Talk show host Phil McGraw will interview former President Donald Trump this week and urge the presumptive GOP presidential nominee to forgive his enemies for weaponizing the legal system against him if he is elected in November, the TV mainstay said Monday.
Dr. Phil told TMZ that if Trump secures a second term in November and focuses on “retribution” instead of leading America back to prosperity, it could doom the country.
Speaking to Harvey Levin on “TMZ Live,” he said he would interview the former president at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida for a special Thursday evening show titled “Trump Verdict: A Judicial Travesty.”
McGraw has been a vocal critic of the prosecution of Trump in New York. A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records last week.
The TV host told Levin he would raise the issue with the former president during their sitdown and implore Trump to focus on making things better for Americans rather than striking back at those who have sought to imprison him by weaponizing the courts.
“Let’s say Trump does win and gets back in [the White House], the last thing we need is retribution and revenge,” he said. “What we need at this point is this craziness has to stop.”
“We’ve got serious problems and we need serious people to solve those problems,” he said. “We don’t need to be playing tit-for-tat.”
Levin noted that he hoped the TV host would “push that issue” while speaking with Trump.
Do you like Dr. Phil?
“I’m going to push that really hard because that’s the last thing we need,” Dr. Phil said. “That could be the absolute end of this country as we know it.”
“It’s over,” he added of the use of the legal system against Trump if he is elected. “It’s time for forgiveness, putting this behind us.”
Dr. Phil joined us on #TMZLive Monday, where he revealed he has a sit-down scheduled with #DonaldTrump in the near future. pic.twitter.com/IbPrZcUWMM
— TMZ (@TMZ) June 3, 2024
McGraw said that if the former president secures four more years leading the country, he will have to decide whether to call a truce for the good of the American people or to use the justice system as his own weapon.
“We don’t need to be weaponing the justice system,” he said. “We need to put this behind us and get back to making America the shining country on the hill that everybody aspires [it] to be.”
“Trump Verdict: A Judicial Travesty” will stream on the free platform Merit Street Media.
McGraw said on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” on Monday that he viewed the prosecution and conviction of Trump in New York as targeted.
“He’s the only person that’s ever been charged this way,” the host said after noting that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had to contort the law in order to present the case to a jury.
Dr. Phil also described Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s New York trial, as politically compromised.
Watch @ClayTravis and @BuckSexton‘s full Interview with @DrPhil on the Trump verdict.
Dr. Phil’s Trump Special: https://t.co/BdeDMLx68x pic.twitter.com/q7BuIDFFR3
— The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show (@clayandbuck) June 3, 2024
As for McGraw’s plans to urge Trump to avoid seeking revenge if he is elected in five months, the former president addressed that question during a Sunday interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
“It sounds beautiful, right: You know, my revenge will be success. And I mean that,” Trump said.
“But it’s awfully hard when you see what they’ve done,” he said. “These people are so evil. And at the same time, the country can come together.”
