Trump to Participate in CNN Town Hall

Originally published May 3, 2023 4:00 am PDT

Former President Donald Trump is expected to participate in CNN’s New Hampshire town hall on May 10.

QUICK FACTS:

• Current top Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is set to partake in CNN’s town hall this month.
• Despite Trump’s longstanding history of calling the network a “fake news” media outlet, the former president will reportedly travel to New Hampshire on May 10 for the event.
• “Going outside the traditional Republican “comfort zone” was a key to President Trump’s success in 2016,” a Trump advisor said. “Some other candidates are too afraid to take this step in their quest to defeat Joe Biden, and are afraid to do anything other than Fox News.”
• According to media analyst Jon Nicosia, the move was less about CNN and more about firing back at Fox News for firing Tucker Carlson.
• “It’s also a veiled shot at Fox News,” Nicosia said. “I don’t see him doing this in a world where Tucker Carlson wasn’t fired.”

.@EpochTimes: Trump to Partake in @CNN Town Hall https://t.co/OViicpeBq8

— Jackson Richman (@jacksonrichman) May 2, 2023

MEDIA ANALYST JON NICOSIA ON TRUMP JOINING THE CNN TOWN HALL:

“For Trump supporters, I’d be very concerned. But when it comes down to it, Trump is a product of New York and the media. For all his ‘fake news’ talk, it appears he just can’t quit them. But the reality is he spent four years calling them fake news, and this one act re-legitimizes them overnight,” Nicosia said.

BACKGROUND:

• In October 2022, Trump announced he would be suing CNN, saying in a statement he would “also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 Election.”
• According to Trump’s attorneys, CNN undertook a “smear campaign to malign the Plaintiff with a barrage of negative associations and innuendos, broadcasting commentary that he is like a cult leader, a Russian lackey, a dog whistler to white supremacists, and a racist.”
• The former president allegedly sued the network for $475 million in punitive damages and cited anchors, personalities, and pundits on CNN in the filing.