Coup-seeking former President Donald Trump appeared at his home turf Thursday night, with Fox News host and informal adviser Sean Hannity allowing him to lie unchallenged on a variety of subjects for an hour to a “town hall” audience in Iowa.
In the first 20 minutes alone, Trump falsely claimed that he had forced China to pay the United States billions in tariffs, that the US had left $85 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, and that it had given the US space leadership recaptures his creation of the Space Force.
In fact, the tariffs levied on foreign goods are paid by the Americans who import them, the military equipment remaining in Afghanistan was owned by the Afghan government, and the US Space Force was merely a rebranding of the then existing Air Force Space Command since the Reagan administration .
When asked what Hannity may have considered headlines about the existence of an audio recording in which Trump allegedly admits he knew he was in possession of a classified document at his Florida country club, Trump replied, “I don’t know anything about it .” It.”
Thursday’s show came in stark contrast to a show produced by CNN in New Hampshire last month, when host Kaitlan Collins, a former White House reporter during Trump’s presidency, repeatedly scrutinized Trump in real time, particularly on his claims of a ” stolen” election in 2020.
Hannity opened the program by making it clear that he would not do any of it. “It’s not my job to debate the candidate,” he said.
He then called Democratic President Joe Biden corrupt and mocked him for tripping over a punching bag onstage at the end of the Air Force Academy performance Thursday. He then brought Trump onto the stage.
“That was a bad fall,” Trump agreed.
Despite working for a self-proclaimed “news” network, Hannity actually spoke at a Trump rally in 2020 and advised the Trump White House in the days after, according to documents released Jan. 6 by the House Committee Mob he had summoned to Washington that day attacked the US Capitol to keep him in power.
And although Thursday’s event was billed as a “town hall” where voters would ask questions, only two spectators ended up doing so.
Trump, as in the past, credited the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs vs. Jackson abortion decision last year — “I got rid of Roe vs. Wade” — but also blamed Republican politicians for the 2022 midterm election defeat because the issue of abortion rights.
At one point, Trump repeated his bizarre claim that nobody in Chinatown in Washington, DC speaks English, and this time he added the claim that “Chinatown is for China.” He later made the equally bizarre claim that “our military no ammunition.”
As is his habit, Trump insulted his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination by calling Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis both “DeSanctis” and “DeSanctimonious,” and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson “Ada Hutchinson.” “.
And as is his habit, Trump spent much of the 44 minutes of actual airtime complaining about the various prosecutions for his crimes and his two impeachment trials, referring again to it all as a “witch hunt.”
Trump is being investigated for his attempted coup on January 6, 2021. Both the Georgia Attorney for trying to reverse his election defeat in that state and the Justice Department for his actions leading up to and on the day of the Capitol attack. The DOJ is also investigating the withholding of top secret documents despite a subpoena.
Additionally, Trump faces charges in New York on falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to an adult film actor in the days leading up to the 2016 election.
Still, he remains the top candidate for the GOP’s presidential nomination in recent polls.