Trump says he will ‘never ban TikTok.’ Scaramucci weighs in on the about-face
CNN- 658 views
- 7 Jun 2024
Former President Donald Trump now says he will never ban TikTok after trying to ban it during his time in the White House.
Tonight, Donald Trump is mining for campaign gold in California with a fundraiser in Beverly Hills. The former President turned felon on a West Coast swing right now as he tries to capitalize on his criminal conviction. Along the way, he's defending his threat to seek revenge against opponents if voters send them back to the White House. Listen to what Trump told TV's Dr. Phil.
Retribution is going to be through success. We're going to make it very successful. We have to bring the country together. The word revenge is a very strong word, but maybe we have revenge through success. Well, revenge does take time. I will say that. It does. Sometimes revenge can be justified, though. I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.
Let's talk about this and more with former Trump White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. Anthony, thanks very much for joining us. I know you've written a new book entitled From Wall Street to the White House and Back: The Scaramucci Guide to Unbreakable Resilience. There you see the cover right there. You heard Trump's grievance politics amid President Biden's defense of democracy on the world stage. What do you make of that split screen?
Well, the problem, if I could be so candid with you, Wolf, is that the President, President Biden presents old, and President Trump, even though he's a few years younger than him, presents more energetic and young. And so the Biden campaign has to get their arms around that because the Biden messaging is fantastic. The Biden legislative agenda has work. He's done more for working class people than Donald Trump did 2017 to 2021. But You've got an issue there. And unfortunately, in our society now, these elections are popularity contests and not hiring decisions. And so they have to come up with a strategy to expand the net of the the Biden independence. And so, listen, Dr. Phil is a great guy. I don't know what he charged for that therapy session with Donald Trump, but it was a therapy session and laced underneath all of that double entendre because Donald Trump will say two things at once, and then his adversaries will pick up on one thing, and the people that are supporting him will pick up on another. And so he's saying he doesn't want revenge, revenge is success. And on the other side of his mouth, he's letting people know, Hey, I can't wait to get this job because I'm going to seek retribution through the justice system.
He's also told friends of mine that have defended him in court, defense attorneys, that he wants to use the FBI as the Gestapo. He probably doesn't know what that means, but he has said that And so we have to hold them accountable for those things. And if we do all of that, President Biden will win re-election.
That's all very scary, the words that he utters. Trump has a high dollar fundraisers in Beverly Hills, tonight on the heels of his massive May fundraising haul. It seems he's only raking in more and more cash after his felony conviction. Explain that. Why is that?
Well, I think some of that is his base responding to his words about the unevenness of the justice system. But I think there's a secondary underlying thing there, and I hate to sound so cynical about it, but those people are doing a Venn diagram analysis of the election, and they're buying call option on Donald Trump. If he wins, then they're not on his persecution list. Of course, if Joe Biden wins, Joe Biden doesn't have a persecution list, and the system stays status quo. And so this is one of those weird things, this weird calculation. The money being thrown around for those billionaires is not a lot of money. For them, it's a lot of money to the average American, but it's a placeholder, if you will, in the event of a Trump victory. Now, what I would say to people is be careful because you may get what you ask for. And this is a guy that could destabilize our international alliances. This is a guy that can threaten our democracy. This is a guy that 40 of his closest working associates, including the vice President of the United States, is telling you openly how dangerous he is.
And so it's a real superficial analysis on their part. But Wolf, honestly, I have been there and I did make that superficial analysis and I made that mistake. And it seems there's always a rotisserie of people that are willing to get on the Trump carousel, which starts out lovey-dovey and ends with betrayal and disassociation.
Anthony, let's We're going to quickly talk about TikTok for a moment. After trying to ban or sell the app as President, Trump is now saying he would never do that. Listen and watch this.
We're going to make our country greater than ever before, and I appreciate all your support.
Thank you. You'll never ban I will never ban TikTok. That's for sure.
I will never ban TikTok.
What do you think is behind this About Face? Is this a ploy to win over younger voters? What do you think?
Yeah, it's all of that. But what I don't understand is the free pass he gets because John Kerry was for the war before he was against it. Hillary Clinton, they called her a flip flopper. Donald Trump was negative on Bitcoin and crypto, tweeted about it as President. Now all of a sudden, he's positive about it. Negative on on TikTok was going to ban it. Now he's positive about it. I don't understand how he gets a free pass, and I don't understand how these people don't realize how transactional he is. And at the spur of the moment, if it serves his personal interests, forget about the country, it's got to serve his personal interests, he'll flip on a dime. And so right now, the President has good political instincts, and he sees those two things as raising him money and potentially widening the birth of a younger demographic of voters. But it's completely dishonest, and I don't understand why he's not being called out on it the way other classical politicians have been called out on switching their views.