After running a campaign chock-full of hypocrisy, lies, and slander, Donald Trump is making his return to NBC for his first proper interview since Election Day. The twist? He’ll be speaking to a journalist with whom he shares a tumultuous history.
Trump isn’t exactly known for his decorum (or his love of mainstream media outlets), but it seems he’s willing to make a second go of things now that he’s been reelected. And wildly enough, he’ll be sitting down with NBC’s Kristen Welker—a.k.a. the journalist he once dubbed “terrible” and “horrible,” on top of his supporters accusing her of harboring “deep Democrat ties.” This should be … entertaining, I guess?
Trump set to reunite with Meet the Press host Kristen Welker a year after divisive interview
Earlier today, it was announced that Trump’s first big interview since Election Day will take place on NBC’s news show Meet the Press on Sunday, December 8, where he’s expected to talk all things policy with host Kristen Welker. Per Variety, the episode will be taped on Friday before premiering on Sunday.
On the surface, it’s perfectly normal for the incoming U.S. president to want to sit down for a broadcast interview. But what’s truly head-scratching about this whole ordeal is the fact that Trump agreed to do so with host Kristen Welker, a journalist who he’s criticized in the past for being a “dyed-in-the-wool radical left Democrat” (his go-to insult, BTW).
For context, Welker moderated a disastrous 2020 presidential debate which earned her the ire of MAGA loyalists after Trump took to Twitter to call her “terrible & unfair.” Why? Because she took a photo with former president Barack Obama at a White House Christmas party years ago, which made her automatically sympathetic to Joe Biden, apparently.
It’s important to note that Trump has flip-flopped on his views surrounding Welker, a lot. While Trump later went on to accuse Welker of being biased, for a moment, he changed his tune during the second half of the same debate in 2020, praising Welker’s skills by saying: “By the way, so far, I respect very much the way you’re handling this.”
Welker later interviewed Trump for an NBC exclusive in 2023 for her debut episode of Meet the Press, which largely missed the mark for both Dems and Republicans alike. Commentators accused Welker of failing to fact-check Trump on his abortion stance, among other things, and she had to practically beg him to stay on subject for the entirety of the interview.
Can Welker hold her own against Trump this time around?
Clearly, the two are on amicable enough terms to sit down for yet another interview, but it’s hard to say if Welker will actually grill into the president-elect this time around, or if Trump’s bravado will once again leave her in a state of stunned silence. Either way, moderating a productive Trump interview is quite the tall order for anyone—even a seasoned pro like Welker.
So, does Trump’s scheduled NBC appearance imply he’s turning over a new leaf? That he might, as a second-term president, finally open his heart enough to understand folks’ different perspectives on how this country should be run? Absolutely not. It simply means that Trump is ditching his usual media diet by shifting his focus to network TV ahead of Inauguration Day.
After all, many experts claim that Trump’s victory can be largely attributed to his appearances on podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, using the “bro-ification” of online media in his favor. Now that he’s won over a demographic of young conservative men, it’s time for him to return to his primetime slot.
In many ways, this validates Trump’s image as a Real Politician™, as he’s spent so much of the 2024 election cycle hiding in the shadows. In any case, I’m more than willing to bet that his appearance on Meet the Press will feature his usual song-and-dance of bragging and boasting about his win to a (mostly) liberal audience—essentially, a preview trailer for Inauguration Day.
Published: Dec 6, 2024 07:14 am