Former President Donald Trump speaks about ‘dark forces’ he claims are arrayed against him in a new interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, then goes on to claim his darkest moments involve what wife Melania reads in the press.
The TV host with a degree in psychology sat for an hour with the former president, and asked him about solitary moments ‘when you’re home alone’ or ‘riding in a car.’
‘What is the hardest, darkest moment that you can think of in this journey?’ Dr. Phil asked him on streaming channel Merit+.
That prompted Trump to talk about ‘evil forces’ he said were controlling President Joe Biden.
‘You have to be very strong. You’re fighting very evil forces and they’re very smart forces. There are people that control Biden. Totally true. I think I know who they are largely. But there are people that control him. They’re very smart, very energetic. Possibly they’re real believers, what their sick ideology is. But you have to be smart and you have to have confidence,’ Trump told him.
‘It’s a psychological interview that you’re doing. You’re sort of being my psychiatrist,’ Trump told his interviewer. Dr. Phil called it a ‘no holds barred’ interview from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
‘There are people that control him,’ Donald Trump said of President Joe Biden in an interview with TV host Dr. Phil McGraw
Dr. Phil again tried to probe Trump about darkness he faces, in his first interview since a Manhattan jury convicted him on 34 counts in the Stormy Daniels trial.
‘When the crowds aren’t cheering, what’s the darkest moment you think of?’ he asked.
‘The hardest part for me is family,”’Trump responded. ‘It’s hard on my family. I have a very good wife, and she reads this c***,’ he said.
Multiple Trump family members attended the trial. They included sons Don Jr. and Eric, and daughter Tiffany, although Melania Trump did not attend his trial, which resulted in conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to paying off the porn star.
Dr. Phil’s first comment to Trump was that ‘you look well,’ which prompted an answer where Trump mentioned ‘corrupt judges’ and ‘corrupt politicians.’
The interviewer put Trump at ease with an early blast at government prosecutions of him.
‘They need to stop this. They need to stop pursuing you,’ he told Trump.
Trump spent part of the interview inveighing against the gag order Judge Juan Merchan imposed in the case. Both he and McGraw ended up speaking about witnesses and potential witnesses in the case.
Trump said former first lady Melania Trump ‘reads this c***,’ in a rare acknowledgement of the impact of campaign coverage on her
‘I do think he knows what’s going on. I think he’s sort of an evil guy,’ Trump said of President Biden at one point
McGraw said the judge ‘muzzled’ the case, and took a shot at former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, a star witness.
Trump complained about the pressure on former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who both sides had considered calling to testify.
Trump also blasted the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit, once again claiming he had ‘no idea’ who she is, despite a jury finding him liable for sexual abuse.
He said he had ‘no idea who she is. I had to pay $91 million and that judge was just as bad, just as corrupt.’
In the hush money cast, where Trump never took the stand, ‘I would have loved to have testified. I wanted to. I’m telling you: they had to hold me back,’ he said.
He also complimented Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge he appointed who is overseeing his classified documents case. He called her ‘a very brilliant judge in Florida.’
On foreign policy, Trump complained about the Biden administration to allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia closer to the Ukrainian border.
‘I’ll get the war in Ukraine settled and one by the time I take office as president-elect,’ Trump said, vowing to act on the world stage even in the last months of Biden’s term.
Trump spoke about Dr. Phil’s former colleague and partner Oprah Winfrey.
He said she used to love the key lime pie at Mar-a-Lago.
‘We’ve sort of lost contact as the expression goes,’ Trump said.
Trump came back to Winfrey later in the interview. Winfrey famously threw her support to Barack Obama in 2008 and interviewed Trump decades ago about his White House ambitions.
‘I even lost Oprah. Oprah used to like me so much,’ he told Dr. Phil. ‘And you know I haven’t spoken to her since. But she’s a good person. Please give her my regards.’
Trump tore into opponents during the interview, settling scores with people dating to the Russia probe. ‘I do think he knows what’s going on. I think he’s sort of an evil guy,’ Trump said of President Biden at one point.
He called Rep. Adam Schiff ‘watermelon head.’
‘Very unattractive guy both inside and outside,’ Trump said of the California Senate primary winner.