Donald Trump loves to exaggerate and tell big fish stories about his accomplishments. His interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on X, formerly Twitter, is no exception.
The former president claims that his hit on X with Carlson the night of the GOP debate on Fox is the most-watched interview in history.
“Wow, my interview with Tucker Carlson has turned out to be the single most watched video and interview in the history of the world, I guess,” Trump says in Wednesday’s video posted on TruthSocial. “Such a great honor to have participated. 262 million views and counting.”
“More than doubling the longtime reigning champ, the Oprah Winfrey interview of Michael Jackson,” he continues. “So, I want to congratulate Tucker, and I want to thank everyone. Thank you very much.”
The post on Carlson’s Twitter feed said 263.8 million views as of Saturday.
Trump, Jackson Comparison is Apples and Oranges
Newsweek noted that Trump was comparing apples with oranges because the metrics used by Twitter were significantly different from those used to determine that Winfrey’s interview with Jackson reached 62 million people.
“However, the metric only measures the number of people who may have seen Carlson’s post—including those who may have just scrolled by the post—not the number who might have actually viewed the video,” Newsweek said.
The Trump campaign, however, did not stand behind the metric when pressed about it by Newsweek.
“When asked about Trump’s claim and given a screen capture of the video view count, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung suggested to Newsweek that “using an out-of-date app” was not ‘an accurate way of measuring views’,” Newsweek said. “Cheung claimed that ‘the updated version of X’ would provide ‘a more accurate understanding of the hundreds of millions of views the video received. X does not claim that the post view count reflects video views.’”
Trump’s Career Shows a Love of Exaggeration
Trump’s braggadocio was reminiscent of his failed branding effort to sell “Trump Steaks” through the Sharper Image in the 2000s.
“Trump Steaks are the world’s greatest steaks, and I mean that in every sense of the word,” Trump said in his Internet ad. “Trump Steaks are by far the best-tasting, most flavorful beef you have ever had, truly in a league of their own. Trump Steaks are Five-Star gourmet, a quality that belongs in a very select category of restaurant.”
Trump needs to sound like the best for certain people because he understands marketing and built his brand by getting people to believe something is true. He built the entire show “The Apprentice” on the myth of “The Donald,” and millions bought into it.
He embodies the saying, “It’s not what you know but what people think you know that matters.”
“… Mr. Trump’s entire career, has been about appearance versus reality, or the ability of appearances to create their own reality. … Branding, Mr. Trump’s specialty, is the capitalist version of transubstantiation. The businessman-celebrity bestows his blessing on a humble slab of meat and lo, it becomes a Trump Steak,” liberal political commentator Jonathan Chait wrote in New York magazine in 2016.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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