Trump/Tucker Interview Racks Up Massive Views; Addresses Debate Skip, Indictments

Former President Donald Trump skipped the Republican debate Wednesday night and sat down with Tucker Carlson for an extensive interview that garnered over 100 million views on X in a matter of hours.

Trump answered questions ranging from why he did not attend the debate to if he believes the U.S. is headed for a civil war — and was even asked by the former Fox News host if he’s worried about an assassination attempt. The interview, which was posted to X five minutes before the start of the Republican debate amassed over 100 million views before the end of the night, Newsweek reported. By Thursday morning, Carlson’s interview with Trump had reached nearly 180 million views.

While the social media platform’s way of counting views makes it difficult to truly understand how many people actively watched the interview, Trump’s sit-down with Carlson can be compared to the host’s interview with GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, which has garnered 44 million views since being posted last week.

During the interview, the former president pointed to his large lead in the polls as the reason he skipped joining the other Republican candidates and opted for a one-on-one conversation with Carlson.

Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023

“I’m leading by [40] points,” Trump said. “But I’m gonna have all these people screaming at me, shouting questions at me. All of which I love answering. I love doing, but it doesn’t make sense to do ’em. So, I’ve taken a pass.”

When asked by Carlson if he’s concerned that the U.S. is heading toward violence or possibly a civil war, Trump said he wasn’t sure.

“I can say this, there’s a level of passion that I’ve never seen,” Trump said. “There’s a level of hatred that I’ve never seen, and there’s probably a bad combination.”  

Trump addressed his pending legal cases, saying they are nonsense. He pointed to his one-time opponent Hillary Clinton and Democrat Stacey Abrams, saying they too challenged the outcomes of the elections they lost.

“But now, you know, every time you see [Clinton] on television, she’s saying like, well, she’s challenging the election. … So that would mean that she should be indicted, but that would mean also that Stacey Abrams in Georgia should be indicted ’cause she still thinks she won the election for governor,” Trump said. 

Carlson also asked the former president, who is facing four felony indictments and is set to turn himself in again on Thursday, if he worries that his political enemies might try to assassinate him.

“Honestly, they’re savage animals. They are people that are sick, really sick,” Trump replied. 

On Biden, Trump said he still has doubts about whether the president will run for re-election. Trump also said Biden isn’t actually running the country – and that his family’s business dealings have “compromised” him. 

Trump touted his record on foreign policy, saying he kept the U.S. out of a nuclear war with North Korea and hit Biden for the Ukraine-Russia War, as well as for allowing China to reportedly gain a foothold in Cuba, but Trump’s primary issue is still immigration.

“Number one is a border and taking hundreds of thousands of criminals that have been allowed into our country and getting them out and bringing them back to their country,” the former president said. 

Tim Pearce contributed to this report.