After CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy noted on Twitter last week that Donald Trump’s upcoming town hall on the network would be his “first appearance” on CNN “in years,” Trump wondered if that is because CNN is changing.
Last Monday, just one week after Trump threatened to skip the Republican primary debates over the RNC agreeing to work with “Fake News” outlets, “Fake News” outlet CNN announced it would host a town hall with Donald Trump on May 10.
According to the New York Times, Trump has not appeared on the network since he ran for president in 2016.
CNN’s Wednesday town hall will take place at New Hampshire’s St Anselm’s College and will be hosted by morning host Kaitlan Collins, who frequently spared with Trump when she was one of CNN’s White House correspondents. During the town hall, the former president is expected to take questions from Republican and Independent voters in New Hampshire.
In a post on Truth Social last Thursday, Trump posted a screen capture of Darcy’s tweet, asking whether he is “going into the heart of Enemy territory” or if CNN “is changing.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported last Tuesday that sources in the Trump campaign have suggested that Trump will likely skip at least one of the first two primary debates scheduled for late summer.
According to the sources, in private conversations with aides and confidants, Trump has made it clear that he thinks it would “breathe life” into the other candidates’ campaigns if he shared a stage with them.
One advisor told the Times that the question about debates remains fluid since it is still too early in the election cycle. The advisor said Trump may find it difficult to keep away from debates in which the other candidates are criticizing him.
One source told Times that for Trump, there is “no upside” to debating “this early” against candidates polling “in single digits.”
