Mid-Show Pep Talk May Have Helped Trump

Axios reports he was shown tweets from angry critics during CNN town hall commercial break
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 15, 2023 8:28 AM CDT
Mid-Show Pep Talk May Have Helped Trump
Former President Trump speaks at a campaign rally, April 27, 2023, in Manchester, N.H.   (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Axios points out that former President Trump became increasingly aggressive as last week's town hall on CNN progressed, and the outlet thinks it knows why. Mike Allen reports that aide Jason Miller showed Trump real-time tweets from angry critics at the first commercial break, and it apparently inspired Trump to go back out even more fired up for round two. "He was the leader of the free world again," one insider tells Axios. The tweets he saw included those from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (here) and the Lincoln Project (here) slamming CNN for giving Trump such a forum.

  • Another dig: Trump, meanwhile, took another shot Sunday night at Kaitlan Collins of CNN, who moderated the town hall, notes the Daily Beast. Nobody "had any problems with what (CNN CEO Chris Licht) wanted to do until after the show started, when they quickly realized that Ms. Collins was not exactly Barbara Walters, or even close," the former president wrote on Truth Social. He slammed AOC as "neurotic" in the same post.
  • Another rival? CNN reports that Rick Perry is hinting at a run for the GOP nomination against Trump. The former Texas governor and Trump energy secretary passed up a chance to endorse Trump in an interview and said of his own possible candidacy: "It certainly is something that I haven't taken off the table."
(More Donald Trump stories.)

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