The set of ‘Fox & Friends’ had some blunt advice for Donald Trump after the president phoned into the show for a 30 minutes diatribe: watch less television.
After Trump spoke at length about “fake news CNN” and complaints about “sleepy eyes” Chuck Todd, show co-host Brian Kilmeade urged Trump to turn it off.
“I’m not your doctor, Mr. President,” said Kilmeade as his fellow co-hosts sat stone-faced. “But I would recommend you watch less of them.”
“I don’t watch them at all,” said Trump before immediately contradicting himself. “I watched leaking lying Comey last night. I did. I hated to do it.”
“I don’t watch NBC anymore. They’re as bad as CNN and by the way, I made them a fortune with ‘The Apprentice,’” he added. “You would think that these guys would treat me great. I made them a fortune. They treat me horribly and they treat me falsely.”
The cast on set sat mostly silent as Trump thundered from one subject to another. The president also addressed North Korea, the withdrawal of his Veterans Affairs nominee, Dr. Ronny Jackson, the FBI raid into his former attorney/fixer Michael Cohen and Kanye West — who he said had “good taste.”
The interview was a vintage Trump performance on the show that gave him his first regular national platform years before he ran for office. During the Obama years, Trump would regularly call into the program to promote false rumors that his predecessor was not born in the United States.
The cast on set said producers had been angling for a classic Trump phoner for a year. The president revealed he finally consented to the call in honor of first lady Melania Trump’s birthday — which is today.
The call also conveniently stepped on a “Morning Joe” interview with Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti that also aired at 8:00 a.m Eastern.