like-minded people than a conversation between a neutral journalist and an American president.

Just no critical questions…
Hannity ended the interview by saying, “After four long years, President Donald Trump is back where he belongs. He’s in the Oval Office.” Only when it came to Trump pardoning all perpetrators of the Capitol storm did Hannity begin to take action. “The only criticism (…) I’ve seen is about people who are convicted or involved in incidents where police officers were assaulted “Why were they pardoned?” he asked. Trump repeated his lie about voter fraud and said people should be able to protest. Hannity responded: “You shouldn’t be able to storm the Capitol.”

Attacks on police officers are downplayed
Regarding attacks on police officers, Trump also said they were often just “minor incidents.” Among those now released are people who brutally beat police and other security forces at the time. Trump’s rigorous pardons of all hundreds of criminals on January 6, 2021 surprised even people close to him.

Trump justified his radical migration course by saying that “other countries would send their criminals straight from prison to America”: “We have thousands of terrorists in our country,” he claimed. Moreover, “tens of thousands of murderers” had entered the country. “People come here with their faces completely covered in tattoos,” the Republican said. “They probably won’t be the heads of the local bank.”

Trump wants to dismantle the disaster management agency
The multi-billionaire, who likes to surround himself with super-rich people like Elon Musk, is also considering abolishing the US Disaster Protection Agency – in a country regularly hit by natural disasters. Trump falsely accused FEMA of not caring about the victims: “FEMA has not done its job for the last four years. You know, under me FEMA worked very well,” he said in the interview.

Instead, states should simply ‘solve their own problems’. Trump and his Republicans in Congress recently declared that aid to California after the horrific fires should be conditional on the actions of the state’s Democratic government — that is, if the governor there acts in Trump’s interests.

‘Biden has bad advisors’
Trump accused his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden of failure several times in the interview and did not want to rule out investigations – but it remained unclear what exactly he meant by that and against whom it should be aimed. “I went through hell for four years. “I have spent and won millions of dollars in legal fees, but I did it the hard way,” Trump said, referring to the charges against him.

Trump went on to say that Biden had bad advisers. “Someone advised Joe Biden to pardon everyone but himself.” Shortly before leaving office, Biden pardoned several of Trump’s family members and political opponents.

Trump has a different media strategy than Biden
The conversation, now airing on Fox News, lasted about 40 minutes. It mainly revolved around domestic political issues such as migration or the fires in California. The broadcaster announced a second part for Thursday evening (local time). Trump enjoys the attention – since his return to the White House, he has also given a press conference in addition to the interview – and has also answered questions on camera elsewhere.

This makes him significantly more open than his predecessor Biden, who gave few TV interviews. These were also much shorter. Although the Democrat often answered questions from the press during appointments, he also made mistakes again and again. Real press conferences were a rarity. There were repeated accusations, including from the media, that Biden’s advisers were protecting him.