Trump held a previously marketed media availability at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night, which was New Year’s Eve, and the brief comments he eventually made went reportedly without coverage by major cable news channels, even including the right-wing outlet Newsmax, according to Zachary Petrizzo of The Daily Beast.
Petrizzo also noted how Trump basically just ignored a question about Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, who is helping lead scrutiny of COVID-19 vaccines unveiled while Trump was president and could eventually challenge Donald for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. Polls show DeSantis doing well. Sources including Raw Story added that Fox also didn’t carry the ex-president’s commentary, at least live. Footage of Trump’s brief exchanges with reporters was available from the sycophantic Right Side Broadcasting Network, which is an online platform but doesn’t have its own channel on cable. The harried scene, which unfolded as Trump seemingly walked inside, didn’t exactly carry the gravitas of someone making a serious bid for the White House rather than just bellowing online.
Trump appeared tired last night at Mar-a-Lago when taking limited questions from the press (a total of 2 minutes)—as he couldn’t even fire back on a question about DeSantis. Instead, he was rendered mute. To make it worse, Newsmax didn’t even pick up his remarks.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) January 1, 2023
Trump’s actual comments weren’t that remarkable. He talked about seeing the war in Ukraine “straightened out” and the U.S. government somehow managing to “get rid of inflation,” although lowering it is no doubt the more realistic option. The depth here is the rhetorical equivalent of a one-inch puddle of water. What’s next — Trump making the ostensibly bold and courageous proclamation that “bad things are bad”? He was also predictably optimistic about the state of his 2024 GOP presidential primary bid, although he hasn’t actually done much of anything outside of still posting on his alternative social media site Truth Social to further that campaign since making the expected announcement. Does he intend to troll his way into another term as president? Without even announcing a bid, DeSantis is sometimes beating Trump in polls at both the national level and in individual states that could be key. The footage of Trump on Saturday night — hosted on Rumble — starts in the below video at around 29 minutes.