President Donald Trump has been fact-checked with the humiliating reality of his massive electoral loss in a new interview.
Trump, 80, sat down with sports journalist and political commentator Stephen A. Smith for the latest episode of his podcast Straight Shooter, released on Thursday.
Smith asked Trump about Republicans’ disastrous midterm elections loss, noting several times that it had occurred despite the president repeatedly telling his supporters to vote as if he were on the ballot. Smith even corrected Trump when he bragged about his popularity.
Donald Trump talks to Stephen A. Smith.
Barely one minute into the interview, Smith asked Trump directly, “What happened?”
Launching into a lengthy diatribe, Trump said, “I wasn’t on the ballot and if you look at the numbers that I had just a short time before, they were a record.”
Trump went on to concede that “maybe”the war in Iran “was not unpopular as a war, but unpopular because of the fact that the gasoline prices were higher, oil prices,” adding, “I actually thought that that was something that people would be able to handle pretty well.”
“To the voter I think gas prices went up and that seemed to be I think the biggest impact,” the billionaire added.
Donald Trump talks to Stephen A. Smith.
Later in the interview, Trump said he was “disappointed” in voters over the public backlash to rising fuel prices, which hovered around $3.91 per gallon on Thursday, according to AAA Fuel Prices. That is about $1 more than the day before the war began.
“I don’t think it was the war, as much as what the war did, lifted up gasoline prices,” Trump said. “I’m disappointed in people because I really think it’s a very small… it’s really a very small thing to pay to get rid of a country… that would absolutely in my opinion use nuclear weapons on us.”
In another attempt to get a presidential post-mortem on the results, Smith pointed out some of the drastic midterm losses for the Republicans, including seats in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Texas. He again reminded Trump that he had said to vote like he was on the ballot.
“Well, they didn’t do it. They didn’t put me on the ballot,” Trump said. “The people didn’t believe in the candidates, perhaps.”
The 80-year-old then cited his popularity in the previous presidential election, with Smith then noting: “The cost of living, affordability became an issue America felt you didn’t address because you were preoccupied with the war.”
Trump said he felt that he had to “do what I did in Iran,
“I think historically that’s going to be a great decision, I hope,” he said. “Uh, but, short term I guess it is tougher politically. I knew that.”
The president then bragged about the stock market, saying, “It’s interesting that the day after the election, the stock market lost $3 trillion in value, and that tells you that people aren’t in love with the Democrats, because they were voting on Democrats.”
Donald Trump talks to Stephen A. Smith.
Smith immediately pointed out to Trump the brutal reality facing the president, “But your approval rating is lower than theirs! Your approval rating is lower than the Democrats.”
Trump then referenced CNN analyst Harry Enten, using an August video segment referencing a May poll to claim he has an approval rating of 99 percent.
However Enten himself has even debunked Trump’s claims.
“It’s that he’s actually underwater, underwater with the non-MAGA parts of the Republican Party,” Enten has previously said, calling the shift “a potentially truly devastating sign.”
Trump’s claim comes as a new Economist/YouGov poll found only 32 percent of voters approve of the job he is doing as a president, beating his previous second-term low of 33 percent, from August. The poll was conducted between Nov. 9-11.
Trump again protested on the podcast that he had not been on the ballot.
Smith said, “You said put you on the ballot and now you’re saying they didn’t. That means that they didn’t listen to President Donald Trump.”
He told the president, “When it comes to you, when it comes to MAGA, when it comes to your supporters, they have spent the vast majority of the last decade listening to the things that you have to say. So when you told them to put you on the ballot, now you’re saying they didn’t listen to you?”
Trump replied, “Well, I say that they maybe didn’t like the candidates. Look, I mean, I understand.”
Smith interjected, “Did you like them?”
Trump said, “Some of them I liked, some of them I liked less, but I thought every one of them was better than the Democrats in terms of policy.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Interviewed after meeting with Trump at the White House, Smith discussed what the president told him.
“He’s not somebody that considers himself to have been on the ballot,” Smith said. “To me, that was inconsistent with what he had been saying talking about people putting him on the ballot.”
He added that when Republicans “lost the way they lost” in the midterms, “he thinks it was more about them than him. Obviously that’s something that a lot of people would disagree with, but nevertheless, that’s the situation.”
The post Stephen A. Smith Points Out Humiliating Reality to Trump appeared first on The Daily Beast.
