Once I left Donald Trump after our interview, I used to be considerably startled to move eight males in full riot gear, marching towards his Trump Tower workplace.
It was a stark reminder of the 2 assassination makes an attempt. Trump was about to fly to Pennsylvania, and these guys have been locked and loaded.
I’d been informed that he would use the previous Reagan line that Saturday evening: Are you higher off now than you have been 4 years in the past?
How lengthy, I puzzled, earlier than he goes off script?
BRET BAIER REVEALS TRUMP WAS OFFERED SAME INTERVIEW STYLE AS KAMALA HARRIS ON ‘SPECIAL REPORT’
Trump had informed me he was going to Arnold Palmer’s hometown within the Keystone State.
What I didn’t know was that he would describe the late golfer as “all man” and marvel on the supposed measurement of his male endowment. He additionally used the S-word to explain Kamala Harris. A lot for sticking to the script.
Critics, together with the vp, have been describing Trump as exhausted, based mostly on one second-hand quote, however he didn’t look drained to me in any respect. If he was talking in a softer voice, that’s as a result of we have been virtually knee to knee within the tower’s library room.
AS A CAUTIOUS KAMALA LOSES MOMENTUM, DEMOCRATS ARE PANICKING OVER A TRUMP WIN
This was my second sitdown with the previous president in a number of months, and I pushed him on a variety of subjects. How may he name Jan. 6 a “day of affection” when police have been being attacked? Why, regardless of the “60 Minutes” modifying fiasco on the Kamala interview, would you attempt to yank CBS’s license? How are you going to name your political opponents “the enemy inside”? Would you have interaction in retribution? Will you admit the falsehood of “they’re consuming the canine, they’re consuming the cats?”
He dug in, even on that final one.
Whether or not you want or dislike Trump, “‘Morning Joe’ producers and different producers that watch us and all of the producers that watch us – this isn’t simply rhetoric,” Steve Bannon stated. “You can’t have a constitutional republic and permit what these deep-staters have finished to the nation.”
Kash Patel says “we’ll exit and discover the conspirators, not simply in authorities however within the media… We’re going to return after you, whether or not it’s felony or civilly,” however solely based mostly on the info and the legislation.
Now right here’s the sense I’ve gotten from my reporting.
With simply over two weeks to go, Trump has settled on his closing message. It’s immigration and the financial system. He could digress by cooking fries at McDonald’s, as a means of doubting Kamala’s teenage stint there, he could use extra profanity, however the closing enchantment is predicated on these two points, interval.
TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON CALLING JAN 6 A ‘DAY OF LOVE’
The Trump camp believes that one advert that has moved the numbers is Harris’ previous embrace of taxpayer funding for federal inmates to get gender-reassignment surgical procedure. That appeared questionable even to Charlamagne Tha God of their interview. Harris says she merely adopted the legislation in the identical means Trump did.
The previous president is making an attempt to rebrand his effort by promising a New Golden Age. That appears a transparent response to Harris touting a New Approach Ahead. Each are claiming the mantle of the “change” candidate with most voters seeing the nation as on the improper monitor–the incumbent vs. the previous incumbent.
Trump did get off a humorous line with me about Kamala shifting to the middle. “She’s turn out to be MAGA. I’ll ship her a hat.”
SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES
However Trump and his strategists are mystified by what they see because the vp’s lack of a closing message and failure to win over as many Black supporters as Joe Biden had. There’s an emphasis on abortion rights, in fact, and loud warnings about Trump being unstable and unhinged. However is there something that ties all of it collectively?
Trump has a longtime behavior of asking everybody round him, together with make-up artists, what they suppose, as a type of focus group. “Are you assured?” he’s been asking these days. “Are you assured?”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The reply he’s been listening to: Sure, however you’ll win narrowly.