Former US President Donald Trump made a rare live appearance on CNN on May 10, 2023, marking his first since 2016. Trump had previously branded CNN as fake news and had not allowed any of its journalists to interview him while he was serving as president. During the town hall, Trump made several false claims, repeatedly lied about the 2020 presidential election, and mocked a former columnist he was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming.
Trump began the town hall by saying that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, claiming that millions of votes were stolen in the race. However, there is no evidence of widespread fraud, and poll officials across the country, including Republican leaders, have repeatedly reaffirmed this over the past two years. Joe Biden won the election with 306 electoral college votes to Trump’s 232, and he earned over seven million more votes than Trump did.
When asked about the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights last year, Trump took credit for appointing three of the justices who joined in the majority ruling. He repeatedly claimed that abortion rights supporters wanted to “kill a baby” in the ninth month of pregnancy or even after birth. However, this claim is based on a misleading interpretation of a Senate vote.
Regarding the January 6 Capitol riots, Trump asserted during the town hall that a couple of the rioters probably got out of control and compared the insurrection to left-leaning protests that turned violent in other cities. However, this statement is false, as hundreds of rioters had been charged with violence towards police on January 6, and the former president’s downplaying of the violence and equivocating the insurrection with social justice protests failed to recognize the severity of the attack.
The day before his appearance on CNN, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and defaming her when she spoke about it publicly. During the town hall, Trump said that the jury in the civil trial found he did not rape Carroll and that he “didn’t do anything else either.” However, the jury rejected Carroll’s rape claim but found Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse, and Trump’s claims require more context.
Regarding the Ukraine war, Trump repeated his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin but said he made a bad mistake to invade Ukraine. Trump claimed that if he were still US president, Putin would have never invaded Ukraine. He also claimed that Washington had provided $171 billion “so far” to Ukraine, while the European Union (EU) cumulatively gave $20 billion in aid. However, since the beginning of the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022, the US has provided Ukraine with $36.9 billion in military aid, and while American and European weapon stockpiles have been depleted, the claim that the US does not have ammunition is false.
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