Former President Donald Trump didn’t know he’s currently more popular than ever before.
In a June 15 interview, Wayne Allyn Root of the USA Radio Network noted a CNN story indicating Trump’s popularity is higher than even when he was president.
Trump expressed bemusement at CNN as a source. But in the interview, he said his poll numbers went up after being impeached twice.
In some respects, Trump’s interview with Root was predictable — skepticism about the 2020 election results, criticism of Congress’ Jan. 6 commission and shock at what Biden’s America is becoming.
Asked if he was planning to run for president in 2024, Trump was coy.
Okay — the word “coy” and “Trump” should never be used in one sentence. But the former president telegraphed that Root would be “happy” when Trump announces a decision about running.
Root’s 22-minute talk with Trump unsurprisingly focused on the mess President Joe Biden has made.
Will Trump run in 2024?
“There’s more destruction done in the last less than two years — can you imagine? Less than two years. Our country has been totally set off course at a level that I don’t think it’s ever been off before,” Trump said.
“We’ve never had anything like this. There’s never been a time like this where people are invading — we have an invasion! We have an invasion of millions and millions and millions of people are coming in.
“And it’s not a million or two million like they like to say, but it’s 10 million or 12 million. It’s a massive number of people and they’re just invading our country and, you know, they’re emptying out prisons and dumping [migrants] into our country.”
Trump reminded Root that in his last campaign he said that if the country went down the path Biden was talking about, the U.S. would become another failed country like Venezuela. Shockingly, Biden has gone even further than what was predicted, Trump said.
Trump agreed with Root’s opinion that because people are preferring Trump over Biden, the Jan. 6 commission is just a witch hunt to hurt Trump and keep him from running again.
Trump noted he had no representation on the panel. “It’s a totally one-sided kangaroo court or witch hunt,” he noted it is just a continuation of the Russian collusion fraud. “Don’t forget, you know, we went two and a half years on Russia, and then they found it out. That it was a total fake.”
And, Trump said, Democrats want to keep the panel going, perhaps for months.
“It is so serious, this whole thing and, you know, I’m at the forefront — I’m proud to be at the forefront. We’ve caught them, but we need some strength on the Republican side,” he said.
“Look, [former Attorney General] Bill Barr — he was afraid to do anything. He was afraid of being impeached. Maybe people can’t blame him, you know, but I got impeached twice and my numbers went up.
“Bill Barr — think of it — Bill Barr was so afraid to be impeached he didn’t want to do anything! It was unbelievable. You talk about a RINO!”
And Trump said former assistant to the president Peter Navarro was arrested because he knew too much about fraud in the 2020 election.
“He really investigated the election fraud and, you know Peter’s a really smart guy — Harvard guy — and they investigated the election fraud … they found out that, you know, they don’t want to have him speak about that. That’s the last thing they want people speaking about is what took place in the election.”
The real story about the 2020 election is ultimately known by the American people, Trump said.
One of the most obvious results of policy changes from the Trump to Biden administration has been in energy.
Biden never let on that his energy policies would be so destructive, Trump told Root.
In one of the 2020 presidential debates, Biden did call for a transition away from oil which was met by a question from Trump, asking if Biden would “close down the oil industry,” to which Biden said yes, “because it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time.”
Biden did not indicate he would begin his destructive transition on almost his first day in office. Trump said even radical independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has never talked about the things Biden is doing with energy.
“One dollar and 85 cents,” Trump recalled of gasoline prices during his administration. “And now it’s $6, $7, it’ll be much higher than that.”
In other areas, Trump expressed doubt that Biden would run for re-election in 2024 and was critical of the lack of news coverage on the assassination attempt on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
So Trump remains in not exactly exile in Florida. Larger than life, he remains fairly successful as a kingmaker and keeps everyone guessing about what he’ll do next.
And if he were to be elected president again, he might welcome a third impeachment, if only to boost his poll numbers.
