Trump Lashes Out at Live Fact-Checks During Disaster of an Interview

Donald Trump’s sit-down interview Tuesday with the Economic Club of Chicago went completely off the rails as the Republican presidential nominee struggled to offer concrete answers to a business-minded crowd, and miraculously performed even worse as he was fact-checked live onstage.

The Bloomberg News–sponsored event was intended to cover massive ground. Bloomberg’s top editor, John Micklethwait, pressed Trump on issues ranging from immigration, proposed tariffs, the dissolution of some of America’s biggest corporations, foreign policy with regard to Taiwan, and ultimately to the country’s fate post–Election Day. But Trump, seemingly, wasn’t prepared with answers.

The former president elicited groans from the crowd while dodging questions about his proposed foreign tariff plan, which includes a 200 percent tariff (which Trump insinuated could even be as high as 2,000 percent) on foreign cars.

Micklethwait then pointed out how a financial analysis of Trump’s economic policies estimated that they would add $7.5 trillion to the federal deficit—“more than twice the total for Vice President [Kamala] Harris.” But Trump failed to offer rational details in his defense.

“We’re going to bring the companies back, we’re going to lower the taxes still further for companies that are going to make their product in the USA. We’re going to protect those companies with strong tariffs, because I’m a believer in tariffs, I’m not sure that you are, I don’t think you are,” Trump said.

“Not particularly,” Micklethwait responded.

“But I want to congratulate you on your career,” Trump threw back, sparking a surprised laugh from the crowd. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff.”

“Tariffs—do you think that will bring in the revenues?” Micklethwait pressed. “They say it’ll only bring in $200 billion. That’s barely the cost of two of your promises.”

“Yeah, but that’s for like, what company are you talking about?” Trump said, before patting himself on the back for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which he referred to as the “China virus.”

Later in the interview, Micklethwait noted that Trump’s policies would effectively stop trade with China, particularly since tariffs already exist on trade with the foreign power—a reality that Trump couldn’t accept. He baselessly denied Micklethwait’s data points.

But Micklethwait was undeterred: “You’re flooding the thing with giveaways. I was actually quite kind to you, I used $7 trillion,” he said, referring to the cost of Trump’s policies. “The upper estimate is $15 trillion. The Wall Street Journal, which is hardly a Communist organization, they have criticized you on this as well.

“You are running up enormous debts.”

Trump couldn’t handle the flipped tables.

“What does The Wall Street Journal know?” he said, crossing his arms. “I’m meeting with them tomorrow. What does The Wall Street Journal know? They’ve been wrong about everything. So have you, by the way.”

“You’re trying to turn this into a debate, as if there—” Micklethwait continued, before Trump interjected to say that Micklethwait “has been wrong all your life on this stuff.”

While discussing U.S. labor, Trump claimed that autoworkers at U.S. plants for foreign car companies such as Mercedes-Benz simply assemble parts “out of a box” and that children could do their jobs.

When asked about Google and whether the massive search-engine company should be broken up via antitrust laws, Trump opted to completely switch the topic, instead discussing voter rolls in Virginia and the Justice Department, exasperatedly adding that he “hasn’t gotten over that.”

“The question was about Google, President Trump,” Micklethwait said.

Donald Trump was asked about his economic plans during an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday—and he lashed out when he couldn’t come up with a good answer.

Trump was being interviewed by John Micklethwait, Bloomberg News’s editor-in-chief, who pointed out that the former president’s economic promises, if enacted, would add $7.5 trillion to the national debt, or 150 percent of GDP, twice the total that Kamala Harris’s economic plans would add. Micklethwait then asked the former president why the audience should trust him.

Trump replied by discussing his plans to bring manufacturing companies back to America, and how he would protect those companies with tariffs. Micklethwait pointed out that those tariffs would only bring back $200 billion, recouping the costs from just two of Trump’s promises.

“But, that’s like, for what company you’re talking about,” Trump answered unintelligibly, before going off on a tangent about the Covid-19 pandemic.

Micklethwait continued to challenge Trump throughout the combative interview, citing the Wall Street Journal to note that costs of Trump’s economic promises were stratospheric.

“I was actually quite kind to you, I used $7 trillion, the upper estimate is $15 trillion. People like the Wall Street Journal, which is hardly a Communist organization, they have criticized you on this as well. You are running up enormous debt,” Micklethwait said, before Trump cut him off, clearly frustrated.

“What does the Wall Street Journal know? I’m meeting with them tomorrow, what does the Wall Street Journal know? They’ve been wrong about everything, so have you, by the way. You’ve been wrong about everything,” Trump replied, as the crowd, which seemed to support him, laughed.

“You’re trying to turn this into a debate, there are business people here,” Micklethwait said as Trump repeatedly tried to cut him off.

“You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff,” Trump said, to more laughter from the audience.

Trump was clearly caught off guard at the event, not expecting an interview in which his grandiose promises would actually be examined since he has the Republican Party’s usual support from the business community. Most of his interviews during the presidential campaign, even for the media outlets that criticize him, haven’t directly confronted him on the specifics of his policies, particularly his economic plans.

Harris has been courting business leaders, hoping to peel them away from supporting Trump and the GOP. Trump’s answers during this interview may go a long way in helping her cause.

In a disaster of an interview on Tuesday, Donald Trump was happy to brag about his friendship with Vladmir Putin, admitting he continued the relationship with the Russian leader even after leaving the Oval Office.

Trump dodged and weaved throughout his interview at the Economic Club of Chicago. But interviewer John Micklethwait, Bloomberg’s editor in chief, attempted to get a direct answer from Trump about his relationship with the Russian president.

“Can you say, yes or no, whether you have talked to Vladimir Putin since you stopped being president?” asked Micklethwait.

“Well, I don’t comment on that, but I will tell you that, if I did, it’s a smart thing,” Trump responded. “If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

“That sounds very much like you did talk to him,” Micklethwait replied.

His answer seems to be a confirmation of revelations last week that Trump has talked to the Russian autocrat at least seven times since leaving the White House. Trump’s team lashed out over that report, made in Bob Woodward’s book War, calling it a “made-up” story by “a truly demented and deranged man.”

However, in his speeches and interviews, including Monday night in Pennsylvania, Trump was happy to gloat, saying, “I get along very well with Putin.”

During a late-night posting binge after midnight Tuesday, Donald Trump bragged about his health and medical exams while attacking Kamala Harris.

Trump claimed that Harris “is dying to see my Cholesterol (which is 180!)” and claimed that he has already released his medical records, “including quite recently, and they were flawless.” In reality, Trump hasn’t released his medical records, even though he said in August that he would. 

Harris released a two-page report about her health on Saturday, which concluded that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties” of the presidency, including those of commander-in-chief. The report noted that Harris did have seasonal allergies as well as urticaria, a common skin condition. Trump seized on this.

“These are deeply serious conditions that clearly impact her functioning. Maybe that is why she can’t answer even the simplest of questions asked by 60 Minutes, and others. What is this all about? I don’t have these problems,” Trump posted.

The former president is likely mad that Harris called him out at a rally on Sunday for his refusal to release any records or information about his health, asking whether the Trump campaign is “afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to lead America.”

In his posts, he again complained about Harris’s 60 Minutes interview, which took place more than a week ago and for some reason still occupies his mind. Is his cognitive condition getting worse thanks to the pressures of the presidential race? He had a very bizarre “town hall” earlier Monday evening, in which his fans had to watch him listening to music for nearly 40 minutes.

On Tuesday, he also canceled a scheduled interview with CNBC, one week after he canceled his own 60 Minutes interview, a longtime precedent for presidential candidates. All of this seems to bolster Harris’s argument that Trump has something to hide.

Even Donald Trump’s MAGA allies are in disbelief over the Republican presidential nominee’s recent comments.

Several leading Republicans have outright refused to acknowledge that direct quotes from Trump’s weekend interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo were actually what he said. Trump claimed on video that the real election threat in November was his critics, such as California Representative Adam Schiff, whom he referred to as “the enemy from within,” and that the military should be called in to forcibly intervene with the election.

Speaking with CNN Tuesday morning, Florida Representative Mike Waltz dismissed the idea that Trump had used such language, claiming that it was instead the network’s attempt at “connecting some dots.”

“I don’t think that’s what he said, John,” Waltz told host John Berman, before pointing to civil unrest and mass protests during 2020. “I think that’s completely appropriate, the National Guard was rolled out then.… We cannot have, nor should we have, riots in the streets, business owners threatened, and Americans feeling unsafe.”

“Do you think deploying the military against political opponents is something that’s responsible to discuss from political candidates?” Berman asked, after a curt back-and-forth.

“I think it’s responsible to discuss deploying the National Guard, which is clearly part of the military, John, to keep our streets safe, to keep rioters out of the streets,” Waltz said.

But Trump hadn’t just threatened to send out the National Guard—instead, he specified the use of the larger military apparatus.

“We have some very bad people,” Trump said on Sunday. “We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the—and it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin also struggled Monday evening to rationalize the MAGA leader’s violent rhetoric, stunning CNN host Jake Tapper, who had to remind the governor that Trump had “literally” said those words.

“Again, Jake, I don’t think that, and again, I can’t speak for him, but I do—I do think that you are misinterpreting and misrepresenting his thoughts,” said Youngkin. “I do believe, again, it’s all around the fact that we have had an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants come over the border in an unconstrained, unrestrained fashion. The Biden-Harris administration has allowed it to happen … I don’t think that he’s referring to elected people in America.”

“But I’m literally reading his quotes,” proclaimed Tapper. “I’m literally reading his quotes to you. And I played them earlier, so you could hear that they were not made up by me.”

“I don’t—I don’t believe that’s what he’s saying,” Youngkin insisted.

Even Trump’s own campaign team is rushing to sanewash the comments. The campaign posted a video Monday of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz directly quoting Trump’s threat.

“Tim Walz peddles a disgusting lie that President Trump will use the U.S. Army against his political opponents,” the campaign wrote on X. “This is reckless, dangerous rhetoric. Tim should be ASHAMED of himself.”

Mark Esper, who served as secretary of defense during Donald Trump’s presidency, is warning that the former president’s threat to use the military on the “enemy from within” shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Trump’s military threat came on Sunday morning when he told Fox News, “I don’t think [migrants are] the problem in terms of Election Day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left lunatics, and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Esper about Trump’s comments Monday night, and whether he took them seriously.

“He’s spoken about this before, if you recall a year ago or so, he spoke about a second Trump term being about retribution, so yes, I think we should take those words seriously,” Esper said.

Collins then cited Esper’s book where he wrote that Trump, during the 2020 protests following George Floyd’s murder, asked about shooting protesters. She asked the former secretary if he feared that Trump would try to use the National Guard or military against American citizens in that way.

“Yes, I do, of course, because I lived through that and I saw over the summer of 2020, where President Trump and those around him wanted to use the National Guard in various capacities, in cities such as Chicago and Portland and Seattle,” Esper said.

Collins asked if Esper was worried about who would be in his role in a future Trump administration if Trump suggests shooting protesters or makes a similar order.

“My concern is that the first year of the second Trump term would look more like the last year of the first Trump term. I think President Trump has learned the key is getting people around you who will do your bidding, who will not push back, who will implement what you want to do,” Esper said.

The fact that a former Trump official is warning to take Trump’s threats of using the military against his opponents seriously is a cause for alarm. Trump has already pledged to, if elected, begin mass deportations against both undocumented and legal immigrants, prosecuting his opponents for treason, and taking revenge against those he feels have wronged him.

Esper isn’t the only former Trump official who is worried, either: Retired U.S. Army general and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley has spoken about his fears of a Trump presidency, warning that Trump is “fascist to the core.” With the election only weeks away, the question is whether the media and the public will listen to people who worked closely with Trump, or if their fears will be realized.

One of Donald Trump’s campaign managers is cashing in big on the Republican nominee’s quest to retake the White House. Chris LaCivita has earned a staggering sum of more than $22 million in just the past two years as Trump’s adviser.

According to an investigation by The Daily Beast, the co-manager on Trump’s campaign pocketed $19 million in 2022 as a “strategic consultant” for two Trump-aligned super PACs. Since then, he’s continued to earn more through Trump’s 2024 campaign with the help of generous cuts on his campaign ads, and he will receive another  $150,000 bonus if Trump wins the election. On top of that, LaCivita has also received upfront payments for his services that have amounted up to $75,000 a month for “voter contact consulting,” according to multiple sources who spoke with the Beast.

Trump’s other co-campaign manager, Susie Wiles, is a volunteer. And on the other side of the ticket, Harris’s campaign manager is paid $13,442 a month, according to campaign finance records, a far more paltry sum in comparison.

Some of this look into Trump’s campaign finances was brought to light by an “audit” of the books led by  Trump campaign senior adviser Corey Lewandowski, who recently returned to Trump’s side. Lewandowski found that LaCivita’s consulting firm—which has no website and is headquartered in LaCivita’s home—had earned $3 million from the race and could collect another $5 million more by November. 

The Trump campaign and LaCivita pushed back against the Beast’s findings but did not offer the publication alternative numbers for the co-manager’s earnings.

“While the individuals responsible for attempting this kamikaze operation are known, their self-serving attempt to defame me will not distract us from continuing to deliver for President Trump and winning this election,” said LaCivita, taking a jab at Lewandowski.

“This entire story is fabricated nonsense, cooked up by talentless grifters who lack the integrity and skill to contribute to President Trump’s continued electoral success,” he said. “Every member of this team, myself included, has been fairly and responsibly compensated, with the priority of electing President Trump at the forefront of every strategic and financial decision we have made.”

Other Republicans have previously called out LaCivita for his grifting. Last year, an “opposition research” memo put forth by a super PAC backing Governor Ron DeSantis accused LaCivita of “cashing in on Trump” for “personal enrichment,” according to documents acquired by the Beast. They found that LaCivita pocketed $15.7 million and $4 million respectively from two of Trump’s super PACs during the 2022 midterms.

LaCivita’s take-home pay stands in even starker comparison when you consider that Trump’s campaign is struggling to match Kamala Harris in fundraising as the election nears. But don’t count on LaCivita to give up the hustle anytime soon.

Donald Trump abruptly backed out of yet another prearranged interview, notifying CNBC that the network’s anticipated sit-down interview with the Republican presidential nominee, scheduled for later this week, would not be happening.

The schedule change was revealed by Squawk Box’s conservative-leaning host Joe Kernan, who specified on air Tuesday that “Trump canceled.”

Sources that spoke with The Daily Beast noted that the former president had initially accepted the invitation to speak on the business network. Three hosts anchor Squawk Box, one of whom is Andrew Ross Sorkin, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump since his initial 2016 campaign.

Instead, Trump has relegated his TV appearances to friendlier, more sycophantic networks, including Fox News, whose anchor Maria Bartiromo interviewed the former president over the weekend. Bartiromo did not interrupt or correct Trump when he claimed that the real Election Day threat is the “enemy from within” while suggesting that the military should forcibly involve itself in handling the election results.

“We have some very bad people,” Trump said on Sunday. “We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the—and it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

But the sudden cancellation echoes Trump’s refusal to appear on 60 Minutes last week, defying a long-held preelection tradition, stretching back to 1968, in which both U.S. presidential nominees participate in sit-down interviews to discuss the finer details of their policy stances.

During its Monday night broadcast last week, CBS News’s Scott Pelley said that Trump backed out of his scheduled interview with 60 Minutes at the last minute on the basis that they “would fact-check the interview.”

“We fact-check every story,” Pelley said.

Meanwhile, Trump has ranted and raved about Vice President Kamala Harris’s media appearances, repeatedly accusing the Democratic presidential nominee of both doing too much and too little by way of press coverage, including actually following through on last week’s 60 Minutes interview.

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson finally addressed accusations against him of wild impropriety Tuesday morning, weeks after a bombshell CNN report revealed that the MAGA politico had made a slew of disturbing comments on a pornographic messaging board prior to his foray into politics.

The brief, sparsely attended press conference featured just Robinson and his attorney, Jesse Binnall. The outlandish Republican announced his intention to sue the “left-wing” news outlet for defamation, seeking $50 million in damages for “reputational harm” over what he described as a “high-tech lynching.”

The CNN report, released in September, revealed Robinson had allegedly commented on websites about his desire to own slaves, peeping in womens’ locker rooms, and enjoying transgender porn. The outlet tied the account to Robinson via a “litany” of common biographical details and a shared email address. He also used his full name on his site account. The revelation saw a swift, mass exodus of Robinson’s campaign staffers after he refused multiple offers from I.T. specialists to help him investigate the origin of the comments.

In an attempt to wipe away the impact of the early October surprise, Robinson on Tuesday criticized the report’s publication as “one of the greatest examples of political interference in this state’s history and quite possibly this nation’s history.” Binnall, who worked for Donald Trump for several years and helped push the former president’s 2020 election conspiracy, argued that CNN had violated “journalistic standards” and “interfered with this election.”

The Republican gubernatorial nominee’s case will, of course, require evidence that the report had materially damaged his reputation, which was already considered pretty extreme due to Robinson’s openness about his other beliefs, including that he didn’t think schools would be getting “shot up” if they mandated instruction of the Bible in the classroom and that some people just “need killing!”

Robinson has also shared a host of his other disturbing positions online, including posts in which he minimized the horrors of the Holocaust, claimed a “satanic marxist” had made the movie Black Panther to pull “shekels” out of Black audiences, likened women getting abortions to murderers, and derided gay people as “filth” and “maggots.” Robinson has also expressed archaic views about women’s role in society, telling a Charlotte-area church in 2022 that Christians are “called to be led by men.”

But the dynamic duo of Robinson and his attorney had no smart response as to why the party had seemingly abandoned him in light of the latest slew of accusations.

“If your proof is so good, then why aren’t other Republicans standing with you? You’re by yourself,” one reporter asked.

“We stand with the voters—or, Governor Robinson stands with the voters of North Carolina,” Binnall said. “We’re going to go make our case in court. This case is for a jury.”

Donald Trump ended his town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, early Monday night and bizarrely made everyone watch him listen to music for nearly 40 minutes onstage.

Trump concluded the event after a few questions and a couple of medical emergencies in the crowd, despite telling his supporters that he would take more questions. Operatic music then started playing as Trump stood onstage, swaying and occasionally pretending to conduct the music.

The event bizarrely went on with Trump standing awkwardly onstage as “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” played. The crowd seemed to be either sitting and waiting for something else, or they began to sway like they were at a concert. Trump then said he wanted to take more questions but changed his mind and asked for “YMCA” to be played, “nice and loud,” to wrap up the event.

But strangely, the event didn’t end there. Trump continued to stay onstage as what seemed to be his campaign playlist kept playing, running through songs like “Hallelujah,” “Nothing Compares 2 U,” “Rich Men North of Richmond,” and “November Rain.” Then finally, he gave South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem a kiss and stepped offstage.

It’s the latest, and strangest, example of Trump showing clear signs of mental decline, even as he insists otherwise. Just over a week ago at a rally, he struggled to pronounce words like “Midwestern” and “evangelicals,” and compared himself to a fly. His speech patterns and alertness seem to have gotten worse, with cognitive experts seeing compelling evidence that he is much less alert now.

While the media is finally starting to give the issue attention, it remains to be seen if Monday’s bizarre rally will be framed correctly. The Republican presidential nominee is not well, but so far, news coverage seems to ignore all of the clear warning signs.