Read on Twitter
If you haven't seen @jonathanvswan's wild interview with @realDonaldTrump, it's a #mustwatch. Here is the full 35-minute interview which will make your mind boggle. Never ceases to amaze me that this guy is president of the world's most powerful country 1/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
Look, @jonathanvswan, who is a good friend of mine, has been getting lots of deserved praise for this interview - as did Chris Wallace before him. But ask yourself why other/previous interviewers haven't been able to do interviews like this? Why not?? 2/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
To be clear, in my view, Jonathan could have been tougher at times, and I tend to be a tougher interviewer. Everyone's style is different. But the fact that polite, smiling, non-aggressive Jonathan was able to expose Trump in this way speaks volumes. 3/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
What was great about this interview - and again, I know, I know, by Trump interview standards, a low bar! - is that Jonathan actually brought follow-ups, brought facts, brought genuine incredulity in his facial expressions when Trump said mad stuff. 4/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
Still, Jonathan's much nicer than me. He still let Trump talk over him on multiple occasions (how many times did you hear Jonathan say "Please let me finish my question") and Trump takes advantage of people's manners & exploits them to steamroller them 5/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
Trump told so many lies & @jonathanvswan tried to challenge some of them but the lies per sentence ratio with Trump is off the charts & it's just not possible. How many times in this single intv did he claim cases were up because testing is up?? FFS. 6/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
The way to deal with Trump, I think, is just to stop. Slow down time. Wait for him to stop ranting & then just re-ask the question. E.g. Jonathan asked him if he thought the Civil Rights Act was a mistake & Trump rambled & never answered that question. 7/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
Another example from the @jonathanvswan interview: Trump was asked about the Navy veteran (Christopher David) beaten by the police in Portland & he called it 'fake news'. I'd like to have seen Trump be forced to deal with specifics of the David incident 8/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
Did you all notice how Trump refused to say Jeffrey Epstein's name in this @jonathanvswan interview? Kept referring to him as Ghislaine Maxwell's "boyfriend"? Also - that's twice now he has wished an accused child sex trafficker "well". Astonishing. 9/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
I know this is kinda random, given how many lies Trump told, but for the nth time he referred to the Spanish Flu as having been in "1917" when it was in 1918. Surely he's been told this/corrected before? Is his brain broken?Weird cc: @RobertMackey 10/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
My favourite part of the interview was when Trump tried to school @jonathanvswan by sternly telling him that Russia was once the "Soviet Union" and then it became Russia again after the Afghan war. Pretty sure it didn't stop being Russia at any point. 11/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
Trump is also his own worst enemy in these interviews - the embarrassing clip with the Covid death charts, for example, that went viral was after Jonathan had tried to move on but Trump insisted on showing the charts. What a gift to @jonathanvswan lol!
12/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
12/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
Anyways, respect and kudos to @jonathanvswan for getting this (mad!) interview and using his time to press Trump on important issues and following up where/when he could and showing others that it can be done. This will be long remembered... 13/ https://www.axios.com/full-axios-hbo-interview-donald-trump-cd5a67e1-6ba1-46c8-bb3d-8717ab9f3cc5.html
