Want to bookmark your favorite articles and stories to read or view later? Start your independent membership today.
Join us today
Already a member? Log in
Longtime listener, first caller: Donald Trump.
The president made a surprise call to C-SPAN Monday evening, opening with an unexplained burst of laughter in the background before answering questions about immigration, the war in Iran and the possible impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“It looks like we got a call from the White House, uh, Mr. President, welcome to Washington Journal Primetime,” host Mimi Geerges said shortly after the new call-in show debuted at 9 p.m. The show is similar to a daytime version on the network.
As Trump joined the show, a woman could be heard laughing on his end. His identity was unclear, but that didn’t stop speculation online. “Who’s laughing in the background? Natalie?” wrote one X user, referring to Natalie Harp, the president’s omnipresent aide.
The Independent reported last week that Harp had recently begun screening the president’s incoming phone calls.
Geerges began by asking Trump, who she said was a C-SPAN viewer, what program he liked to watch.
“Well, I like watching the calls because it gives me a little indication of where we are,” the 80-year-old president said. “We have some great Republicans calling, I’m not sure, it’s the Democrats, but the Republicans seem to be…”
On immigration, Geerges noted that Trump has expressed a willingness to work on reforms with Democrats, who won back the House and Senate in last week’s midterm elections. She asks him if he would stop certain evictions.
“Well, first of all, we stopped the worst influx of people from all over the world, from prisons, from gang members, from drug dealers,” Trump said. “And they were pouring in by the millions under (President Joe) Biden. »
Geerges emphasized the plight of “decent people” who “try to make a living and (who) pay their taxes,” including hotel workers, waitresses and farm workers.
“We certainly didn’t put the same pressure on them as we did on murderers or drug dealers,” Trump responded. He then reiterated his unsubstantiated claims that people from psychiatric institutions are being “dumped into our country.”
Days earlier, Trump had promoted Stephen Miller, the hard-line architect of the president’s immigration agenda, to White House chief of staff.
The conversation then turned to Hegseth. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, filed articles of impeachment against the defense secretary on Monday, anticipating a possible vote as early as Tuesday.
Citing a Fox News report that some Republicans might support impeachment, Geerges asked Trump how he would respond.
“Well, I would be disappointed,” Trump said. “Look, Pete’s won two wars.”
“We won Venezuela hugely in 48 minutes, and we took out hundreds of billions of dollars… It’s a gold mine and we’re doing very well there,” he said. “We won Iran. We wiped out their navy, we wiped out their air force, we wiped out everything.”
But when Geerges asked how much longer the war in Iran would last — eight months into an unpopular conflict with no end in sight — Trump offered no clear timetable.
“It depends, we could eliminate it quickly or we could eliminate it over a short period of time, not a long period of time, you know,” he said, adding that it could target a nuclear enrichment site known as Pickaxe Mountain.
After eight minutes, Geerges hastily thanked Trump for calling and extended an open invitation to return.
“You’re doing a great job and good luck with everything,” Trump said before hanging up. “It’s an honor for me to be one of your first calls.”
Trump, an avid television viewer, has appeared on news programs before. On election night last week, he called into Fox News, where he congratulated Democrats on their midterm victories. He has since reversed course and questioned the integrity of the election.
Gn world
