Trump Says “You Can Be Evil” So Long as You Get Good Ratings

Donald Trump spelled out his media philosophy in audio recordings released Tuesday, explaining everything he learned from his time hosting NBC’s The Apprentice—and subtly revealing just how much power he believes he has over the media industry and the American public.

In newly released audio from a 2023 sit-down conversation with Variety editor and author Ramin Setoodeh, Trump mused about the limitless potential of being a TV personality—including that the high-profile position allows one to be “evil” and the “most horrible human”—so long as your program grabs attention.

“So, if I went back to NBC right now to do something, they would do anything I wanted to do, showbiz-wise. I’m talking about,” Trump told Setoodeh. “Doing a show, anything I wanted to do right now, 100 percent.”

That’s because “show business” is all about one thing, per Trump: “ratings.”

“If you have ratings, you can be the meanest, most horrible human being in the world,” he continued. “There’s only one thing that matters: ratings. You can be nice, or you can be mean, you can be evil, you can be horrible. You can be crude or elegant. There’s only one thing that matters, and that’s ratings.”

Trump may have learned that final lesson in 2016, when he re-earned enough of the public’s favor to win the presidency despite a hot mic leak from a 2005 Access Hollywood interview that caught the former TV host bragging that he could force himself onto women and practically “do anything” he wanted to because he was a star, including “grab ’em by the pussy.”

Recalling his interview with Trump on MSNBC, Setoodeh said that Trump appeared to suggest that he was “being wooed” to return to TV.

“That’s the TV star in him,” Setoodeh told Nicolle Wallace Tuesday. “He wants people to see him as a TV star. A successful TV star, and that’s the philosophy and way in which he views the world and the way he governs, if you could call it governing.”

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker urged President Joe Biden to re-pitch himself to Americans following his disastrous performance at a presidential debate.

Pritzker, whose name has been floated as a possible candidate to replace Biden, discussed what he believes the president should do next during an interview Tuesday night on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.  

“Three-quarters of voters, U.S. voters, in a new CNN poll say the Democratic Party would have a better shot holding the presidency in 2024 with someone other than President Biden at the top of the ticket. Do you agree with that, or are the voters wrong?” Collins asked. 

Since the debate last Thursday, one Democratic lawmaker has called for Biden to withdraw, while others have indicated their openness to backing another candidate. On Tuesday, a CNN poll found that Biden was polling worse against Trump than other top Democrats, including his own vice president. Those results appear to have lit a fire within the party, which was already scrambling.

“Well, I think that’s why President Biden needs to communicate more,” Pritzker replied. “We haven’t heard a lot from him since the debate, and that’s why the polls look as they do.

“I think that when you come off a bad debate, you need to remind people why you’re the right guy to elect, and I know that Joe Biden will do that over the next couple of weeks, at least I expect him to,” he continued.

“Or he’ll make a different decision, and I think that’s, again, this is a healthy conversation for us all to be having,” Pritzker said, seemingly referring to the decision to withdraw from the race.

“And I think that the president needs to communicate to everybody once again why he’s the right guy,” Pritzker said. 

While Biden’s campaign has trotted him out at events, the president has spoken sparingly about what his lackluster public speaking performance means for his candidacy. Democratic leaders are reportedly extremely frustrated with the lack of communication from Biden’s team in the wake of the debate debacle, and have accused his inner circle of trying to shield him from calls to withdraw. 

It seems that the Democratic governor may already be on track to get the face time with Biden he desires: Pritzker is expected to attend a meeting in Washington, D.C., with the president and other Democratic governors on Wednesday, according to Axios.

Democrats are becoming frustrated with the response from President Joe Biden and his administration after Thursday’s disastrous presidential debate, according to a new report from Axios.

Members of Congress think that Biden has been slow to reach out to party leaders, as well as lawmakers in tough election races. The report even states that some Democrats think Biden’s staff is trying to shield him from people arguing for him to withdraw from the election.

“I don’t know who’s making decisions,” said one House Democrat “Why the hell isn’t Biden on the phone with congressional leadership? ... Everybody now thinks he could cost us the majority.”

The report referred to a Tuesday afternoon meeting of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, where over two dozen Democrats in Congress vented about Biden and his staff. During the Zoom call, one member of Congress called the situation “the elephant in the room,” leading other members to call Biden “the donkey in the room.”

One source on the call said that none of the members present called for Biden to stay in the race, a worrying sign. Other Democrats have voiced their concerns publicly, with Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez telling a Washington state TV station, “Biden is going to lose to Trump. I know that’s difficult, but I think the damage has been done by that debate.”

Representative Jared Golden, another Blue Dog Democrat, even wrote in an op-ed column, “While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that.”

Inside the White House, Biden’s staff and aides are reportedly freaking out themselves. A leaked poll shows that Biden is in trouble in states that were previously thought safe. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Biden’s mental condition was a “legitimate concern” on Tuesday, and one of the longest-serving Democrats in the House, Representative Lloyd Doggett, has even called for Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. How will Democrats find their way out of this crisis?

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, seemed to issue a veiled threat to the American left during an appearance on far-right entertainment network Real America’s Voice on Tuesday.

“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless—if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said, in front of a backdrop advertising the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank involved in Project 2025, a far-right draconian blueprint to streamline ultraconservative legislation that would significantly roll back civil rights, designed to be deployed the second Trump takes office. While Trump’s campaign has stated it’s not involved in Project 2025, the blueprint has been described as a legislative “wish list” for a Trump presidency.

Roberts’s assertion that the country is in the midst of “the second American Revolution” sparked concern among critics, who pointed to his statement as damning proof that Project 2025 is part of a wide-sweeping effort to convert American democracy into a fascist state.

What Roberts means by “bloodless” is unclear, but critics immediately interpreted it as a threat that any resistance to the authoritarian far-right power grab laid out by Project 2025 would be met with violence.

President Joe Biden’s performance at last week’s debate has induced a maelstrom among aides and officials in the White House and on his campaign, with several administration figures reportedly “freaking the fuck out,” according to Axios.

“It’s the first topic of every conversation,” one White House official told the publication. “Senior leadership has given us nothing. To act like it’s business as usual is delusional.”

The debate was a critical moment for not just Biden’s 2024 candidacy but also his current presidency. Over 90 minutes, what was intended to be a showcase of Donald Trump’s extremism in contrast to Biden devolved into a one-sided train wreck, with Biden unable to string more than a few words together before getting steamrolled by an assertive and comparatively alive Trump.

In the aftermath, aides told Axios that they felt that they were handed empty talking points, with no confident explanations for why Biden appeared so weak and unwell during the debate. As the days drag on, that confusion has morphed into anger and resentment among a swathe of Biden’s employees, with one official involved in the campaign describing the atmosphere as “dark.”

“It feels like there is zero leadership or information,” the anonymous staffer told Axios. “People are being told to keep their heads down and keep working, but they’re not seeing the president or being given any reason why they should have faith in him.”

That feeling was shared in the White House, with one unnamed official telling Axios that “people are looking for leadership and direction that they were told to trust, and hoped was there, but aren’t yet feeling, in what is now clearly a defining moment for this presidency.”

Executive branch employees aren’t the only ones losing sight of the light in the Biden administration. On Tuesday alone, several prominent Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have signaled it may be time for Biden to remove himself from the race. Representative Jim Clyburn, whose 2020 endorsement helped Biden secure his last nomination, announced his support for Vice President Kamala Harris to take the reins “if [Biden] were to step aside,” and Texas Representative Lloyd Doggett became the first House member to formally call on Biden to withdraw from the race.